Chevin Forest Park, Otley

I'm ashamed to say that I've lived in Leeds for a few years now, but have never made it to the Chevin. Following a recommendation we decided to put this right! The Chevin is managed by Leeds City Council, but there is a group of volunteers called the Friends of Chevin Forest Park who have, among other things, produced a website to help you plan your visit.

We parked our car in the Yorkgate Quarry car park. The benefit of being up this high is that instantly you get fabulous panoramic views without the climb, however the paths here are not suitable for pushchairs. We put our little one in the baby carrier and set off. The views on a clear day are amazing and we spent ages just picking out landmarks, missing the most obvious one (Leeds Bradford Airport!) until a large jet took off and nearly deafened us!

We continued along the ridge until the end of this half of the park and followed a footpath down to East Chevin Road. We crossed over into woodland and joined the main body of the Chevin Forest Park. This half has the main car parks and paths that are more pushchair friendly. There are beautiful tree lined avenues and glimpses of the stunning view that you can better better from the ridge in the first half of the walk. The paths here run like a grid through the woods making it easy to do a circular walk.

All in all our walk totalled 6 miles but could easily have been longer or shorter. We had hoped to finish it off with a piece of cake and a cup of tea at the Cheerful Chilli cafe but were disappointed that they only had 1 highchair and it was already in use.

Our learning from this first visit to the Chevin is that although it is an obvious landmark locally, if you don't know the roads it is not that easy to find the car parks - we kept looking for a sign from the A660 but there aren't any! I would recommend taking a map if you don't know the area and I think it is lots easier if you have a way of carrying your little one rather than limiting yourself to the pushchair friendly paths. Also, don't miss the view by staying in one half of the park, even if you just drive to the Surprise View car park and walk 100 yards onto the ridge, it is worth it!

Facilities are available at the White House cafe and visitor centre, details of which can be found on the two websites below.
Friends of Chevin Forest website - http://chevinforest.co.uk 

Leeds City Council webpage for Otley Chevin Forest Park

Although we weren't able to eat at the Cheerful Chilli, I've included its website as I mention it above - http://www.cheerfulchilli.co.uk