Otley Chevin circular

The ethereal woods on the slopes of The Chevin

A taste of the Yorkshire Dales on the outskirts of Leeds, this lovely loop of The Chevin is easily accessible, but takes in the best bits of this beautiful wooded hillside

Start and finish: East Chevin Quarry car park, SE 212 445

Distance: 7.5km / 4.75 miles

Ascent rating: 232m

Walk Grade: Light-moderate

Highest Point: Surprise View, 272m

Difficulty and hazards: Undulating paths through The Chevin. Steady climb to Surprise View. Take care at the road crossings

Travel: The car park can get busy at the weekend, but is one of the quieter car parks around The Chevin. Busses run to Otley, but you will need to walk from there to the start point (20 mins).

Refreshments: The Mistal Kitchen cafe is part way around the route, but check out their website as they have limited opening hours.

Accommodation: Both The Chevin Country Park hotel and The Royalty offer rooms, and are not far from Surprise View.

Ah, The Chevin. One of the most popular local destinations near Leeds for a family walk. It can get busy at the weekends, so I decided to do this walk on a weekday, at sunrise. It was blissfully quiet.

I used this route as one of my monthly Wellness Walks, and I met the tired and blearye-yed group of brave walkers in the empty East Chevin Quarry car park at 6am. After comparing notes about how we couldn’t believe we were up and out this time, and how quiet things were, we set off from the car park, leaving by its road exit and crossing the road. After heading left down the road for a few metres, we headed through the gap on the wall to the right, and immediately were in a lovely, ethereal wood.

The woods look beautiful in the early morning light

The path meandered and undulated through the woods, following the gradient of the slope.

This lower part of The Chevin doesn’t quite get the attention of some of the more well-known parts, but it is all the better for its quietness. It is genuinely lovely, and glowed beautifully in the dappled morning sunlight. The bluebells come out in force here in May, and give a cool blue offset to the gentle green woods.

The bluebells come out in force in The Chevin in May

The path continued to undulate, and at one point we were surprised by a waterfall, burbling down the rocks to our right.

The Chevin has an interesting history, and this part in particular has a number of geological features that supported the quarrying of sandstone to build the mills and houses of Leeds. Remnants of the industry still remain, including a few millstones, and these remnants create a bouldering haven, where eager climbers can test themselves on large boulders and quarry faces.

The bouldering playground on The Chevin

On reaching a fork in the path, we choose the right hand path, leading is up the slope, which soon joined the main bridleway through the lower Chevin. We passed through a stile, and the path passed over the top of the Caley Crags, another climbing hotspot.

Just after here, we turned right, following a path which itself roughly followed the cutting accommodating a set of power lines, before crossing another stile, and joining another large track.

The Chevin is dotted with a number of wooden sculptures, This is one of eight that were all erected about 15 years ago, and form te Heritage Time Trail that explore The Chevin’s rich history.

One of the wooden scultures on The Chevin Heritage Time Trail

We continued to follow the track up the hill, before taking another track to our right.

After about half a kilometre, the straight track bends to the left, and a few metres later, in a clearing to our right lay an unexpected site in the woods - a trig point!

After posing for a photo, we continued to follow the dirt path from the trig point into the woods. The path faded in and out at times, but with big paths a few hundred metres above and below us, we were never in any real danger of getting lost.

Eventually we emerged at the junction of two big stone tracks, and joined it, following it back towards the Upper and Lower Shawfield car parks.

We didn’t enter the car parks - instead a path bypasses them to the right and runs alongside the road, before emerging onto it in a break in the wall.

The position we were in did not offer the best vantage point, and the rush hour traffic was now evident on the much busier road. Still, we saw our chance, and darted across, and took another stone bridleway, heading up to the upper part of The Chevin.

The bridleway climbed steadily for a while. Usually there are pleasant views to across the valley below, the mist had gathered and now hung over the valley

We continued up, crossing a stile to our right, as the road bended off to the left. A short climb later and we emerged at Surprise View. The biggest surprise about the view today was that there wasn’t one, and we had a little discussion about whether the surprise was for people parked in the nearby car par, who could walk to the edge and be treated to a view of Otley and the valley below, or for people climbing up from the lower Chevin, and who could now see (on a clear day) across to Leeds, Bradford and into the Vale of York and the Peak District.

(Not much of a) Surprise View on The Chevin

We then cut straight down the hill on a narrow dirt track, taking the wide track to the right as soon as we entered the woods. These woods look almost as mystical as the ones we entered at the start of the walk, though you’ll usually find this area to be very busy at the weekend.

Re-entering the woods below Surprise View on The Chevin

After a short walk, we took a path down the hill to our left (which almost doubled back on us) - this one is easy to miss, so look out for it, or you’ll end up heading back out of the woods, and up the hill.

This then brings you to another cross road, where we took a sharp right, joining the wide track back to the start point of the walk

There’s still plenty of opportunity on this stretch to explore the views to the left of Otley below, and the steep quarry formations to the right, but eventually the path descends and the car park comes in to view.

This walk can get busy at the weekend and during the holidays, but is lovely for an early morning or evening stroll. If you time it right, and are lucky with the weather, you can be treated to a spectacular sunrise on Surprise View.