Cycling in Yorkshire
Last updated 20th August 2022
The Keighley to Saltaire cycle route is Stage 4 of the Sustrans Slow Tour of Yorkshire. It starts in Keighley and takes the towpath of the Leeds & Liverpool canal to Saltaire.
I like this ride. The canal is very picturesque, and there are points of interest along the way, particularly the Five Rise Locks at Bingley (where there is a good café). The destination, Saltaire, is well worth visiting.
Because of the state of the towpath, it's really a mountain bike ride; at the least, you need a gravel bike or a hybrid with off-road tyres. The surface for most of the way is crushed limestone or gravel; where there's tarmac, it's hopelessly potholed; and just before Bingley, there's a stretch with a lot of standing water in puddles.
I think a canal towpath should have a consistent and reasonably smooth surface, suitable for family bike rides.
Distance: 6.5 miles
each way, so 13 miles there and back
Time: 2h there and back
The map above shows the route from Keighley to Saltaire in yellow.
I've plotted the route on Plotaroute; you can download a GPS file from there.
If you start from Keighley Station, the route to the canal is not well-signposted. Also, it's on-road, and it seems to me that there was a high concentration of boy racers on the roads of Keighley.
Turn right out of the station, and right again down Dalton Lane. Pass Dalton Mills, and turn left down Worth Bridge Road.
Part-way down Worth Bridge Road, fork right onto the Airedale Greenway.
The Airedale Greenway runs alongside the river Worth, then takes you under the busy Aire Valley Road to Aireworth Grove. At the end of Aireworth Grove, turn left on Aireworth Road, and arrive at the B6265 Bradford Road.
Turn right onto the B6265. It's a busy road with a painted cycle lane. It's not too bad, because there's plenty of width to the road and even to the cycle lane, but really it needs physical protection not just paint.
Turn left on Bar Lane, steeply uphill towards the canal.
Turn right onto the canal towpath. The first bit is rough: you pass behind houses, and every house has a downpipe, and for every downpipe there are cobbles for the rainwater to run over the towpath and into the canal. They act like a series of speed bumps.
A right turn on the first road that the canal crosses, Granby Lane, would take you to East Riddlesden Hall, a National Trust house and garden.
Go straight on, and the canal takes you east through green and pleasant land. There are plenty of ducks and geese on the canal.
You ride past Crossflatts.
Then, at the northern edge of Bingley, you come to the major landmark (or watermark) on this route, Five Rise Locks.
What the Eiffel Tower is to Paris and the Colosseum to Rome, Five Rise Locks is to Bingley. It's a popular spot to hang out.
There's a café over the canal to your left, the Five Rise Locks Café. I had scrambled egg on toast, and it was friendly service and great grub.
It's steeply downhill alongside Five Rise Locks. In the other direction, going uphill, it's not quite Alpe d'Huez - mainly because there are no hairpins - but you need to be in a low gear.
At Bingley, you go past the Damart building.
The canal continues around the edge of Bingley. Where it goes under Primrose Lane/Dowley Gap Lane, the Fisherman's Inn is to your right.
The next bridge has some age and character. You go over it, to cross to the left hand side of the canal.
Then comes Dowley Gap, or the Seven Arches Aqueduct. It was built around 1773, and takes the canal (and towpath, and you) over the river Aire. You don't necessarily get a good view or an impression of it when you're on the canal towpath - you'd have to go down to river level.
Now it's only a short way now to Saltaire,
the destination of this ride.
It's quite a short ride, so it is one that can easily be done there and back. Return by the way you came.
This is an enjoyable ride, with Five Rise Locks providing a real point of interest.
Because of the surface, it's really a mountain bike route, but it would be made more family-friendly by putting in a smoother, consistent surface.
The Keighley to Saltaire ride is covered by the 1:50,000 OS Landranger map number 104.
OS Landranger Leeds Bradford on Amazon.
Saltaire is a Victorian model village to the west of the centre of Shipley. It was built in 1851 by Sir Titus Salt.
The village included stone houses for Salt's mill workers, washing and bathing houses, a hospital, library, concert hall, billiard room, science lab, and gym. There were also almshouses, allotments, a park, and a school.
Saltaire is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Salts Mill was the project of Sir Titus Salt, who had five woollen mills in Bradford. He wanted to move his business and workers away from the pollution there. He chose Saltaire as the location of this mill, because it was by the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and the river Aire, which would provide transport links, and because it was close to the moors to the north.
Salts Mill was completed in 1853. Sir Titus died in 1876, but the mill kept going until 1986.
Now, Salts Mill houses an art gallery, and a variety of cafés and restaurants, plus shops including All Terrain Cycles.
Up Victoria Road towards the centre of Saltaire there's a pub called Don't Tell Titus. In between the river and the canal, near Roberts Park, there's a pub called the Boathouse Inn.
Roberts Park is part of Saltaire model village. It was named by Sir James Roberts, who was part of a partnership that took Saltaire over after the death of Titus Salt Junior. Sir James named it in memorial to his second son, Bertram Foster Roberts.
The park has a bandstand, the Half Moon Pavillion, and a play area and skate park.
The Aire runs past the park, and it seems that there are plenty of fish in it, because I saw a heron by the weir, and a pair of kingfishers flying fast and low over the water. The birds here may be used to people, and more tolerant of them than in other less populated areas, so it's easier to get a good look and a photo.
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