Silsden South Explorer (SSE), a series of 11 caches over a 4.5 km (3 mile) circular walk along part of the Leeds Liverpool canal, and back along the lanes to Silsden. This part of the canal, Bingley to Skipton, was opened in 1773. This was the first section of the Canal to open.
You will leave the canal down some stone steps, through Lower Holden Farm and onto a track with concrete strips. This leads to a tarmacked lane heading back towards Silsden. The lane was originally known as Low Lane and it was once the Silsden section of a valley route to Riddlesden that was severely disrupted by the building of the canal. Low Lane also branched down another route past a farm (now Keighley Golf Club) to cross the River Aire by a wooden bridge (long gone) to Utley and so on to Keighley. Richard Pocock, in his ‘travels through England’ in the 1750s described travelling along this lane on his way from Silsden to Keighley. There was still evidence of the bridge foundations where the route crossed the River Aire at a place called Jowhole as late as the 1890s. This was close to the position of the present bridge over the Aire connecting Keighley Golf Club and Utley. It is interesting to note as you walk along Low Lane that it was cleverly aligned to remain just above the flood line of the River Aire