From the welcome board by the disabled parking area, head down the surfaced lane, past Ogden Water Visitor Centre and the toilet block. Cross the dam wall and continue up the concrete track ahead, between a golf course on your left and the woodland over the wall to your right. The building on the horizon ahead was once The Withens Hotel and, standing at 1,408ft (429m) above sea level, was regarded as West Yorkshire’s highest pub until it closed in 2001 following a fire. It is now a private residence. Ignore paths off to either side, as the view to the left expands to include Mixenden Reservoir, and across to Halifax where Wainhouse Tower is prominent. The ascending track passes through a metal gate and Ovenden Moor Wind Farm soon comes into view.

About 1.4 miles (2.2km) beyond the dam, after the track, veering gently left after passing through a gate, turn right, through a kissing gate, on to a well-worn footpath across Ovenden Moor. It seems strange to have such a view from a bleak Pennine moor, while immediately right is the intense urban spread of the city of Bradford. The path dips across a silt trap in Skirden Clough, then rises again to follow a fence and top-out by a large cairn, from which the views extend across to Rombald’s Moor, north of Bradford, and beyond that Blubberhouses Moor on the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales.

As it descends the path, occasionally marked by cairns and wooden posts, widens and becomes muddier. It crosses a stile and drops to cross a second clough, with another silt trap. Don’t climb the stone steps on the opposite bank. Instead turn right, on a permissive streamside path provided by Yorkshire Water to Ogden Water. This uneven way descends further into the clough past a series of small waterfalls. Cross and re-cross the stream on successive footbridges, to avoid sections of collapsed path, and arrive at the woodland edge.

Enter the woodland over a stile and follow the streamside path. Its bouldery surface soon gives way to gravel, and winds away from the stream. Ignore a path to the right and keep ahead, heading left at the next fork. Keep left at a second fork, above a small footbridge and pond. The path climbs gently to a metal gate. Pass through the stile to its left, and turn right along a walled track, past a dry-stone walling display area, back into the car park.