Take your pick! Here you can create your own circular walks to Houses Hill and back – approx. 3 miles depending on routes chosen.
You can devise as many as 56 different walks by choosing your own outward walk from the 8 given and then deciding on a different route back. Slight detours can add to the number of options.
Just by walking up Long Tongue Scrog Lane you can have a choice of 4 different routes along the hillside ranging from a sunken flagged lane to walks through fields.

Choose a Route with a LETTER to get you THERE
THEN
Choose a route with a NUMBER to get you BACK. On a separate page

You can always just reverse the routes to return back to the Beaumont Arms but then it wouldn’t be a circular walk!

All outward routes start at the beginning of the green lane behind the Beaumont Arms on Church Lane. *
*Sometimes after wet weather, it is better to start walks A,B,C,D and F by going through the stile into the field in front of the pub and then crossing the field to join the footpath alongside the beck as it can be very muddy at the end of the green lane.

 They all end at the former Methodist Church built in 1906 [now High Cross] at the top of Houses Hill hamlet opposite the post box.

Route A    Part roads/Part fields

  1. Walk along the green lane* at the back of the Beaumont Arms [sp] Go over the stile into the fields. Follow the path by the beck and wall up to Laneside.
  2. Continue right along the road until you meet the track Long Tongue Scrog Lane [sp] Go up this track.
  3. As the track bends uphill [pylon here] go straight across and climb over the two stiles into the field beyond. Following the edge of the field downwards continue until you come to another stile – go over the stile and follow the path down to the road at Gawthorpe Green.
  4. Turn left here and keeping left go up the road, past Broomfield House towards the crossroads. Turn left into field just after the house [sp] cross to stile then turn left along road to Whitley Willows and then Houses Hill.
  5. Continue up the hill to the last of the houses on the left which is High Cross [This is the half way point in the walk]

Route B    Mainly fields

  1. Walk along the green lane* at the back of the Beaumont Arms [sp] Go over the stile into the fields. Follow the path by the beck and wall up to Laneside.
  2. Continue right along the road until you meet the track Long Tongue Scrog Lane [sp] Go up this track.Go up here and take the second signed path on your right [sp – bridle way and cycle/walk path] Continue along a path made of stone slabs to Houses Hill.
  3. As you go downhill it might be very muddy – an alternative to miss the worst in the bottom is to take the path on the left [sp and opposite another path to the right] and cross a field. Where it meets a track turn right back into Houses Hill]
  4. Continue along the road to its junction with the main road. On your right is High Cross – the half way point of the walk.

Route C    Mainly fields

  1. Walk along the green lane* at the back of the Beaumont Arms [sp] Go over the stile into the fields. Follow the path by the beck and wall up to Laneside.
  2. Continue right along the road until you meet the track Long Tongue Scrog Lane [sp] Go up this track.Continue up the track until a gate bars your way. Turn right here through a stile and continue forward along the field edge. Don’t go over the next stile which will take you upwards and back on the track.
  3. Follow this path which will lead you along the field edges and then down to a ruined farm house.
  4. Continue along the track past the modern bungalow and through the stile onto the road beyond.
  5. Turn left and continue along the road to where it meets the main road coming down from the Grange Moor Road. On your right is High Cross – the half way point of the walk.

Route D    Mainly fields

  1. Walk along the green lane* at the back of the Beaumont Arms [sp] Go over the stile into the fields. Follow the path by the beck and wall up to Laneside.
  2. Continue right along the road until you meet the track Long Tongue Scrog Lane [sp] Go up this track.Continue up the track until a gate bars your way. Turn right here through a stile and after a approx 20m rejoin the track through a stile.
  3. Continue up to the terraced houses. Here turn right into a field [sp] and follow the path as it bends around the top of Hagg Wood. Continue.
  4. Climb over the last stile into an area in front of the farm. Go forward towards the drive but almost immediately turn right and squeeze through the gap stile into the field you have just left. Walk halfway down the field keeping close to the hedging on your left.
  5. After passing a gate strike out diagonally right across the field aiming for the pylon and stile in the bottom right hand corner.
  6. Go over the stile and follow the edge of the field to the signpost.
  7. Turn left along the road to the junction and then left again along Long Tongue Scrog Lane to its junction with the main road. On your right is High Cross – the half way point of the walk.

Route E   All road –suitable for push chairs

  1. From the Beaumont Arms go up Church Lane to the main road into Kirkheaton and turn right.
  2. Take the first right downhill on to Laneside – signed Kirkheaton Cemetery.
  3. Continue along this pleasant minor road past the Cemetery and the entrance to the old brickworks to the small cluster of houses at Gawthorpe Green.
  4. Keep left here and climb the hill past Broomfield House to the cross roads.
  5. Here turn left down past the new development at Whitley Willows and onto Houses Hill.
  6. Continue up the hill to the last house on the left which is High Cross. This is the half way point in the walk

Route F  –  Part road / Part fields

  1. Walk along the green lane* at the back of the Beaumont Arms [sp] Go over the stile into the fields. Follow the path by the beck and wall up to Laneside.
  2. Turn right and continue along the road until you come to a track just before an electricity substation just before Gawthorpe Green.
  3. Take this track to the left and continue up it for approx. 60m. As the track bends go ahead over the stile and into the field beyond.
  4. Follow the hedge along to the stile at the bottom of the field and continue to the kissing gate leading to a more enclosed path behind the new houses at Whitley Willows.
  5. Continue on until you reach the road. Here turn left and continue into Houses Hill. High Cross – the half way point in the walk is the last house on your left up the hill at the junction with Long Tongue Scrog Lane.

Route G  – Mainly fields and landfill site

  1. Walk along the green lane at the back of the Beaumont [sp] Go over the stile into the field and immediately turn left following the wall up the field to a gap between houses leading into Laneside.
  2. Turn right, cross the road and after about 60 m turn left up a path [sp]Follow the path up the hillside until it comes out onto a tarmacked road [Stafford Hill Lane] cross and go along Mountain Way. Continue along Mountain Way to the second footpath sign beside a small beck. Turn up here.
  3. Follow the path uphill around the edge of the quarry fencing
  4. Near the brow of the hill go over a little stile which straddles the newt wall. Follow this wide track along the edge of the quarry. It then opens out – cross the open area diagonally left [can be muddy here] and drop down through the wood to the footbridge.
  5. Climb up to the landfill access road and cross to continue up hill. Skirt an arable field keeping the wall on your right to the stile on the horizon.
  6. Go over the stile and walk diagonally left across the field to a wide gap in the wall and following the chicken coops fencing head for the next stile in the corner.
  7. Enter the next field via a stile and cross immediately onto the track. Turn left and almost immediately turn right [sp] to follow the path along the top of Hagg Wood.
  8. Climb over the last stile into an area in front of the farm. Go forward towards the drive but almost immediately turn right and squeeze through the gap stile into the field you have just left. Walk halfway down the field keeping close to the hedging on your left.
  9. After passing a gate strike out diagonally right across the field aiming for the pylon and stile in the bottom right hand corner.
  10. Go over the stile and follow the edge of the field to the signpost.
  11. Turn left along the road to the junction and then left again along Long Tongue Scrog Lane to its junction with the main road. On your right is High Cross – the half way point of the walk.

Route H   Mainly fields and a wood

  1. Walk along the green lane* at the back of the Beaumont Arms [sp] Go over the stile into the fields. Follow the path by the beck as far as the bridge. Turn right here and follow the footpath up through fields to Lascelles Hall Cricket Club.
  2. Cross the access road and continue up the next field and diagonally across the next to the gap ahead. Cross the field to Gawthorpe.
  3. At the road turn left and the almost immediately right [sp] along a drive and through a gate into a stable yard.
  4. Continue down past the stables over a stile into the next field and then down to the wood beyond.
  5. Follow the track through the wood and up and across the next field to the road just below Broomfield House. Careful here as it is a nasty bend.
  6. Turn right up to the bend and then turn left into field just after the house [sp] cross to stile then turn left along road to Whitley Willows and then Houses Hill.
  7. Continue up the hill to the last of the houses on the left which is High Cross [This is the half way point in the walk]