Words & Photos Ian Battersby

August 01 2010

Glorious sunshine beat down from between white woolly clouds floating like islands in a blue sea. I could bear it no longer. This wasn’t a day for DIY, and I quickly swapped ladder and paintbrush for boots and camera, and sneaked off to the hills.

I chose Ilkley Moor, which holds many gratifying memories for me. My parents used to bring us urchins here. We’d pull up somewhere above Ilkley, glance longingly at the crags, and race up through thick bracken to boulder merrily till picnic time. You’d think this would have sowed the seed for climbing, and the Cow and Calf Rocks here did witness my first climbing venture. Sadly it took me so long to brave one nervy step the seed never germinated. I tried bivvying first here too, using orange survival bags to ward off morning drizzle after a warm summer night. Glorious days.

Today I set off along the gritstone edges beginning with the Cow and Calf, peering at the walls of the quarry and watching clouds shoot by on a cooling breeze, chasing their shadows along the valley floor. I continued at pace, heading down through the dark corridor below Ilkley Crags. Just a few hundred yards beyond the enticing playground of the Cow and Calf I was surprisingly on my own, except for the odd dog walker here and there.

Iron railings guard the Swastika Stone, whose origins remain a mystery, but it probably dates from the Bronze or Iron Age. In more ancient civilisations than the Nazis the swastika represented the sun. There is a Victorian copy of the original, more weathered carving lying alongside. Continuing along the edge brings the Noon Stone, a particularly prominent piece of gritstone architecture, but it was the Doubler Stones, twins when viewed from a certain angle, which caught my fancy, warmed by the settling sun. I needed to press on.

From the Doubler Stones I’d hoped to combine rights of way with forest tracks through High Moor conifer plantation, but “private” signs frustrated my plan, so I doubled back past the Noon Stone and headed over across Access Land to the Buck Stones and Cowper’s Cross as the light began to fail. Actually fail would be the wrong word to describe the elegant purple hues cast across the landscape lit in heavenly dusk.

I continued through the Thimble Stones and ticked off the trig point, I think for the first time despite all my visits, and stumbled across the Twelve Apostles – an impressive stone circle that I could just make out in the dark. It may be aligned with the Swastika Stone. Luckily I’d remembered the headtorch, which guided me back to the car totally refreshed, and ready to return to the grind the following day. That’s my excuse, but should you ever have need of it, be my guest.

Distance: 10 miles/16km Ascent: 1375ft/420m Time: 5–6 hours Start/finish: Cow and Calf (GR: SE 130467) Maps: Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger sheet 104 (Leeds & Bradford, Harrogate & Ilkley), OS 1:25,000 Explorer sheet 297 (Lower Wharfedale & Washburn Valley) Information: Ilkley, 01943 602319 Travel: Trains and buses to Ilkley; information from Traveline: 0871 2002233, www.traveline.org.uk

Technical Spec
Climb SW past Cow and Calf rocks to Ilkley Crags. WNW passing below Ilkley Crags and White Wells to lane. Continue W (4km) past Swastika Stone and Noon Stone to Black Hill near Windgate Nick. Path S to Doubler Stones. Return N to edges. Path E for 1 mile to wall. Minor paths SSE (forking left of public footpath to woods). SE along wood border to Buck Stones. E to Cowper’s Cross. SSW then E to Thimble Stones and trig point, then E for 1km to Twelve Apostles stone circle. NW then N to Gill Head. NE past Cow and Calf.