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Iv'e just got a new Kayak and am a complete amateur but want to get it wet for the first time this weekend. (It's a touring kayak) We could take it up to Coniston but are there any other relatively calm, flat water around the Keighley/Halifax area excluding canals?
Cheers
In Bingley, on the residential street (Ireland Street) opposite the Brown Cow Inn at Ireland Bridge (bottom of Harden Road), there is a track that runs down the side of the river Aire. A few hundred metres down the track there is an old concrete launch at the side of the river (they used to hire rowing boats out there years ago). You can easily launch from there and go up river for a few miles from there. We used to do this as kids. Down river (under Ireland Bridge) is the weir, so don't go down there.
I think we used to manage to get beyond Crossflatts before a shallow section, which you could walk the kayak up to continue towards Keighley. We never went beyond the shallow section.
A few years ago there used to be quite a lot of kayaking going on in Sowerby Bridge.I used to stand in the water taking photographs whilst they were trying to get thru the gates. Right in the middle of the village where the road passes over the river (Calder?) and the railway bridge over them. Check it out it may still be happening.
Check this site ...
[url= http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured&Itemid=101 ]ukriversguidebook[/url]
Click on 'rivers' then your area (North East?)
hth
Kayaking is still going on in Sowerby Bridge, but I would not consider it "flat"...it's a slalom course with some drops / rapids. There is an actual club in Sowerby, I believe they do away days too.
I had a session on it a few years back and failed miserably, I ended up drinking the rat infested water... 😯
Be very careful on the Calder in Sowerby Bridge area, two guys drowned a few years ago on a relatively small weir!!