Moorland around Laycock and Goose Eye
"A varied walk, from intimate woodlands to the breezy moor tops."
Walk directions
Walk through the village of Laycock. Where the road narrows, go left down a paved track, Roberts Street. Beyond terraced houses, descend along a narrow walled path to emerge onto a road, which you follow down into Goose Eye. Pass The Turkey Inn. Just 50yds (46m) after you cross Dean Beck, take the steps on your right and re-cross the beck on a footbridge. Follow the beck upstream and take a footbridge on the right, across the channel of a now-dry mill leat (watercourse).
Carry on up the wooded valley, later passing through a gap in a wall. Ignore a path off right and keep ahead, breaking out onto a more open hillside. Before long, the way passes behind a farmhouse to join a farm track. Go left but then branch right on a rough track signed to Slippery Ford. Carry on through a gate, later fording a stream. Just beyond, fork right on a rising hollow path, which later develops as a track. Eventually swinging right it climbs to meet a lane.
Walk left along the road for 75yds (69m) before taking an access track on the left to Bottoms Farm. Entering the yard, waymarks indicate a small gate to the right. Skirt beside a barn to a stile from which a path to the left continues across the hillside. Through a gate, carry on over stiles across several fields. At the far side of the fourth field, drop left to find a confluence of two streams. Ford the side beck to a gate and carry on at the edge of another field above the main stream. At the field corner, turn up beside the wall, climbing to a gate near the top of the rise beside Slitheroford Farm. Walk through the yard and out to a lane. Follow the road down to the left to the beck at Morkin Bridge.
Reaching Morkin Bridge, turn off right to follow a metalled track through a gate. It rises steadily onto the moors above the fold of Morkin Beck, passing the lonely farm of Higher Intake and eventually leading to Keighley Moor Reservoir, the highest point on the walk.
Walk left, across the top of the dam. At the far end, ignore the signed track to the right and instead bear left at a concrete post along a gently descending moorland track. At a boggy section keep ahead, the vague path eventually becoming more distinct as it joins a wall. Follow it for 150yds (137m) to a gateway, turn through and then bear half right to cross a line of grouse butts (shooting stations) on a distinct but narrow path through the heather. Eventually, on meeting a track, follow it right over a cattle grid.
Soon leaving the moorland behind, Broad Head Lane runs straight for 0.75 miles (1.2km). Meeting a road by a farm, cross to a track opposite and follow it to cottages at Newsholme.
Wind forward between the houses and follow a lane downhill. After 250yds (229m), opposite the entrance to Green End Farm, turn left. Degrading to a track, the way eventually swings across a beck to meet a road. Follow it left down to Goose Eye and The Turkey Inn. Carry on steeply uphill to where the lane swings sharp left, branching off right to reverse your outward route up Roberts Street and back to Laycock.
Additional information
Terrain
- Good paths and tracks, though can be muddy, take care with route finding, several stiles
Landscape
- Wooded valley and heather moorland
Dog friendliness
- On leads where sheep graze on sections of moorland
Parking
- In Laycock; roadside parking at Keighley end of village, close to village hall
Toilets en route
- None on route
About the walk
To the west of Keighley, a tranche of moorland sits astride the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire. Here you can walk for miles without seeing another hiker – and perhaps with just curlew and grouse for company. When we think of textile mills, we tend to associate them with cramped towns full... of smoking chimneys. But the earliest mills were sited in surprisingly rural locations, often in the little steep-sided valleys known as cloughs where fast-flowing becks and rivers could be dammed and diverted to turn the waterwheels. There are reminders, in wooded Newsholme Dean, that even a watercourse as small as Dean Beck could be harnessed to provide power to a cotton mill in Goose Eye. Weirs along the beck helped to maintain a good head of water, and continue to be useful to locals – one of the mill dams is now popular with anglers. The village of Laycock contains a number of handsome old houses in the typical South Pennine style. While Laycock sits on the hillside, with good valley views, neighbouring Goose Eye nestles in a hollow. The village was originally called ‘Goose Heights’, which the local dialect contracted to ‘Goose Ay’, and thence to the name we know today. Lovers of real ale will already be familiar with the name, as this was the home of the Goose Eye Brewery, now based in Bingley. If you head to Keighley, Cliffe Castle Museum is worth a visit. Set in an attractive hillside park on Spring Gardens Lane in Keighley, it was built in the 1880s as a mansion for a wealthy mill owner, and its opulent halls were the scene of many prestigious parties. It is now Keighley’s town museum, specialising in natural history and geology.
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Been on this walk?
Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.
Walking in Safety
Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.
Get an AA guide
Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.
About the area
Everybody knows that Yorkshire has some special landscapes. The Dales and the Moors first spring to mind, but what about West Yorkshire? That’s Leeds and Bradford isn’t it? Back-to-back houses and blackened mills… Certainly if you had stood on any of the hills surrounding Hebden Bridge a hundred years ago, and gazed down into the valley, all you would have seen was the pall of smoke issuing from the chimneys of 33 textile mills.
Nearby places to stay
View all (8)
Self-Catering
Higher Scholes Cottage
★★★★★
"Views of the romantic moors, complete with a private hot tub...."
- Private garden
- Washing machine
- Sky or freeview
- En suite
Self-Catering
Higher Scholes Cottage
★★★★★
"Views of the romantic moors, complete with a private hot tub...."
- Total units: 1
- Private garden
- Washing machine
- Sky or freeview
Nearby places to stay
Higher Scholes Cottage
Higher Scoles Cottage is set in the heart of Brontë Country and commands stunning views of the romantic moors. This luxury cottage is the perfect place to find some peace and quiet, wit...
★★★★★ Rating
Higher Scholes Cottage
Higher Scoles Cottage is set in the heart of Brontë Country and commands stunning views of the romantic moors. This luxury cottage is the perfect place to find some peace and quiet, wit...
★★★★★ Rating
Old White Lion Hotel
Old White Lion Hotel is a 300-year-old coaching inn with 14 well-equipped en-suite rooms. Family-run, the hotel on Haworth’s cobbled main street is close to the Bronte Parsonage Museum ...
★★★★ Rating
The Fleece Inn
Most tourists visit Haworth for the Brontë Sisters. Now a museum, The Parsonage, where they lived, is further up the cobbled hill from the cosy guest rooms of The Fleece Inn. Some visit...
★★★★ Rating
Upwood Holiday Park
With panoramas of the surrounding moors and the Aire Valley, Upwood Holiday Park’s accommodation portfolio even includes Mongolian yurts. In the clubhouse is the Upwood Inn, with pool t...
★★★★ Rating
Shawclough Barn
High on the Lancashire and Yorkshire border, Shawclough Barn boasts breathtaking views from one of the highest hills in Pendle. Well-positioned for day trips to the Yorkshire Dales and ...
Awaiting assessment
Shawclough Barn
High on the Lancashire and Yorkshire border, Shawclough Barn boasts breathtaking views from one of the highest hills in Pendle. Well-positioned for day trips to the Yorkshire Dales and ...
Awaiting assessment
One Tivoli Place Guest House
One Tivoli Place is a charming Victorian townhouse that offers a welcoming base just a short stroll from Ilkley town centre and the surrounding Yorkshire countryside. The 5 individually...
★★★★ Rating
Places to eat nearby View all



