West Yorkshire has a new long-distance walk, and it's a good excuse to look past the usual Brontë pilgrimage. The Bradford Pennine Gateway trail opened on 19 September, running 18 miles (28.9km) between Ilkley, Saltaire and Haworth. It threads through the freshly designated Bradford Pennine Gateway national nature reserve – the first of its kind in West Yorkshire – and was plotted by Danny Jackson, formerly Bradford council's countryside and rights of way manager, who wants people to see Bradford as a largely rural district, not just a city.
The route starts with a proper climb onto Rombalds Moor, the great gritstone ridge above Ilkley, where heather, bracken and peat bog stretch out between stone staircases and outcrops. You cross Ilkley, Burley and Bingley moors in one sweep, with huge views to the RAF Menwith Hill 'golf balls', Leeds and the Emley Moor transmitter – the UK's tallest freestanding structure. Near the summit sits the Twelve Apostles stone circle, and there's history all over: old coal pits, wartime tank-training traces, quarries and centuries-old dry-stone walls.
The moors are alive too – the writer clocked kestrels, skylarks, meadow pipits, wheatears and a colony of tree sparrows, plus birch, rowan and elder among the conifers. The reserve designation matters beyond scenery: the land helps with flood control, carbon capture, peat restoration and wildfire reduction.
The highlight for many will be Shipley Glen, a wooded ravine just above Saltaire that even repeat visitors tend to miss. It's been a draw since Victorian times – pleasure gardens, temperance teashops, radical rallies – and its 1895 tramway still runs. The author recommends breaking the walk here: Bracken Hall House B&B has doubles from £110, and Saltaire itself packs in industrial history, art and good food. From there the trail continues through Trench Meadows (an SSSI rich in wildflowers), the Five Rise and Three Rise Locks on the Leeds-Liverpool canal at Bingley, riverside stretches of the Aire, a bird hide at Bingley St Ives with bullfinches and siskins at the feeders, and the rare dry heath of Harden Moor, home to the nationally scarce tormentil mining bee. It ends at Penistone Hill country park above Haworth – though no one will mind if you finish on the high street with coffee and cake.
For travellers, this is low-carbon, doable-by-train walking at its best: under 30 miles but packed with moorland, canal locks, industrial heritage and three very different towns. Fit walkers could do it in a day; two days with a night at Saltaire is far more fun. If you're driving, park at Keighley and take the 62 bus to Ilkley to start, then hop on a Brontëbus (B1, B2 or B3) back from Haworth.