Mount Skip stands alone in an isolated rural location at an altitude of 300m (1000 feet) on a hillside overlooking the Calder Valley.  It is approximately one  mile to the east of Hebden Bridge town centre and stands within the Green Belt and a Special Landscape Area. Mount Skip occupies a prominent site 180m (600 feet) above Hebden Bridge giving it distant views.  The property can be seen from many miles away as one approaches the town.   It is marked on the Ordinance Survey map of the area as a "viewpoint" and rightly so as it gives spectacular views across the neighbouring moorland for over 30 miles.

 

Mount Skip was built in 1718 as a drovers inn, serving the pack horse and mule drovers who took wool and cloth on the journey to and from the markets in Halifax.  Its most famous resident was "Milk Churn Joan" a milk maid who died in snow storms whilst crossing the moor for milk.  A Plague Stone named after her stands on Midgley Moor and may also be an ancient boundary marker.

 

Evidence of even earlier occupation of the Mount Skip site was unearthed in May 1897 when a skeleton was found in a prehistoric grave in a quarry just above the house.  The grave was 6 foot in length, 16 inches wide  and 2 foot deep.  It was aligned north to south with the head of the body at the north end.  Cremated bones and wood where placed at the head and foot.

 

Mount Skip served as a hostelry for around 200 years until it closed as a pub in 1999.  It served as a meeting place for the scattered pockets of residents in the locality and had association with the Chartist Movement who held meetings on its premises.  Later it was a popular meeting place for cyclists, walkers and other visitors who came to enjoy the magnificent views as well as the hospitality of the public house. The pub has now been renovated as two separate dwellings - the bed and breakfast being on the left  

 

As well as its historical associationsMount Skip has been used as a film location and featured as the meeting place for Kate and  Dave in the 1999 film, "Fanny and Elvis".  The car park in which the two romantic leads in the film crashed their cars is to be found across the road from the house amongst a site which has now been given over to the planting of trees as part of the Calderdale Million Trees Intitiative. 

 

Whilst Mount Skip is located at a distance no more than a mile from the centre of Hebden Bridge its elevation above the town places it in an isolated rural location.  This gives the property the benefits of the nearby town whilst being quite separate and rural in character.  The town centre can be reached within a matter of minutes but one can also feel a sense of being very much above and "away from it all" whilst in the house.