Skipton Woods

Start Skipton High Street

Time 1 hour

Facilities Cafés, pubs and toilets in Skipton

Ordnance Survey Map Outdoor Leisure 2 (only the first half shown on OS maps as the path through the woods is a permissive route)

From the roundabout at the top of the high street, take the road on the left (towards Grassington). Cross over the canal and take the first road on the right hand side (Chapel Hill). Passing the old Chapel, take the first short road on the left (marked Private Road and signed with a yellow footpath disc). At the top of this road, go over the stile into a field. Climb the steep hill to a stile located near the end of the post and wire fence to your right.

Whilst it’s a steep climb, this vantage point gives you a great view over Skipton and the valley beyond.

Crossing the stile, continue in the same direction keeping roughly the same distance from the wall around Skipton Wood, to a stile in the fence. Turn right for a short distance to a stile into the wood.

Skipton Wood is owned and managed by the Woodland Trust. An information board by this stile shows the next stage of this route as "surfaced path".

Follow the path through the woods to the stream. Cross this over the culvert and then follow it downstream. Ignore the path that branches left in front of the millpond. A short distance after this, there is a short loop path off to the right which leads to a manmade waterfall before rejoining the surfaced path.

At the end of the woodland path, go through a gate and walk past the house to join a tarmac road. Where this road turns right, take the path to the left to cross back over the stream on a metal bridge.

The back of Skipton Castle comes into view from this bridge and the path now goes between the stream and canal and around the side of the castle. This path ends at the bridge where you started.