Huddersfield is a compact West Yorkshire mill town sitting between Leeds and Manchester, with more character than its modest reputation suggests. The surrounding Pennine landscape is genuinely dramatic, and the town itself has some worthwhile sights that reward a half-day stop.
Castle Hill is the obvious starting point — a rocky outcrop that has been occupied since the Iron Age, topped by the Victoria Tower, built in 1899 to mark sixty years of Queen Victoria's reign. The views across the town and out to the moors are excellent on a clear day. Back in town, the Kirklees Light Railway runs steam trains through the South Pennines on a narrow-gauge line that's charming rather than kitsch.
The Tolson Memorial Museum covers local history, and the Huddersfield Art Gallery holds a decent collection including work by Francis Bacon, L.S. Lowry, and Henry Moore. What was once a busy inland port is now the Huddersfield Broad Canal and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal — the narrow canal's Standedge Tunnel is the longest canal tunnel in Britain, running over three miles through the Pennine rock at 196 metres above sea level. Boat trips on the canal are available in season.