Most of the walks in this column are circular ones. This, though, is more of a there-and-back one, returning partly by the same route so that the splendid views of the far side of the Aire Valley can be seen from opposite directions.

If your perception of Bingley is of long lines of traffic rumbling through the town, this walk will give you a different perspective of a place with - away from the main road - lots of charm and potential.

It's a good outing for the long summer evenings, although it was barely gone breakfast-time late in spring when I started out, one Thursday morning, from the main car park behind the shopping centre.

First obstacle was the main road, because the crossing at that junction isn't very pedestrian-friendly. However, I made it eventually and took the top gate away from the traffic into the tranquillity of Myrtle Park.

My route lay down the left-hand side of the park, descending eventually towards the feature which makes this place such an asset for Bingley and Bradford: the bottom meadow, skirted by the river and a natural amphitheatre for events like Music in the Park.

I walked across the dewy grass to the iron footbridge at the far side, crossing the field beyond to climb the steps into the wood. A right turn here had me following a path which meandered along between a carpet of bluebells with the occasional clump of wild garlic adding its pungency to the air.

At one point this gentle image was interrupted by a more dramatic feature: a lone, dead tree standing sentinel over a cluster of huge boulders.

The path joined a track above a private lake, and eventually emerged into the road leading from Harden to Ireland Bridge. A busy, tricky road, this. I crossed quickly and carefully and began the long, steady climb up the bridleway, Altar Lane.

On my left as I slogged upwards was the wall of the St Ives estate, on my right woodland then open fields, then woodland again before I emerged into the open space around Druids' Altar, a great hunk of rock overlooking Crossflatts and offering splendid views across and up and down the Aire Valley.

From here, where the air is fresh and clear, you can see the roundabout where the new road ends and just about visualise where the next stretch of it will go.

I headed back to the main track and continued along it, walking the ridge with gently sloping fields and valley views on my right and the St Ives wall still on my left until, eventually, I came to a facing wall with a gap in it and, not far beyond, Keighley Road from Harden.

I turned around here and enjoyed the view in the opposite direction as I retraced my steps until, at a gap in the wall on the right, I entered the St Ives estate to soon turn left and follow the path along the top of the golf course, parallel to the wall.

Eventually the path emerged at a junction, near the entrance to the estate from Druids' Altar. I swung right here, walking down the walled lane with woodland on my left and open fields on the right and the view ahead, now, over a different leafy valley - the one that carries Harden Beck down to join the Aire at Beckfoot.

The path was soon curving round to the left again as it descended to rejoin Altar Lane. As I plodded down hill, the glorious greenness of Bingley's outskirts on the far hills was impressive, leading up to the former Bingley College buildings high up there at the top of Lady Lane.

Not far from the bottom of the lane, at an untidy dumping ground among trees, I left the track and walked down recently-created steps to emerge into the road at Ireland Bridge, opposite the Brown Cow pub (which wasn't yet open, or the temptation of a pint of Timothy Taylor's might have been too great to resist).

I walked across the bridge, enjoying the leftward view towards the weir, then followed the quiet riverside path downstream, screened off from even a hint of the noise of the town and the road, until steps led upwards to emerge close by the old Market Hall and Butter Cross next to Bingley Arts Centre.

Traffic rumbled along the road beyond. The idyll was over. Back to fume-laden reality.

e-mail:mike.priestley @bradford.newsquest.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.