Along Langfield Edge to Stoodley Pike

Todmorden – call it 'Tod' if you want to sound like a local – is a border town, standing at the junction of three valley routes. Before the town was included in the old West Riding, the Yorkshire–Lancashire border divided the town in two. Todmorden's splendid town hall, built in an unrestrained classical Greek style, reflects this dual personality. On top of the town hall are carved figures which represent, on one side, the Lancashire cotton trade, and, on the other side, Yorkshire agriculture and engineering.

Stoodley Pike

Stoodley Pike is a ubiquitous sight around the Calder Valley, an unmistakable landmark. It seems you only need to turn a corner, or crest a hill, and it appears on the horizon. West Yorkshire is full of monuments built on prominent outcrops, but few of them dominate the view in quite the way that Stoodley Pike does.

In 1814, a trio of patriotic Todmorden men convened in a local pub, the Golden Lion. Now that the Napoleonic War was over, they wanted to commemorate the peace with a suitably grand monument. So they organised a public subscription, and raised enough money to erect a monument, 1,476ft (450m) up on Langfield Edge, overlooking the town. Construction was halted, briefly, when Napoleon rallied his troops, and was not completed until the following year, when he was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo.

This original monument was undone by the Pennine weather. Ironically, it collapsed in 1854, on the very day that the Crimean War broke out. Another group of local worthies came together (yes, at the Golden Lion again) to raise more money. So the Stoodley Pike we see today is Mark II: 131ft (40m) high and built to commemorate the ending of hostilities in the Crimea.

Stoodley Pike remains visible for almost every step of this exhilarating ridge walk. As well as being a favourite destination for local walkers, the Pike is visited by walkers on the Pennine Way. Remember to pack a torch for this walk. By climbing a flight of unlit stone steps inside the monument, you emerge at a viewing platform offering wonderful panoramic views over Calderdale and beyond.

From the town hall in the centre of Todmorden, take the Rochdale road (A6033), cross the canal, turning left and immediately left again around the Golden Lion pub to walk up Longfield Road. Keep ahead as the main street veers away to new houses, but then swing right with Longfield Road up to Longfield Terrace at the end. Just before the row of houses, bear left on a track climbing between the fields behind. When the track forks, keep left to a farm, from where you will get the first glimpse of your destination – Stoodley Pike – on the horizon ahead. Continue along the farm track to a road. Go left, to find a pub, the Shepherds Rest, in splendid isolation.

Opposite the pub, take a track leading through a gate, uphill, on to Langfield Common. Keep ahead past a waymark along a distinct and well-graded path that rises across the steep hillside below Langfield Edge. Levelling at the top, it is joined by another path to round the head of the clough. The way runs on above the edge, eventually intersecting a broader path, the Pennine Way. Go left towards the distant monument.

Passing a stone seat, the path falls to a junction. Climb ahead past the leaning ancient waystone of Long Stoop. The way soon levels for the final stretch to the tower, 0.75 miles (1.2km) further on.

From the monument, swing right, walking down to a wall stile. After a few paces cross a second stile in the adjacent wall, from which the path drops more steeply to a lower track, London Road.

Follow the track left in a long and gentle descent to come out on to a lane. Go right, into the hamlet of Mankinholes.

After 0.25 miles (400m), opposite a cemetery and former Wesleyan Sunday School, turn off left along a walled path, signed the 'Pennine Bridleway'. It winds between fields to the Top Brink Inn at Lumbutts. Turn right between houses and continue at the field-edge along a causeway path. Passing through a squeeze gap into the third field, bear half right across the slope. Keep going beyond a broken wall, the path shortly closing beside a high fence. Meeting a farm track head downhill to emerge by cottages. Follow the lane right, swinging in front of a converted mill to a bridge spanning the Rochdale Canal.

Drop right to the tow path and follow the canal back under the bridge into the centre of Todmorden.