Rural Leeds and the Meanwood Valley

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Our view

"From the bustle of the city to the heart of the country."

Walk directions

Walk down Raglan Road and on along Cathcart Street. At the T-junction, turn right onto Rampart Road, cross Woodhouse Street, and walk ahead up Delph Lane. At the end, go forward through a gap and left onto the higher path along Woodhouse Ridge. Keep with the main trail to a barrier. Where it splits, take the middle option to Grove Lane. There, cross to the path opposite, which shortly emerges at Monk Bridge Road.

Cross the road into Highbury Lane, recovering the path beside Meanwood Beck beyond its end. At a junction by a converted mill, go left and then right onto a path between allotments. Keep on to emerge onto a street and walk ahead. After 100yds (91m), by a postbox, turn right into Meanwood Park. Follow the drive to reach a car park. Pass through and swing left onto a lane that leads to a terrace of stone cottages, Hustlers Row.

Near the houses, drop left along a stony track to cross a footbridge over Meanwood Beck. Bear right just beyond at a fork and head upstream above the beck, shortly rising along a raised bank beside a disused mill leat. Ignoring side paths, it eventually leads to a pair of bridges. Swing over the bridge on the right above a weir and walk forward to a broad path. Go left to emerge from the trees through a gate. Carry on at the edge of a field into more trees, coming out by a picnic site onto a lane. Follow the lane left but, just before reaching a junction with a main road, turn off along an unmarked track on the right. It runs below the embankment before heading through an underpass.

Take some steps, at the far end, onto a path that follows Adel Beck. Keep left of the next pile of boulders, rising to a path along the fringe of the woodland. Keep to this higher path until you eventually reach a major fork. Bear right, following an aqueduct across the dip of the valley. Curving left, the path continues through Adel Woods, in time meeting a prominent junction.

The Meanwood Valley Trail is signed left, dropping across a stone slab bridge and climbing steps to a small pond. Cross the small feeder stream and fork right. Occasional wayposts mark the ongoing path, which shortly emerges to run at the edge of more open ground. Joining a broader path keep left, finally emerging through a car park onto Stair Foot Lane. Go left, dropping through a dip and up to a junction. Turn right along Back Church Lane but, as that then bears right, keep ahead along a path to Adel church.

Walk past the church and leave the churchyard by a collection of millstones. Cross the road and take a field path opposite. Bear half left across the next field to the Otley Road (A660). Turn left to find a bus stop, opposite the Lawnswood Arms, for the bus back to Woodhouse Moor, in Leeds.

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Location

Nearest postcode:

Additional information

Terrain - Urban paths, parkland and woodland paths

Landscape - Mostly woodland

Dog friendliness - Keep on lead near roads

Parking - Street parking off main road at both ends of the walk; bus services 1 and X84 operate between the two points

Toilets en route - In Meanwood Park

Walks in West Yorkshire Dog-friendly walks in West Yorkshire

About the walk

This walk is a splendid ramble, surprisingly rural in aspect throughout, even though it begins just a stone’s throw from the bustling heart of Leeds. You start among the terraces of redbrick houses that are so typical of the city, and five minutes later you are in delightful woodland. The walk...

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Been on this walk?

Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.

Find out more

Walking in Safety

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

Learn more

Get an AA guide

Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.

Learn more

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.