Explore the Calder Valley in a unique way - in your own floating home. Visit Hebden Bridge and get to know the independent-spirited locals, discover its quirky shops and outstanding pubs, restaurants and cafés. Take three outstanding walks - into the hills at Stoodley Pike, to visit the hilltop village of Heptonstall, or along the wooded valley of Hardcastle Crags (NT) to Gibson Mill.

The Rochdale Canal is open to above Lock 14, between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden.

Short Breaks 3- 4 nights

Hebden Bridge & Salterhebble
22 miles 30 locks 16 hours
As part of your instruction and handover, we take you up through the first three locks, including the deepest one in the country. You then sail off along the side of the valley to Luddenden Foot (pubs with food, one Indian; playground and good moorings). The next two locks take you to Mytholmroyd. Here you have the Dusty Miller and two convenience stores. Aux Délices is one of the best restaurants in the Calder Valley, well worth booking.
Mytholmroyd is the birthplace of Ted Hughes. You can see the outside of his birthplace, stand under the bridge where he wrote The Long Tunnel Ceiling, and look out for Hawk by Kenny Hunter just beside Lock 7.
The canal carries on through Fallingroyd Tunnel to Hebden Bridge. You can moor in the centre of town. There's a good choice of pubs, restaurants and cafés. There are really good butchers, bakers and fruit and veg, plus a variety of whole and exotic foods. And book shops, crafts, kitchen ware.... There is a market with farmers market and craft market. The Tourist Information Centre is a mine of personal information, from staff really plugged in to the Hebden Bridge story. This year’s Hebden Bridge Arts Festival (24 June—3 July) is themed ‘Trouser Town’. Hebden Bridge is a good base for two amazing walks. One goes up to Heptonstall, a village on the tops which is completely real and untouristy, with Sylvia Plath’s among many interesting graves, and an octagonal Weslyan chapel. The other is along Hardcastle Crags, a steep wooded valley with many paths (ideal for your children to lose you), a stream at the bottom, huge ant hills, and a National Trust tea at the end.
Leaving the centre of Hebden Bridge, keep on through the town and gradually wind up the valley, with woods, crags and the Calder running alongside. Moor above Lock 11 to visit the Stubbing Wharf, one of our customers' favourite pubs, now reopened. Head on up the valley, and turn between Locks 14 & 15. From this furthest point, you can walk the mile and a half into Todmorden, well worth the effort for its pubs, shops, interesting buildings and market. This mooring is also a good place to start your walk up to Stoodley Pike, a monument to the Napoleonic wars, up by the Pennine Way.
As you come back through Sowerby Bridge, stop to try some of the pubs and restaurants, an astonishing collection for a town this size. The Moorings, Temujin and Cobblestones are in the canal basin. The Navigation is at Chain Bridge (so called because the canal company used to put a chain across to stop boats from moving on the Sabbath). Gimbals is seriously good, and the newly-converted Hog’s Head is already very popular and will soon do food. And that’s only this end of town...
Beyond Sowerby Bridge, the canal travels along the side of the valley. At Salterhebble, you can go straight on the short distance to a small basin where you can turn and visit the Watermill (Brewers Fayre). Or you can turn right and follow two locks down to pleasant moorings in the lower basin. It’s not a long walk down the towpath to Elland (leave at Woodside Mills Lock). Or you can catch a bus to Halifax to visit Eureka!, see the Town Hall (by Charles Barry, who also built the Houses of Parliament) or sample its many pubs and clubs.
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This trip gives you plenty of time for walks, the pub or simply to sit and unwind, especially if you go Monday-Friday.

Short Breaks on the Leeds & Liverpool
We also offer you a choice of short breaks on the the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, from Barnoldswick west of Skipton. To find these, search again for boats showing Location: Barnoldswick.