Laycock, Gooseye and Keighley Moor (returning to Laycock)

Starting point  and OS Grid reference: Laycock (SE 032409) - street parking		Ordnance Survey Map OL21 - South Pennines. Buy this map from List of OS Maps Commission from map sales is used to fund the website, so keeping it free to use.
Distance: 7.5 miles	Date of Walk: 19 November 2010
Ascent: Descent: See Walking Time Calculator	1247ft (380m) 1259ft (384m)
Traffic light rating:    (For explanation see My Walks page)
For advice on .gpx files see My Walks page	Click the PDF logo above to give a printable version of this walk without the photos.

To view route as a dynamic Ordnance Survey map click here.

Introduction: This walk over the no-mans land between Yorkshire and Lancashire starts in the hamlet of Laycock near Keighley (SE 032409). There is parking available outside the memorial hall where the road is wider.

Start: Walk west along the main street and turn left down Robert Street. This is a short street at the end of which is a narrow walled flagged footpath which takes you through to a road. At the road, turn left down the steep hill  to Goose Eye, an attractive little hamlet with a good pub, The Turkey, where you can enjoy refreshment on your return.

Walk through the hamlet past the pub and about 100 yards further on look out for a footpath on the right by the beck. Follow the beck along Newsholme Dean past the old mill dam. At a fork turn right and follow the footpath past the back of a farmhouse and climb uphill to a road (SE 013410).

Turn left and almost immediately, left again on to another footpath following the Millennium Way down  to Slippery Ford (SE 005406). Take care crossing the stream via any available stones, especially after heavy rain.

A short walk alongside the beck then signs then directed you right to a farm (Slitheroford Farm) where you go through the farmyard on to the road (SE 002406). Turn left and there is not far to go before a Yorkshire Water metalled track on the right takes you uphill to Keighley Moor Reservoir, the highest point of the walk.

Cross the dam and at its end, ignore a track to the right but look out for a concrete post on the left. This marks a footpath which is your route across the moors. The path is a little indistinct at first but then it joins a wall on the left. Follow the wall for about 150 yards then turn left through a gateway/opening in the wall.(SD 995388) to follow a narrow path across the moor.

At  a wide stony track at a cattle grid turn right (SE 003392) A stone nameplate in the wall indicates that track behind you leads to Clough Hey.

The track becomes metalled after a while. At the road proper, continue straight across on to a wide track and follow this to the hamlet of Newsome. You pass the impressive Church Farm on the right  built in 1671 and which actually contains a church.  Continue along the road and take a left turn opposite Green End Farm. This track leads to a road where a left turn will return you to the Turkey at Goose Eye.

Follow your outward route back to Laycock.

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