Lumb Hole Falls Walk from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire

Lumb Hole Falls is an enchanting waterfall situated approximately 3 miles north of the town of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire. Whilst there is an opportunity to park in a layby on Old Road to walk down to the falls, the nicest way of arriving at Lumb Hole falls is to walk via one of the numerous paths from Hebden Bridge. You can walk out and back on different paths and the 7-mile route will take you through a wide variety of landscapes. It’s a beauty of a walk with a stunning waterfall as reward and even a dip if you’re into your wild swimming.

Where are Lumb Hole Falls?

Hidden in a pocket of beautiful woodland, Lumb Hole Falls can be found on Crimsworth Dean Beck, a tributary of the River Calder which flows through the attractive Calder Valley in the West Yorkshire Pennines. Crimsworth Dean Beck joins another tributary, Hebden Water before flowing as one for a mile down to Hebden Bridge where it joins the River Calder.

The walk from Hebden Bridge to Lumb Hole falls largely follows the line of the tributary rivers for 3-3.5 miles north depending on the paths taken. I can highly recommend getting a copy of the OS Map OL21 which covers the area so you can pick and choose your routes, though I will try to be as exact as I can with directions in this blog while showing you how beautiful the scenery is along the way.

The Walk

Hebden Bridge to Midgehole

Park up in Garden Street car park in Hebden Bridge. Walk out the northern end of the car park, cross the road, past George Street car park which doubles as the market and through St Georges Square to the Shoulder of Mutton pub. Cross the river by the road to the right of the pub, then turn right on to Valley Road.

At the end of Valley Road, where it turns into Victoria Road to cross back over the river, you’ll spot this fab street art on your right.

Turn left here to go up Moss Lane which rises steeply out of Hebden Bridge. Make sure you turn round to look at the rooftop views as you go. The great thing about steep gradients is that you gain height far quicker and with height comes views!

As you get to the top of Moss Road, you need to take a right onto Eversley Road, something that isn’t clear on the OS map and is missing a footpath sign in the real world too. If you get as far as the sign that says private drive where a footpath continues off the end of Moss Road, you’ve gone too far, so backtrack to the previous right turn of Eversley Road. The public right of way goes through the middle of a couple of properties with houses on the right and garages on the left. It feels so wrong, especially when you effectively walk through someone’s garden, but even the neighbours assured me it was correct.

The people who live here certainly get a fab view over Hebden Bridge. At the far end of the gardens, you’ll exit through this gate onto something that feels a heck of a lot more familiar to the public footpath world.

Keep right initially once through the gate to start back downhill, but soon fork left when the path splits to follow a relatively flat contour past a few more houses and into woodlands.

Keep on the similar contour line when the path splits avoiding the obvious uphill and downhill routes that fork off. At the next fork in the woodland path bear left to rise gradually through the woods until you reach the tarmacked lane which you turn right onto.

Continue along this straight lane here and look out for a footpath off to the right. It will be before the road starts to sweep left round a bend.

This is a fairly steep and uneven path down to the riverside where you’ll clock the return route fingerpost sign pointing along the river back the direction you’ve come.

As you approach the New Bridge area where the two river tributaries join just downstream of the road bridge, you’ll stumble across the Midgehole Working Men’s Club, also known as the Blue Pig. Note the painted blue pigs by the entrance. Unfortunately to get any refreshments here you would need to pay £2 to become a member of the club first.

Midgehole to Lumb Hole Falls

Passing the WMC, turn right over the road bridge and note the quaint National Trust Lodge on the left. You’ll pass this with a better angle for photos on the route back.

Turning left after the lodge would take you to the Midgehole National Trust car park and the start of the footpaths up to Hardcastle Crags. Instead keep right and turn left after the public toilets block.

Go through the gate into a field on the left which says ‘Private Land: Keep Dogs on Lead’ and follow the obvious track through the fields. There will most likely be livestock in these fields, so just give them a wide berth where necessary. I encountered a family of cows with several youngsters that certainly kept a beady eye on us while we were passing.

Pass through a gate into woodland – this then becomes a really fascinating path in my opinion. It seems to follow the line of an old boundary wall and when I say follow, I mean on top of the wall. There is often a steep drop on one side or the other, as well as an unusual and slightly unnerving slatted wooden bridge to cross, no sides or handrails, that looks like it could break at the next footstep.

Several sections are extremely narrow and makes you feel like you’re on a jungle trek, especially when pools of stagnant water appear on the right. There are also several huge fallen trees that look particularly inviting to clamber on. Maybe if I was 15 years younger…

Somewhere along this stretch I missed a fork in the path as I ended up down at the river’s edge. The path marked on the OS Map slopes upwards a little before maintaining a higher contour line. We could hear water falling and you get a glimpse of a weir through the trees.

Just beyond this you pass through a fence with doorway shaped openings and if you turn left here, there are a couple of pools which the river flows between. It looks like you can cross the outflow from the far pool which some clearly have as there is a worn path on the other side, however it’s not an official path and I’ve no idea if it actually goes through to anywhere.

Retrace your steps to the fence doorway and go left here through another to take a steep woodland path up the side of a wall to reach the main path at a gated hole in the wall. Note: the gap is rather narrow. I had to pass through sideways on after taking my rucksack off.

The route continues out in the open, a little uneven and rocky with some small crags up to the right.

Eventually this beautiful house comes into view and once through the gate, this is where you take a footpath to the left passing in front of the house down to the river.

Turn right on the other side and as this is a waterfall walk, I couldn’t resist snapping this little fall on the left. So cute!

The first stile of the walk brings you out of the woods into the open again, which you stay in now until you reach Lumb Hole Falls. After an initial steep stretch up to the access track for the house you can see to the right, the path evens out and bumbles along nicely all the way to the falls.

There are fabulous views back down the valley and Stoodley Pike even comes into view the further along you get.

This is the wall stile you have to contend with along this stretch.

On passing through this final gate, turn right onto the relatively steep and rocky path down to the waterfalls.

Lumb Hole Falls

On approaching Lumb Hole Falls, it soon became clear to me that to get down to the bottom level required a bit of rock climbing. There is a large slab of rock to negotiate that is easiest to sit on to drop yourself down from (going down) and somehow use a combination of knees and great arm strength to get back up from. My clothing got filthy while getting up close and personal with the rocks here.

I also got bitten to shreds by midges! I reached the Lumb Hole Falls about 5pm on a warm day and stayed around the area for a good 45 minutes while some of my walking companions did a bit of wild swimming. Unfortunately, while I was taking photos and videos at the water’s edge, the midges went to town on me.  So, heed my warning and take some midge repellent with you if you plan on visiting later in the day during the summer months.

Lumb Hole Falls is a beautiful spot for a wild swim. There isn’t a lot of space around the falls and at the bottom level you do need to be careful as there is no even surface.

A nice place to sit is actually above the falls on the opposite side where I saw a couple with a baby having a picnic. The way the stone has been eroded into flat slabs makes ideal seats. There is a foot bridge to cross above the waterfall to access the other side.

Lumb Hole Falls to Midgehole

Once you find yourself able to tear yourself away from Lumb Hole Falls, start by retracing your steps, left through the gate, back over the wall stile and along the valley to that last house you saw. This time however, follow their access track up to the gravel road and turn left onto it.

This road follows a pretty straight line all the way back to Midgehole where you’ll drop into the upper large National Trust car park. There is a map of the Hardcastle Crags site here should you want to extend your walk. Footpaths starts from this car park.

Continue down the road and look out for the sculpture on the tight left-hand bend.

You’ll pass the original smaller NT car park and then a great view of the National Trust lodge presents itself on the right. I love the twisted gnarled tree in the garden too.

Turn right after the lodge to cross back over the river and then bear left to pass the Midgehole Working Men’s Club once again.

Midgehole to Hebden Bridge

As you continue along the riverside path, stay on this level at the split where the fingerpost sign is that I mentioned earlier on the route out. Continue following the ‘riverside path to Hebden Bridge’ route. This shortly crosses the river at a footbridge, then through a field to a gate called Snowy’s Gate.

There is a plaque on the gate telling you who Snowy was – a Jack Russell that was once lost in this area. As the sign says: Snowy went on to become the subject of a book “Don’t Forget the Dog” by walking 650 miles from Cardigan to Cromer, raising £5,000 for Francis House Childrens Hospice in Manchester.

Through this gate, turn left onto the access road which leads up onto the road from Hardcastle Crags where you turn right. There is a short stretch of road walking, before being directed by signage back down to the river.

You join it by a weir, then criss-cross the river a couple of times before a long stretch follows the western bank past the bowling green and cricket club, before crossing one last time to bring you out into the townscape of Hebden Bridge.

Follow the road Spring Grove, taking the second right down Windsor Road, then left at the bottom onto Victoria Road. This curves round to the right, crossing the river and turning into Valley Road, where you first started the Lumb Hole Falls route by the street art mural.

Final Thoughts on the Lumb Hole Falls from Hebden Bridge Walk

There are a number of different paths you could use to get to Lumb Hole Falls from Hebden Bridge, but I found this route to be attractive and varied.

I would not want to walk up the route I descended from Lumb Hole Falls to Midgehole as it would have been a long, tedious and slightly boring ascent. Coming down this way was easy, and I have to say welcomed after an ascent marked by plenty of uneven ground. It also made you realise just how much uphill you’d done as the track seemed to go on for miles on a constant straight downhill course. It was this that made me glad I’d not tried to walk up this way.

Parking for the Walk

There are several car parks in Hebden Bridge, but I found the one at Garden Street a good choice. Parking here is 70p per hour and is chargeable from 8am until 8pm, 7 days a week. You can pay by cash or online via an app, the details for which are found on the pay and display machine.

Take a note of the app and location details in case you find your walk takes longer than expected and you need to extend your parking time. I had to do this, so was thankful there was an online option to pay on this occasion.

Shopping in Hebden Bridge

Make sure you take a look around Hebden Bridge while you’re visiting. There are lots of independent shops and cafes and a thriving market on Thursday to Sunday. The market focuses on different products each day. Thursday is for fresh produce and general retail, Friday is for second hand goods, Saturday is for arts, crafts and artisan products, and Sunday is all about food and local produce.

Get in Touch!

Have you discovered Lumb Hole Falls yet? What route did you take to get to the waterfalls and did you take a dip? Get in touch in the comments box below and let me know… I’d love to hear from you.

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Further Reading…

If like me you are a waterfall chaser, you might like to check out my guide to walking the Ingleton Waterfalls trail.

While you’re in Yorkshire, you may like to check out the Wakefield Rhubarb festival and while you’re there, pop into Wakefield’s beautiful cathedral to see the world renowned misericords.

Then there’s the famous bluebell walk at Beningbrough Hall.

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