SKIPTON WEB: A walk around the town of Skipton, North Yorkshire

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A walk around the town

This is an easy walk around Skipton, and is a good way to get a feel for the town, and introduce yourself to what's here. We haven't measured the exact distance of the walk, but we reckon you could do it in about 2 hours even if you stopped and looked at everything. It's an easy walk, but does involve steps up and down, some short but steep inclines, and a (gravel) path through the woods.

We suggest you grab this page and print it out so that you can take it with you as a guide.

There are 8 points on the walk, and we start at point number 1, on the 'Gallows' footbridge over the canal at the back of the Bus Station, which is off Keighley Rd.

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	1. From the Gallows Footbridge, we see a large white building (Bliss Nightclub). Heading towrds this we pass the taxi rank and through the car park towards Sunwin House (the Co-op). Coming onto Keighley Rd and following the pavement around the corner we soon find ourselves on Swadford St, and see a Pelican crossing. Crossing here, we then head right, back up towards the Roundabout and the High St, to point 2.
	2. This area is (with the roundabout and Woolworths, at the bottom of the High Street) is called Caroline Square (after the wife of George), and actually used to be the main bus station for the town. If it's a market day there'll be stalls and shoppers everywhere. Following the cobbles past the Wooly Sheep pub, we are now on Sheep St, which has a nice old market town feel to it. We can dive off into a couple of side alleys here, going left under the archway into Victoria Square, then turning right, past Waterfall travel agents and back onto Sheep St again. Continuing up the cobbles, we then turn right, onto the High St, where there is another Pelican crossing leading us to point 3.
	3. Craven Court was opened by Prince Charles in 1980 something. (Actually that's just plain not true - we wrote that about thre years ago, and no-one ever corrected us. I thnk Charles once expressed admiration for it, but he certainly didn't open it.) Walking through the arcade brings us out at the far end next to a large cast iron spiral stairway, and then we turn left on Otley St, heading back towards the High St. Right at the corner, and walking up the High St towards the church, we go past the Red Lion pub, and can see across the road both the Library, and the Black Horse. Skipton Town Hall, which also houses the local Museum, is at the top of the High Street. The road forking off to the right is the Bailey, and from there we get a good view of the entrance to Skipton Castle.
	4. From the castle entrance, we can go left through the iron gate into the grounds of Holy Trinity Church, then along the path past the church itself and down the stone stairs and through the small archway onto Mill Bridge road. Past the Castle pub, we come to the bridge over the canal and opposite the Famous Pork Pie shop we go down the two sets of steps and onto a footpath leading north alongside the canal. This is actually a spur to the main Leeds Liverpool canal, and was build to transport stone from a quarry behind the castle. Look out for the disused waterwheel at the back of the old mill building on your left. Following the path (not much choice here), we curve around the back of the castle, and finally arrive at an iron footbridge. Over that, we turn right onto the tarmac, and along a stretch of gravel that looks very much like somebody's garden, to arrive at a gate with a sign for the Woodland Trust. This is the entrance to Skipton Woods (or if you prefer, Castle Woods).
	5. Through the gate and over the small wooden bridge, we are in the woods proper. There are deer here sometimes. There is a Map posted here showing thepath through the woods. The gravel path carries right on, but we'll just go as far as the old Mill Pond, then retrace our steps. Coming back out of thewoods, instead of turning left to go back over the iron footbridge, we can follow the tarmac to the right, which will bring us out on Chapel Hill road. Past the old Methodist Chapel, and down the steep hill, we see Napiers on the right and the old Corn Mill on the left, and then we arrive back at Mill Bridge again, and point 6.
	6. Crossing the road to get to the Royal Oak , we then follow Water St , for a short way, crossing over as soon as possible to look for the steps that lead us down to the canal footpath. Looking across the canal, we see the back of the extended Black Horse pub, and then following the towpath under the roadbridge we come out onto the Quay. This is a nice place to have a rest and watch the world go by for a while. Setting off again, we go up the narrow stone steps to cross the road bridge, then down along Coach St . and we're at the next point.
	7. Coach St has some really nice old buildings and sidestreets. Past the Rose and Crown, and the new Lock Stock and Barrel, we arrive back on Swadford St again. Turning right at Bizzie Lizzie's we follow the pavement over Belmont Bridge, then down onto the towpath again. From here it's straight along the canal towpath for a while. Curving around the back of the converted factory building, the canal then goes under two small swing bridges. We cross at the second one, and follow the tarmac into the Park.
	8. Aireville Park has a good childrens play area, and lots of space. We can wander around for a while here. Finally leaving the park, we head back over the swingbridge and down onto Broughton Rd, just next to Herriots. Crossing here, we come into the Train Station, and just left of the main station entrance is a tarmac path fenced on both sides. This is Black Walk, and leads us through to Craven St, and the Craven and Railway pubs. Passing between the two, we are onto Carleton St, with the Churchyard on our right, and coming back towards the footbridge where we began. Related pages: Walks with 'Crag Face'


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