Cuckoo Walk
A 17-mile walk in the Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire Pennines region. Beginning and ending in Marsden, the walk is a circuit associated with the village’s Cuckoo Festival celebrating the coming of spring. With map, statistics, and GPX route file.
Statistics and Files
Grid Ref: SE 046 118
Distance: 17 miles (28 km)
Time: 6–8 hours
Duration: 1 day
Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps (1:25,000):
OL1 The Peak District – Dark Peak Area
OL21 South Pennines – Burnley, Hebden Bridge, Keighley and Todmorden
288 Bradford, Huddersfield and East Calderdale
Summary
The Cuckoo Walk is associated with the Marsden Cuckoo Festival, which takes place each year on a Saturday in April when the Yorkshire Pennines village celebrates the coming of spring. Legend has it that many years ago the people of Marsden were aware that when the cuckoo arrived, so did spring and sunshine. They tried to keep spring forever by building a tower around the cuckoo. Unfortunately, just as the last stones were about to be laid, away flew the cuckoo — because, as the legend says, it “were nobbut just wun course too low.” The Cuckoo Walk is a strenuous upland circuit of the Pennine moors which begins in Marsden and goes via Willykay Clough, Little Moss, Northern Rotcher, Black Moss Reservoir, Featherbed Moss, Wessenden Head Moor, Black Hill, West Nab, Wessenden Reservoir, and Butterley Reservoir. The route is partly coincident with the Oldham Way, the Pennine Way National Trail, and the Kirklees Way.