Norland Moor

One of the first places I discovered when we moved to Sowerby Bridge was Norland Moor.

I had been up there before, back when the Moorcock pub was open. We used to take a hike up to the Ladstone and enjoy the views before Sunday dinner. One of the last times I can remember being out and about with my poor Mum was up here, before she succumbed to her illness.

But although I had visited before, it was really only after we moved to Sowerby Bridge that I started exploring the moor in earnest.

One of the neighbours told me that the views from the path around the moor were the best in the Calder valley, so shortly after moving in, I made my first proper hike up to the moor, taking the steep zigzag path the goes up past the lovely little cricket ground in Triangle. One of the first things I came across was a fantastic little coffee shop called “Outhouse”, presumably named because the building it’s in was once a toilet (and a bus shelter). It’s become one of our favourite watering holes and the perfect place for a warm drink after a blow on top of the moor.

The Outhouse strikes me as a perfect slice of a modern Britain that didn’t exist before the last couple of years. Yorkshire farmers dressed in John Deere overalls chatting away over flat whites and oat milk lattes. The coffee is great and so are the cakes, don’t miss out.

If you can drag yourself away from the Outhouse, the moor is just up the path on the far side of the car park. If you want a quick payoff, turn right and head for the Ladstone. It’s a big rock with a rich folklore attached. The rock is covered with the carved names of folk who made their way up here back when most of the other moors in the area were private property and used for grouse shooting mostly.

They say that’s why Norland Moor is still known as “The Lungs of Halifax” - mill workers on their day off would come up here to escape the pollution of the town. In those days before the Outhouse, the local farms did tea and cake to cater for them.

Local folklore is heavily tied to the Ladstone, with dramatic tales suggesting it was used by Druids for human sacrifice or as a ledge from which convicted witches were thrown in the Middle Ages. While likely just romanticised folklore, the rock’s name is believed to derive from the Celtic word lladd, meaning “to kill” or “to cut”. The same root as the dramatic “Druid’s Slaughter Stone” which can be found at Lad law on the summit of Boulsworth Hill, visible on the north westerly horizon from the top of Norland moor.

In July 1848, the Ladstone Rock was the site of a massive Chartist rally, where local radicals gathered to demand working-class voting rights.

From the Ladstone, you have several different paths you can take, all of them marvellous, but in different ways. If you continue in a westerly direction, you come to an area of young birch woodland, near the colourfully named Gallows Pole Hill. Follow the path through the woods, and you get more fantastic views away over the far hills. From here it’s short walk to the Spring Rock pub which is another fine West Yorkshire institution that I intend to write about on a different walk that I have in mind.

If instead of going west, you turn northeast, you will soon pass the trig point.

Keep going roughly northeast and you will be out into the heather of the moor proper, with the chimneys and church towers of Halifax coming into distant view.

Hiding among the heather is a large pond, which is a great place to throw stones for dogs.

If you keep going and follow the path all the way across the moor, you will eventually reach the road and the footpath that leads down Maple Dean Clough. That’s our favourite way to go and will lead you all the way back to the Rochdale Canal at Copley, from where you can easily saunter back to Sowerby Bridge.

All in all, Norland Moor is a very special place. We go up there at least a couple of times a week. It seems like we are always finding new paths and hidden spots to explore.

If you are are in and around Sowerby Bridge and find yourself with a spare hour or two, the steep walk up to Norland Moor is worth it just for the views.