Castle Hill

Castle Hill is a monument accessible by car, or a good walk up, located just outside Huddersfield. The tower is impressive and the site offers great views in all directions. The tower was closed on our visit. Car parking is dicy as the car park is not well maintained, perhaps more suited to 4x4 greenlaning group than the average family coupé. Historically, the site is amazing. The remnants of the former "castle"/hillfort is very easy to see and understand. Information boards are useful, clean and easy to read. There is a good amount of the usual British-esque lucozade bottles and crisp wrappers stewn around which detracts from the experience, but not too much. It's worth a half-hour detour, or a sustained visit if you're into the history, perhaps a picnic in better weather.

Visiting here has been on the list to see for a while. The views were stunning and the sky was clear blue. Good size car park , and what look to be new steps going up one side from the road. Information boards too.

Wonderful vantage point fir views of Huddersfield and the surrounding area. Easy access by foot or car, and some nice information boards giving some detail about the history of the Tower and its surroundings.

Sent our bikes up here one day, absolutely gorgeous view, but the land and heather around the tower was burned- no big deal. Going down the hill full speed was great though, if you’ve got a free day and like mountain biking I’d recommend it.

There’s some great views of Huddersfield Town from the heights of Castle Hill. It was a great day to take the camera for a walk: it was pleasantly warm, and the air at the summit was surprisingly calm considering the hill reaches a thousand feet above sea level. Best of all though, the light was great; there was cloud cover – quite heavy at times – but it was really patchy and sailed quickly through the heavens, creating swathes of contrasting light which washed over the top of the hill and out over the vista which lay before my eager lens. I’ve only driven through Huddersfield on a couple of occasions, and I’d never been through the district which led me to Castle Hill. The traffic was quite heavy and, as is the way of these old towns with a medieval heritage, the roads are all over the place. And being unfamiliar with the lay-out meant I missed a few of the turns my sat-nav was suggesting. I got there eventually though; climbing out of the traffic and up onto the brow of Castle Hill where I was surprised by just how rural Huddersfield looked from this vantage point – despite the choking traffic I had to navigate to get there. Having parked the car, I walked up the final slope towards the Victoria Tower – an enormous edifice built on the crown of the hill to celebrate Queen Victoria’s jubilee year – and unpacked the camera. As ever, I took a huge number of pictures, most of which will never see post-processing. I enjoyed the experience though, and I hope you like some of the results. One point worth mentioning: one of the monochrome images I’ve posted here shows a tower in the background. This is the Emley Moor Transmitting Station, it stands 1,084 ft. tall and is, I was surprised to learn, the tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom; higher, by 20m, than London’s famous ‘Shard’.