May is National Walking Month, and we’re spoiled for choice with the remarkable variety of routes across our city and surrounding countryside.
Leeds Canal Walk
This Canal and River Trust route follows the Aire and Calder Navigation from Clarence Dock south-east to Thwaite Watermill. The Navigation itself dates to 1704, when the Aire was made navigable to Leeds at the behest of local wool and cloth merchants. The canal still carries over two million tonnes of commercial freight each year. On the way you’ll pass the Grade II-listed Hunslet Mill complex, built between 1838 and 1842. At its peak it was the largest flax mill in Leeds, employing over 1,500 workers and processing 2,000 tonnes of flax every year. The walk ends at Thwaite Watermill, converted to generate electricity in the 1870s and is now a free museum exploring Leeds’ milling heritage.
Distance: 2.5 miles one way, 5 miles return
Walking time: Approx 1 hour one way
Start/end: Clarence Dock/Thwaite Watermill
Difficulty: Easy
Getting there: City centre start, buses back from Thwaite Mills
Temple Newsam Bridle Path
Walk around the 1,500-acre Temple Newsam estate, one of the most historically rich sites in Yorkshire. The estate’s name comes from the Knights Templar, who were granted the land by Henry de Lacy in around 1155 and built a preceptory here before being eventually passed to the Darcy family, who built the first great manor house in the early 1500s. It was here, in 1545, that Lord Darnley – the ill-fated second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots and father of James I of England – was born. The house was twice seized by the crown – first when Henry VIII executed Lord Darcy in 1537, and again when Elizabeth I confiscated it following Darnley’s marriage to Mary. The parkland was landscaped by Capability Brown in the 1760s and takes in working farmland, ancient woodland, and three lakes.
Distance: 6 miles circular
Walking time: Approx. 2.5 to 3 hours
Start/end: Temple Newsam House car park
Difficulty: Moderate
Getting there: First Bus 10 or 10A from Leeds city centre to Whitkirk, then a 1-mile walk
Leeds Civic Trust City Walks
Leeds Civic Trust runs a programme of guided supper walks each spring and summer covering topics including the Victorian circuses of Leeds, lost landscapes of Headingley, medieval Leeds, and Holbeck and the Industrial Revolution. The trust also maintains a self-guided Blue Plaque Trail with over 180 plaques marking historically significant buildings across the city, from cloth merchant’s halls to the birthplaces of notable loiners.
Visit leedscivictrust.org.uk for upcoming dates and downloadable trail maps.
Distance: Varies by route
Walking time: 1.5 to 2 hours
Start/end: Various city centre locations
Difficulty: Easy
Getting there: City centre
Wyke Beck Way
From Roundhay Park to Temple Newsam following the Wyke Beck, which rises at Waterloo Lake and flows through the inner ring of east Leeds before joining the River Aire, your walk takes you through five local nature reserves. The most atmospheric is Wykebeck Woods, an area of ancient semi-natural wet woodland with the remains of the formal gardens of Asket Hall, a grand house believed to have been demolished in the 1960s. The area is dotted with Lombardy poplar trees, and the old carriage drive and stone weir can still be seen. The beck is also home to the white-clawed crayfish, the UK’s only native crayfish species.
Distance: 6.7 miles one way
Walking time: Approx. 2.5 hours
Start/end: Roundhay Park/Temple Newsam
Difficulty: Easy (gentle downhill throughout)
Getting there: Bus to Roundhay Park, First Bus 19/19A back from Temple Newsam
Wetherby Railway Path (The Harland Way)
Following a converted railway track bed, the route begins at Spofforth Castle – a fortified manor house built by Henry de Percy in the early 14th century. It was badly damaged when Yorkist forces torched it after the Battle of Towton and finally destroyed during the Civil War. It’s now maintained as a free-entry English Heritage site. From here the route runs three miles into Wetherby, then a further 3.5 miles continues past Wetherby Racecourse to Thorp Arch.
Walking time: Approx. 2.5 hours one way
Start/end: Spofforth Castle/Thorp Arch
Difficulty: Easy (flat throughout)
Getting there: Free parking at the Old Station Car Park, Wetherby
