The Otley Chevin
The Chevin Forest Park in Autumn
We love The Chevin!
Located in Otley, West Yorkshire, The Chevin is a vast area of woodland, jam packed full of walking trails, gigantic rocks and nooks and crannies, sculptures, stick dens and a vast natural playground!
The human history of this place spans thousands of years, right back to Prehistoric Times, (around 8,000BC) with evidence of two Iron Age Settlements in the area. Later, during medieval times it was used as pasture land and as a source of building materials, some of which went on to build The Houses of Parliament! (I know, FAMOUS stone!!) The planting of trees didn’t actually begin until 1780, when the land was enclosed by the Fawkes family and became private. The land prior to this point was open moorland and it wasn’t until 1946 that part of it was handed back over to the public. Other cool facts? Surprise View was once home to a Beacon, the artist JMW Turner was pretty enamoured with the place, and reputedly was inspired by his view of the Chevin with a stormy background sky when painting Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps, which hangs in the Tate Gallery. Oh yeah. Some proper arty stuff! Oh and Fossils. FOSSILS!
If you fancy finding out more about the fossily bits, the Chevin Geology Trail encompasses the whole of the woodland and will tell you all about the history of the crazy rock formations and topology, which was formed by sea, ice and meltwater millions of years ago. I’m not going to pretend that I’m some kind of Geological Wizard so check out www.chevinforest.co.uk for lots more clever information!
But it’s not all history, oh no. This place is literally a MASSIVE KID’S NATURAL PLAYGROUND! Honestly, there is so much to offer here, and so much to tell you about, so hey ho, let’s GO!
Here are our favourite Chevin Trails!
The Chevin Forest Park
This walk is for the history lovers out there! Ok, ok, maybe there aren’t so many of those around (except me!) , but what about the lovers of gigantic climbing rocks, stick dens and stream splashing?
This trail is one of our favourites purely because of the fact there is SO. MUCH. GOING. ON!
Beginning at Lower Shawfield Car Park, the walk takes you down into the lower parts of the Forest Park, past one of the Iron Age Settlements, the ruins of an old woodsman’s lodge, gigantic boulders complete with nooks and crannies, begging to be explored, mega stick dens, streams to splash wellies in and VIEWS! Some of my favourite views from the Chevin!
At less than 3km, it isn’t long (although there is some ascent), and even better is the fact that the Cheerful Chilli is just across the road and serves takeaway coffee and sarnies!
Fancy a ghost story to throw into the mix too? The entrance into the Chevin Forest Park, just near the Cheerful Chilli, is reportedly the site of a fatal horse riding accident, which tragically led to the deaths of a young man and woman in the early 19th Century. There are several accounts of thundering hooves, and ghostly crying being heard, some stating that they have even seen the ghost of the young man, wandering along the road…..
SEE? SO MUCH STUFF! Sleep tight……
If you fancy doing this walk, find the full Otley Chevin Forest Park route here! Carriers for this one, the route is not pushchair friendly.
The Chevin Swings and Surprise View
So this one is all about the playground.
Ok, not your standard slide, fireman’s pole and roundabout kinda playground, but did you know that at the Beacon Hill end of the Chevin there is a MASSIVE expanse of rope swings, climbing trees, rocks to climb and balance on and stick dens?!
No?! Well you need to do this walk!
Beginning at Yorkgate Quarry car park, you will walk past the old quarry, head up to Surprise View, where on a clear day, you can see as far as York Minster, head back into the woodland to the ‘park’ and then back up past the pond of Yorkgate Quarry.
Another shortie, but another goodie! You have climbing trees, blackberry foraging, ice cream (Surprise view car park) and tree swings, dens and balancing logs! Also the perfect spot for a bug hunt! Carriers are a must, this isn’t pushchair accessible.
The Chevin Sculpture Trail
And finally…
(You see how I really wasn’t making it up when I said that the Chevin has SO MUCH STUFF TO DO!!!)
This one is a fairly new addition to the Chevin trails, having only been installed in Summer 2021, but it’s another great route round the woodland! This time, the upper levels of the Chevin Forest Park.
This walk will take you past the incredible chainsaw sculptures created by Shane Green. Each one is representative of the little piece of the history of the Chevin and the heritage of Otley. You’ll find an elephant, a Chippendale throne (Chippendale, no NOT one of THOSE Chippendales, but THE Thomas Chippendale, cabinet maker, you’ll find his house in the centre of the town.) There’s a Roman chariot, a Stone Age dude and loads more! Plus, this will take you past the trig point of this side of the Chevin, so if you’re into bagging them, great news!
The trail begins from Lower Shawfield Car Park, and the trail sheet is found there. It is around 3km, and is pushchair friendly (although in my opinion, you’ll need a sturdy pushchair as the upper path in particular can get pretty muddy).
So there you go! Our Top 3 Chevin Trails.
Who’s going…….?
(Sources: visitotley.co.uk, chevinforest.co.uk, Haunted Yorkshire by Nick Tyler. )
Want more kid friendly Otley walks?
Then look no further than our Otley and Washburn Valley walks section!