Holme & Marsden Clough from Ramsden Reservoir

The South Pennines are part of the Peak District National Park and this walk explores the moors to the west of Holme. The route uses well trodden paths and tracks and offers some fine views during the course of the walk.

Technical sheet

n°293101

Creation:
4 Jul 2016

Last update:
16 Sep 2016

Last review:
28 Apr 2021

Activity: Walking
Distance: 14.32 km
Calculated time: 5h 10
Difficulty: Moderate
Return to departure point: Yes
Vertical gain: + 389 m
Vertical drop: - 390 m
Highest point: 436 m
Lowest point: 234 m

Country: United Kingdom
Area: Peak District
District: Holme Valley
Start/End: N 53.54682° / W 1.82754°
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Description der Wandertour

(S)The Yorkshire Water car park (grid ref. SE115057) next to Ramsden Reservoir has parking for a dozen cars as well as a limited amount of on-road parking. Go south along the road and continue on the track over the Riding Wood Reservoir dam wall. The track, now Kiln Bent Road, continues all the way around the bottom of Yateholme Reservoir before becoming Holme Woods Road and Rake Head Road when it comes out on the A6024 at Ings Bridge. On the way you see Ramsden and Riding Wood Reservoirs - but see nothing of Yateholme but the wall.

(1)Walk a little way north on the road then go off left on a lane in front of a house and climb up the hill on a footpath that leads up to a ruined farmhouse or sheep pen. Go due north on a path that goes either side of a ditch/wall until you reach a gate that leads onto the Cliff Road track. As this track descends towards the Issues Road track there are good views down towards Holme.

(2)Turn left up the Issues Road and keep heading in the general direction of Black Hill. At grid ref. SE088058 follow the path to the right - not ascending up to the Pennine Way - and continue on to the bridge over the Marsden Clough. This is a very pleasant place to stop for a while before climbing up to the Kirklees Way on the other side of the Clough.

(3)Turn right and follow the Kirklees Way down Nether Lane and Hoowood Lane to the Digley Reservoir. Keep following the KW over Meal Hill into Holme. From here you can either continue straight back to the parking on the KW or take the long way home.

(4)The longer route involves going right on the A6024 then taking the path off left over the Rake Dike at Gill Hey Bridge and looping around to the top of Ramsden Reservoir before coming back north under Netherley Brow on a permissive path that joins the KW before it crosses the dam wall and goes back to the parking. Either way you will get great views of the reservoir as you cross over the dam wall.

Waypoints

S/E : km 0 - alt. 258 m - Start: Yorkshire Water car park
1 : km 3.34 - alt. 320 m - Turn right along road at Ings Bridge
2 : km 5.06 - alt. 349 m - Turn left up Issues Road track
3 : km 8.41 - alt. 374 m - Turn right along Kirklees Way
4 : km 12.01 - alt. 301 m - Turn right along A6024
S/E : km 14.32 - alt. 258 m - Finish: Yorkshire Water car park

Practical information

Several walks around Holme Moss seem to rely upon a portion of cross country walking at some point - normally east of Holme Moss. This walk sticks to well defined paths and although at times the outward and return routes are quite close, there is never a sense of doing a 'there and back'.

Reviews and comments

4.2 / 5

Based on 5 reviews

Reliability of the description
4 / 5

Clarity of route map
4.4 / 5

Route interest
4.2 / 5

ketchallian

Apr 28, 2021 at 13:22 EDT

Overall rating : 3.7 / 5

Date of walk : 03/04/21
Reliability of the description : ★★★☆☆ Average
Clarity of route map : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good

i enjoyed the walk, but route needs to be much clearer regarding when to turn north onto path. (section 1) I ended up climbing too high, and had a very awkward descent to get back on route.

Mossman85

Dec 28, 2020 at 03:42 EST

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of walk : 27/12/20
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good

Good description and really nice walk through varying terrain and not to steep. Beautiful scenery on a clear day.

Juliecan

Oct 12, 2020 at 04:02 EDT

Overall rating : 4.7 / 5

Date of walk : 11/10/20
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good

Lovely walk yesterday. We nearly missed the gate onto cliff road track. Very glad we didnt as that hill is big enough !! The rest of the walk was well directed and plenty of great scenery. Got a bit confused at the end where you drop down to Ramsden reservoir and ended up walking round the road. Added a couple of km to the walk but that wasnt a big deal. Will definitely do it again although maybe not in winter as lots of potentially very boggy areas.

Helen J

Jun 29, 2020 at 03:14 EDT • Last modified: Jun 29, 2020 at 06:36 EDT

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of walk : 20/06/20
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Clarity of route map : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good

My partner and myself both enjoyed this route. It has lots of places of interest, but wasn't overcrowded. It was deep to began with, but levelled out and the climb down was lovely. Definitely worth a trip!

Sarita J

Jan 29, 2018 at 13:43 EST

Thank you for your feedback on this walk. If you have any suggestions of alternative routes or ways we can improve the walk description, please let us know, so we can update it for future walkers

RobS

Jan 27, 2018 at 17:11 EST

Overall rating : 3.3 / 5

Date of walk : 26/01/18
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Clarity of route map : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★☆☆ Average

Enjoyed this walk but walkers need to be aware that the route is unclear at 2 sections.
1. After (1) the path climbs up a hill but quickly becomes unclear and difficult to follow. I found myself having to take a direct route across the moor to reach the next landmark.
2. after (4) the path is ok going down to the stream but there is no way of crossing the stream, which was made more difficult as it was flowing very high. Once I managed to get across there was no clear path to take you back to the car park and I had to take a direct line to the nearest landmark which resulted in retracing the original track from the start only in reverse, adding significantly to the overall distance.

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