mtb route: 150 mile

The GPX file shown below is the ‘original’ route which connects tracks and lanes around the watershed - the edge of the ‘basin’ - of the River Calder and its fluvial sisters the Colne, Hebble, Holme, Ryburne and Spen.

British Rail have closed a section of the Spen Valley Greenway where a pedestrian and cycle bridge crosses the main road. There is a short detour through the center of Dewsbury. The detour will be in place till 2027 as the rail improvement project is a major affair.

 

MTB: 100 mile ‘Chelburn route

'Chelburn' is the 100 mile MTB route that links together bridleways, causeways and greenways across '12 valleys, 6 moors and 1 floodplain'.

Chelburn is the name of a moorland on the return section of the CDT just after the route passes below Blackstone Edge. Chelburn has singletrack, rock gardens, an animal sanctuary, drainage ditches and a steep descent back to the valley floor.

Updated 01/04/2026

 

 Gravel bike route

The ‘Washlands’ route is the long gravel bike route and a rewarding ride over a number of days. It is easily linked via the many train stations. It differs to the ‘black mtb’ in three aspects:

  1. It takes gravel tracks below rather than over Midgley Moor

  2. It takes in ace gravel tracks through parkland at Bretton Hall

  3. The trail climbs up to Flower Scar Moor (Source of the Calder) and the huge descent directly into Todmorden

Updated 01/04/2026

 

INspirational bit

 

“I have fled my country and gone to the heather.”

Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights (1847)

 

“And the moors were always there and never without their promise.”

J.B.Priestley

Bright Days (1944)

 

“Water, that strong white stuff, can here be seen at its origins. It wells from the rock, and flows away. For unnumbered years it has welled from the rock and flowed away. It does nothing, absolutely nothing, but be itself.”

Nan Shepherd

The Living Mountain (1977)