Easter Gate, March Haigh and Black Moss Reservoirs

The route

From Marsden, climb west out of the Colne valley onto the open moor and pick up the line of the old Easter Gate packhorse route, an ancient crossing marked by a surviving guide stoop. The track leads you out to March Haigh Reservoir, tucked into its fold of moor, before the route swings south across high, wide ground to meet Black Moss Reservoir on the Pennine Way. From there it is a long, runnable return on moor tracks back down to Marsden, 16.8km in all with 349m of climbing spread gently through it rather than in one pull.

The moor

Marsden Moor is National Trust land, a huge sweep of heather, cotton grass and blanket bog crossed by old routes and reservoir tracks. The reservoirs - March Haigh, Black Moss and the Wessenden chain nearby - were built to feed the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the mills below, and they give the run its shape and its water. It is open, exposed country that feels far bigger than its modest height.

Why it works

This is a run for big skies and solitude rather than a summit. The tracks are mostly good underfoot, so it moves well, but the moor is boggy off-line and bleak in poor weather. Marsden's station on the Manchester to Leeds line makes it one of the easiest big moor runs in the north to reach without a car.

Good to know

Marsden's station on the Manchester to Leeds line makes this an unusually easy big moor run to reach, so you can run it car-free from the platform. Off the main tracks the ground is wet blanket bog for much of the year, and the tops give little away in cloud, so carry map and compass and treat GPS as a backup. The National Trust manages the estate, so check for shoot days and respect the ground-nesting bird season from March to July by keeping to the tracks and your dog on the lead.