Golf in the Pennines - Hebden Bridge GC

[James Reader]

Having finally figured out how to post photos on here, I thought I’d have a go at putting together my first simple course tour.  My plan is to do one of my home course, Huddersfield, but I thought I’d break myself in gently with just 9 holes and what is actually the closest course to home for me, Hebden Bridge Golf Club, otherwise know as Mount Skip (yes, really!).  My apologies for the quality of some of the photos; in spite of the patches of blue sky, it was a pretty gloomy January afternoon.

The course is just 2,600 yards, as modest and unpretentious as they come, a little rough around the edges, and, as far as I can tell, has never been mentioned on this site before outside a couple of comprehensive course lists.  I hope though that the photos give some idea of its charm and might even convince one or two of you that it’s worth seeing for yourself. 

The first challenge is to find the course, perched as it is 800 feet above the towns of Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd in Yorkshire’s Calder Valley (the eponymous Happy Valley of the BBC series; if you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth seeking out).  It’s not quite the highest course in England - that honour belongs, I believe, to Kington - but it’s not far off.  As you might expect, the views when you do get there are pretty special.

The club’s website suggests the site of the course was chosen by a group of local golfers who, having worked their way up the hill, playing across various tracts of farmland, finally landed on Mount Skip and did a “pay and play” deal with the local farmer in 1929.  Given how steep the lower hillsides are, it seems they made a sensible choice.

There are two sets of tees for the nine holes, but the variation between them is fairly limited.  Both nines measure just under 2,600 yards for a par of 34.

The opener is a 345 yard par 4 with a fairway that, for the first 220 yards or so, slopes relatively gently (for Mount Skip at least) to the right.  At that point, as the photos below show, it transitions into a sequence of humps and hollows before the green, which is benched into the steep hillside.  As is often the case at Hebden, there is an obvious side on which you do not want to miss because your ball will disappear down a steep slope, but err too far the other way and you may well find yourself in even more trouble.


(Approach to the 1st.  The 8th green is top left.)


(Approach to the 1st, taken from the 8th tee)

The 2nd is a similar length par 4 with a drive uphill over a hollow to a fairway with out of bounds over a stone wall to the left.  Into the prevailing wind, the hole plays longer than its yardage would suggest to a green that, like most on the course is relatively small and without any significant slopes.


(From the 2nd tee)


(Looking across the 2nd green)

The 3rd has another uphill drive where a decent hit is required to give a view of the flag, positioned on a green that, for once, slopes fairly severely from right to left. Unusually (although there isn’t much that is “usual” about Mount Skip), the 3rd and 5th holes play alongside each other but with the tee shots crossing over. 


(5th and 3rd greens, with the Napoleonic monument of Stoodley Pike in the distance)

Apparently the fairway on the 4th used to double as a football pitch but you wouldn’t know it from the tee; a stone wall on the right makes the blind drive look much tighter than it is.  At only 300 yards, as long as you’re reasonably straight, this is a good birdie chance. 


(From the 4th tee)


(Approach to the 4th)

The 5th is the longest hole on the course at 394 yards and plays as an elongated version of the 3rd.  The second shot is likely to be blind for most and it’s very easy to miss the green to the right, either in the bunker or down the slope.


(From the 5th tee.  The fairway is to the right of the mounds on the skyline.  3rd plays to the left of the mounds from a tee just to the right.)

The pick of the holes for me is the 6th.  Just 270 yards, and often with some help from the wind, it’s a reachable par 4 but the photos hopefully give some idea of the challenge.  To reach the  blind (of course!) green you have to drive over the corner of the moor.  Pull it or don’t hit it quite far enough and you’re out of bounds; a push and you’re off down the steep slope to the right of the green with a tricky pitch back.  A 200-yard lay up is almost certainly the sensible shot, but where’s the fun in that?


(From the 6th tee; the direct line to the green is over the fence on the left.)


(As you crest the hill, the green comes into view.)


(From the back of the 6th green)


(6th green and clubhouse from the 5th fairway; your view if you drive too far right)

7 and 8 are the two par threes.  The 7th is the shorter of the two but climbs 30 feet in just 120 yards to a narrow green, again set into the hillside.  Anything missing right will finish way below the level of the green and make for a very difficult recovery.


(7th green; that wasn’t my tee shot!)

The 8th continues to climb but is longer at 160 yards.  It’s a small target to another benched green which you do not want to miss short …or right …or long; too far left isn’t much fun either.  The views from what is the highest point on the course are spectacular.


(Approaching the 8th green)


(The 8th green - quite a view)

The round ends with another short par 4 offering a lovely drive, from high on the hillside to the fairway below.  Find the fairway and it should be a fairly simple pitch to a green on one of the flatter spots on the course. 


(From the 9th tee)


(Approach to the 9th)

So, there you have it.  Just £12 for nine holes and there’s a decent chance you’ll have the course entirely to yourself (you’ll see my car was the only one in the car park in the last photo).  I wouldn’t suggest anyone should go far out of their way to play it but, if you’re in the area, there’s some fun golf to be had and many worse places to be.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Thanks for the photo tour James. I always appreciate the effort, as it's no easy task.


I was thinking - as I scrolled through the tour - that it must be a very lonely and solitary place, especially in winter. It would be a shame if a course like this closed due to low membership/few visitors.


Any idea on its history? I could imagine that someone like James Braid might have been involved.

[Thomas Dai]

Splendid James, well done.
Rural and rustic, terrific.
A few clubs in a pencil bag and a swift 9-holes.
Long live courses like this.
Atb

[Michael Chadwick]

Wonderful post, James, thank you for going through the effort of posting photos. I've been to Cleeve Hill, and coming from America, I was stunned at how enjoyable ambling among hilltop golf in the English countryside can be.

[John Mayhugh]

Thanks for this tour. I've really enjoyed hilltop courses like Kington, Church Stretton, and Cleeve Hill. This looks like it offers some of the same fun and challenge. I'll add it to my ever growing list of courses I want to see. I'm sure when you post Huddersfield it will get added. I guess that would mean 3 H's (Halifax, Hebden, Huddersfield).

From your first two photos, I would never have guessed the clubhouse was right behind the 6th green.

[James Reader]

Thanks for the photo tour James. I always appreciate the effort, as it's no easy task.


I was thinking - as I scrolled through the tour - that it must be a very lonely and solitary place, especially in winter. It would be a shame if a course like this closed due to low membership/few visitors.


Any idea on its history? I could imagine that someone like James Braid might have been involved.

It can certainly feel solitary at times but in fact it apparently has more members now than for many years.  There was a 50% increase in 2020 when golf was the only sport playable after the first lockdown, and I’m sure the operating costs are pretty low so i think that its financial position is OK.  As an aside, the website says that in 1971 expenditure on course maintenance was just £140, less than the profits from the fruit machine in the bar!


As far as the history is concerned, the implication is that the founding members laid out the course.  I’m certainly not aware of any evidence that Braid was involved.

[Adam Lawrence]

Which side of Hebden, James? Close to Heptonstall?

[James Reader]

Which side of Hebden, James? Close to Heptonstall?

On the opposite hillside to Heptonstall, Adam.  Near to Wadsworth and Old Town. 

[Adam Lawrence]

So the course won't be overrun by pilgrims going to visit the grave of Sylvia Plath

[Ronald Montesano]

I'm going to comment on the lighting of these images. It is haunting and eerie and spectacular. Having shown far too many of my own photos with charismatic and bright sunshine, these images are unalloyed and stripped-down, as reality clamors.


As far as the golf course, my lord. It is a roller-coaster of carries, twists, and turns, without handrails nor guiderails. You could tumble into the great beyond at more than a few moments, and that would have me holding my breath as I turned away from the ball, prepared to lash it into orbit.


It must be a fun place to learn and secure the game.

[James Reader]

So the course won't be overrun by pilgrims going to visit the grave of Sylvia Plath

I’m not sure The Sylvia Plath Golf Trail would be a marketing winner 🤔

[James Reader]

I'm going to comment on the lighting of these images. It is haunting and eerie and spectacular. Having shown far too many of my own photos with charismatic and bright sunshine, these images are unalloyed and stripped-down, as reality clamors.


As far as the golf course, my lord. It is a roller-coaster of carries, twists, and turns, without handrails nor guiderails. You could tumble into the great beyond at more than a few moments, and that would have me holding my breath as I turned away from the ball, prepared to lash it into orbit.


It must be a fun place to learn and secure the game.

Thanks Ron.  I could claim that was the lighting effect I was going for, but the reality is that’s just what it’s like in Yorkshire in February.  I might be waiting a while for bright sunshine around here at this time of year! 

[Robin_Hiseman]

Despite the fact that you can almost certainly see my old home club of Ryburn in the distance, I confess that I never played Mount Skip. I think the one time we were to play a junior match there it got snowed off! Back then I would have been relying on my Mum for a lift and Hebden Bridge may have well as been on the Moon for all the call we had to go there.


I'd love to go back to my old hunting grounds for a golf trip and tick this one off, plus the likes of Tod and Crosland Heath which also eluded me. Pennine golf is wild and basic traditional golf.

[Tommy Williamsen]

That is one wild looking course. Can you get around the first time without getting lost?

[James Reader]

That is one wild looking course. Can you get around the first time without getting lost?

The entire course is on not much more than 30 acres, so there isn’t much opportunity to lose your way.  Apart from a walk behind the clubhouse from the 6th to the 7th, you’ve never more than a few yards to walk to get to the next tee.

[James Reader]

Despite the fact that you can almost certainly see my old home club of Ryburn in the distance, I confess that I never played Mount Skip. I think the one time we were to play a junior match there it got snowed off! Back then I would have been relying on my Mum for a lift and Hebden Bridge may have well as been on the Moon for all the call we had to go there.


I'd love to go back to my old hunting grounds for a golf trip and tick this one off, plus the likes of Tod and Crosland Heath which also eluded me. Pennine golf is wild and basic traditional golf.

I felt sure you’d be one of the few on this site that would have played there Robin.  Might just be me and Adam Uttley then.


I may do Tod next actually, just to whet your appetite a little more.

[Peter Pallotta]

That's a wonderful tour, James, thanks -- and Mount Skip seems an excellent example of a golf course being laid out simply so that the game of golf can be played: all perched and canted and tumbling and blind, with the lovely views and vistas seemingly more a 'welcome byproduct' of necessity (and a compact site) rather than an 'orchestrated goal' of self-consciously pleasing design. I've never played a golf course anything remotely like it, with all the crests and the dropping aways -- not to mention a Napoleonic monument in the distance. That's partly, of course, because I don't live in the Pennines; but I think it's also because I play mostly newer courses, and not one architect in ten (or maybe a hundred) would think today to design a course that way.

[Sean_A]

Thanks for the tour James. What is the depth of a few of those slopes off greens? They look to be severe!

Ciao

[Emil Weber]

James, thanks for the tour! English hilltop courses are starting to seem like a genre of their own now, the more I hear/see of them. And Hebden Bridge looks like the kind of charming place I'd really enjoy on a tour.
Like Ronald, I was going to comment on the light in your photos - it must have been quite a spectacular vibe that afternoon!
And another thing, there seems to be some kind of artfully done moundng around the 4th and 6th greens, reminds me of the photos I've seen from the likes of Kington.

[Sean_A]

James, thanks for the tour! English hilltop courses are starting to seem like a genre of their own now, the more I hear/see of them. And Hebden Bridge looks like the kind of charming place I'd really enjoy on a tour.
Like Ronald, I was going to comment on the light in your photos - it must have been quite a spectacular vibe that afternoon!
And another thing, there seems to be some kind of artfully done moundng around the 4th and 6th greens, reminds me of the photos I've seen from the likes of Kington.

I wouldn't think Welsh and Scottish hilltop courses are very different to English examples. The big differences probably result from the presence or lack of grazing animals. Though I agree, hilltop courses tend to be very enjoyable.

Ciao

[Richard Hetzel]

I really enjoy these types of golf courses. I can't wait until I retire early in a few years so that I can spend 4-5 weeks each in England, Scotland and Ireland (before returning to the states) staying in AirBnb's and just traveling all over playing all of these special courses. I'll play all the biggies too, but these are the sorts of courses I will certainly seek out in my off the beaten path travels.


Just 3.5 more years!

[Will Lozier]

I'm going to comment on the lighting of these images. It is haunting and eerie and spectacular. Having shown far too many of my own photos with charismatic and bright sunshine, these images are unalloyed and stripped-down, as reality clamors.


As far as the golf course, my lord. It is a roller-coaster of carries, twists, and turns, without handrails nor guiderails. You could tumble into the great beyond at more than a few moments, and that would have me holding my breath as I turned away from the ball, prepared to lash it into orbit.


It must be a fun place to learn and secure the game.

A great post on a great post! And yes, Mount Skip might be the place I would most like to be right now!!


Cheers

[James Reader]

Sean, there are certainly a few severe drop-offs around the greens. You can miss by a yard on the wrong side of four greens and easily find yourself 10+ft below the green surface.  In the case of the 8th, it could be 25ft if you’re unlucky with the bounce.

Will, “Mount Skip might be the place I would most like to be right now” may well be a sentence that’s never been written or uttered before!

[Sean_A]

Sean, there are certainly a few severe drop-offs around the greens. You can miss by a yard on the wrong side of four greens and easily find yourself 10+ft below the green surface.  In the case of the 8th, it could be 25ft if you’re unlucky with the bounce.

Will, “Mount Skip might be the place I would most like to be right now” may well be a sentence that’s never been written or uttered before!

Thanks.  The angle of the drop suggests balls could roll to the valley floor!

Ciao

[David_Tepper]

Pushing a trolley around that course looks like it would be a workout. And your trolley better have a good brake, otherwise it could roll a long way.