Castle Hill - Nature Walk

Castle Hill is a scheduled ancient monument in Almondbury overlooking the town of Huddersfield. We also use this area for our free monthly ‘Walking for Health’ walks and is a popular area for walkers and ramblers. This walk starts at the bottom car park on Castle Hill Side (Grid Ref SE 15150 13889, What 3 Words ///race.mutual.alert) and is a circular walk of just under 2 miles and should take you about an hour.

As this is a nature walk the route was selected to try and include varying habitats. The eagle eyed nature lover, depending on the season, should see well over 100 different plant species on this short route.

We would also recommend downloading a free app called Plantnet onto your smart phone before you start the walk, this is a great app for identifying plants, simply open the app, take a photo then use the app to identify the plant using the flower, leaves, bark, fruit etc. We have found it quite reliable but does occasionally get it wrong, and you can help record sightings of rare species.

The route itself involves a few stiles, but nothing too tricky and there are a couple of steep muddy sections in Molly Carr Wood so care should be taken there. There is a fantastic network of footpaths in this area and the route can be extended or shortened as required.

Before you set off, it is worth just having a look around the car park. The hillside here is covered in gorse, which is a preferred habitat of Linnet and Yellowhammer, and both of these species have been seen here. Any rustling in the bushes on the downhill section are likely to be Rabbit. From the car park follow the road downhill on Lumb Lane, where you will immediately spot various plants on both side of the road. These include Rosebay Willowherb, Great Willowherb, Cowgrass Clover, Meadow Buttercup, Cow Parsley, and Ragwort. Examine the Ragwort closely and you may well see the black and yellow caterpillars of the Cinnabar Moth as it is their favourite plant.

After about 120 metres down the road take the footpath right just before the white house. Climb over the stile into the field to find California Thistle, Common Clover, and Bristly hawks-beard. Continue on this path for a couple more stiles and fields, at the far side of one of the stiles you will find a nice spread of Common Vetch.

Ignore the first footpath left towards the farm, but take the second footpath left towards the woods. Walking towards the woods with the wall to your left, you will find various plants including Disc Mayweed and on the dry stone wall you will see Common Orange Lichen.

At the end of the field turn right towards the top of the woods which are made up of Oak, Elder, Ash, Beech, Silver Birch and the occasional Rowan. At the side of the woods you will find Birds-foot trefoil, and Foxglove. At the top of the woods you can look down into the deep ravine which has been carved out by water over a few thousand years, and if lucky you may see Roe Deer or fox. Continue up to the next gate away from the woods, go through the gate, and turn left heading back towards the woods but now on the opposite side of the wall to which you have just walked past. There is a faint path at the edge of the field that follows the edge of the woods around, this footpath is not on the map but a sign on the gate post shows that it is a public footpath. As you drop down the hill look out for Kestrel and listen out for the distinctive cry of the Common Buzzard.

This is a lovely section of the walk and totally out of sight from any buildings, don’t forget to look up, on my last walk here I could hear Chiff Chaff and Green Woodpecker.

At a fork in the path keep left and follow the tree line down to the valley floor and find the overgrown path left towards the stream. At the other side of the small river crossing, the little purple flowers amongst the Bramble are called Herb Robert. If you look at the small waterfall to your left you will see layers of Shale, a sedimentary rock formed approximately 318 to 319 million years ago in the Carboniferous Period.

Continue on this path through the woods, passing the Himalayan Balsam and have a go at identifying the different trees here. You should hear and see various song birds including Blackbird, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, and Long Tailed Tit. You will eventually arrive at a pointless stile, turn left and head down to the bottom of Lumb Dike, this can be a bit slippy when wet, as can the climb up the other side so please take care. At the bottom of Lumb Dike have a look for some Wood Sorrel which are a nice edible plant with a nice citrus taste, but be sure you know your plants before you try anything.

Once out of the other side of the woods follow the path up with the hedgerow to your left, look out for Field Rose in the hedgerow and the rare breed sheep and goats in the field to your left. Please do not feed them, and watch out for the electric fence if you do try to pet them. Up to the top of the first field and you will see the footpath crosses the field diagonally to the opposite corner. At the road take the footpath opposite, once over the stile watch out for branches on the ground that could turn an ankle or cause a trip. Follow this footpath uphill, through the gate and uphill to the track. On this uphill section there are various trees to the right and keep your eyes peeled for Tree Sparrows and Twite. This is one of the few places in the UK where you may see Twite their numbers are in serious decline and as such are listed on the RSPB red list.

At the track turn left which will take you back to Lumb Lane, but check the hedgerows for Black Thistle and Meadow Vetchling.

At Lumb Lane turn tight and a short steepish walk back to your car. If you do use this as a guide, then please let me know about any other plants on the route that I may have missed. Enjoy.