04/04/15
Any navigation around Ilkley is buggered due to the large number of paths in existence; nose-following seemed the best plan which eventually got me to the Cow and Calf rocks.
On over paved pathways to the peak at the trig point, then after visiting some stanza stones and a cross, lunch in the shelter of a wall. For a brief moment I thought I had seen a very hardy chicken, but on later examination of the bird book it was revealed to be a red grouse. There were quite a few of them about, strutting their stuff.
There used to be a Keighley to Ilkley road, no longer passable by traffic but a few cars had stopped at the top…and some scrote had dumped building rubble in a lay-by. Which part of someone’s brain thinks that driving up to a viewpoint is the best way to offload some crap? Drive to the dump, how much more work is that?
The final stretch followed a great path through a quite different landscape down a glen alongside Bradup Beck. It would have been more peaceful without the clay pigeon shoot.
Rombald’s Moor: Marilyn, HuMP; 402 m/1319 ft
9.8 miles
Start Ilkley train station, finish Crossflats train station