Body, Head and Crown

The 500km circular adventure features 9,600 metres of climbing across three loops:

Southern: The Body

Central: The Head

Northern: The Crown

southern loop: the body

This is the longest section of the Pennine 500. On the map above it’s shown in two parts: a red line and a blue line.

We start from Mytholmroyd Community Centre on the red line travelling clockwise and within 1km we’re on gravel tracks and cobbled lanes climbing the steep wooded slopes of the Upper Calder Valley above Hebden Bridge.

Passing below the iconic Stoodley Pike we connect packhorse tracks through an 18th Century Quaker settlement and descend into Todmorden and a series of narrow stone bridges and twisting moorland singletrack to arrive at Colne.

We skirt Pendle Hill on country lanes through the Hodder Valley to arrive at Slaidburn in the gritstone heart of Bowland with the welcome sight of the Old Salt Road up ahead. This road, mostly a rough gravel track, is also known as Hornby Road and it would be the highlight of any ride as the crunchy gravel track carves a route up to the 400 metre line to reveal a panoramic view taking in the Lake District to the west and the three peaks to the east with the profile of Ingleborough standing out. The 12 mile high moorland track has its roots in Medieval trade which linked the salt marshes of Morecambe Bay on the Lancashire coast to market towns in Yorkshire.

Crossing the Wenning Valley we enter the Yorkshire Dales National Park at Ingleton to pass under the Ribblehead Viaduct and narrow lanes bound by tall hedgerows to Dent with its village shop, pubs and campsites. Sedbergh is the next town and then a long and stunning green lane takes us towards the foot of Cautley Spout on the eastern slope of the Howgill Fells.

The ‘outward’ section of the southern loop (red line) finishes on a unique singletrack across the limestone pavement of the beautiful but little known landscape of Great Asby Scar above Orton.

The full route takes a rider on the ‘head’ and ‘crown’ sections of the Pennine 500 to reach the World Heritage site of Hadrian’s Wall sitting on top of Whin Sill, the last outcrop of the Pennines.

Alternatively a rider could choose to turn south on the ‘body’ of the Pennine 500 route and take the blue line from Kirby Stephen to Tan Hill Inn with a superb and very long moorland track plummeting down into Swaledale.

A series of stunning climbs and spectacular descents take us across Wensleydale and Bishopdale. Navigation is straightforward and there are plentiful supply points on this section as we pass through or within sight of Dales villages such as Keld, Gunnerside and Aysgarth connected by tracks, green lanes and packhorse bridges.

Gate is an old word for a path or way and has its roots in the Old Norse word gata brought to the north of England by the Vikings. After crossing the River Ure we take Morpeth Gate, a long and stony track below the gritstone outcrop of Witton Moor.

This brings us to a high moorland plateau and a stunning singletrack through Micklethwaite Clough and over Butcher Bridge to arrive at the rarely visited Coverdale.

As this is the Dales there is still a sense of community in its remote villages and so Carlton is home to a fine community pub called the Foresters Arms.

Riding west on a paved road we reach Arkleside and turn due south to climb a wide track to the 400 metre contour line and onto a gravel track in the shadow of Dead Man’s Hill.

We are now looking down into Upper Nidderdale with over 25km of the finest quality tracks to ride. For those who wonder at the lives of the navvies and hill farmers that carved these tracks this section of the Pennine 500 is worth a deeper look as we pass the remains of a 12th Century hamlet called Lodge and the foundations of a navvy town for 1,200 workers who dug out and built the dam walls of Angram and Scar House Reservoirs from 1921-1936.

At Pateley Bridge there is a convenience store called the Dales Market Corner. Ahead lies a mix of paved and gravel tracks into Wharfedale with a tough climb over Rombalds Moor above Ilkley and a long descent to the floor of the Aire Valley where we pass the impressive Bingley Five Locks.

After weaving our way through Bingley we climb up Altar Lane, a green lane canopied by rows of trees to bring us onto Haworth and the cobbles and cafes of its Main Street. A brief pause here is worth while as ahead is one of the hardest climbs and hike a bike sections of the route up to the ‘Top of the Stairs’.

The final 5km is on a much loved bridleway along the stunning Crimsworth Dean to arrive back at Hebden Bridge with the finish line 2km on a traffic free greenway along the valley floor to Mytholmroyd Community Centre at the end of Caldene Avenue.

central loop: The head

Climbs onto the rocky ridge line of High Cup Nick, a U-shaped glaciated valley and one of the most dramatic landscapes in the north of England and then onto the slopes of Cross Fell, the highest moorland in England with the route going past the welcome sight of Greg’s Hut mountain bothy.

northern loop: the crown

This section of the route embraces a landscape shaped by 300 years of industrial mining for lead and zinc as we pass through Nenthead and onto the fast flowing greenway on a former railway that runs from Lambley to Alston along the white waters of the South Tyne. The furthest point north is the Vindolanda Roman Fort at Stanegate.