12 Apostles

I headed off eastwards contouring along the hill side on a path that was part of the Dales Way. I headed up to the Pancake Stone, that does indeed look like a pancake. It has ancient markings on it, but a lot of these have worn away. At Barks Crag I started heading up a clough on to the moor. There's supposed to be three small reservoirs around here but it was so misty I didn't see any of them. This area is Burley Moor and after 20 minutes or so of plodding I dropped in on the 12 Apostles. These weren't the 12 persons of biblical reknown, but rocks in a stone circle. It isn't quite Stone Henge. It is thought the circle was built in the Bronze Age, although some of the rocks have been moved over the years, and so it probably doesn't look like it did originally. 

Wildcampers And Puddingstones

Rather than using paths, I decided to set a bearing to White Crag. It was only about 600 metres, but given the misty conditions and featureless terrain, I thought it'd be a good test to see how accurate I could be on a bearing. Not very accurate as it turned out. I ended up about 60 metres to the left of my target! When I walked up to White Crag I met a wildcamper who was standing outside his tent. He said that  he'd just bought the tent and was giving it a test before he went up to Scotland, next week. It looked like a 2-man tent to me, and weighed in at a hefty 2kg. It'd weigh a lot more with all the moisture on it. Pity there was no sun to dry it. I left him to pack it up and I set off towards the top of Ilkley Moor. It was that misty, I missed the path over to its trig point. By the time I realised, I couldn't be bothered to walk back to find it. 

'If I said puddingstone to you, would it mean anything to you?' The elderly man had approached me out of the mist and asked me the question. 'It'd probably mean that I should back away slowly, and then run as fast as I can, away from you,' I replied. Well, I didn't really, I just said that I didn't know. He said that there are half a dozen of these puddingstones about and they have some poetry inscribed on them. I asked if they were marked on the map, but he said it was a bit vague since he thought they were only labelled as a stone. Given the misty conditions I didn't rate his chances of finding them today unless he'd got their co-ordinates and a gps. I wished him luck and he disappeared back into the mist. 

Later research did reveal that there are several stones with poetry on them. I've made a note to come up here in the future and find them.

Lost!

I had a lonely lunch at Buck Stones and then continued over to the trig on Addingham High Moor. I'd done this walk a few years back on a perfectly sunny day and didn't have any navigation problems. I knew that eventually I'd reach an obvious path (Millenium Way and Dales High Way) that headed eastwards. I came across a memorial to a Mosquito that had crashed here in 1943. I trawled my memory, but I couldn't remember seeing this on my previous walk. This should have rung alarm bells, but it didn't and I continued along my path. It was only when I'd gone down hill for a while and an unexpected stone wall appeared out of the mist, that I decided to get the map out. I could see that when I'd previously done the walk, I'd obviously dropped down sooner on to the Millenium/Dales  High Way. Once I'd realised what had happened, it wasn't long before I'd climbed back up to the Millenium/ Dales High Way, and started heading eastwards. 

Swastika Stone

The path gradually descended along the hillside and as I dropped out of the mist, views into the valley gradually opened up. It is important to use the Millenium/Dales High Way path because there are plenty of stonewalls running from the valley up on to the moor, and you need the gates and stiles on the path, to cross them. The path runs past a rocky cliff known as the Swastika Stone. It is fenced off with a substantial metal fence. There is a marking on the stone that resembles a swastika. The design is similar to that of a Camunian design from Italy. It may be connected to the Roman troops that were based at Ilkley.

Cow And Calf

The mist had lifted a bit since this morning and I decided to climb back up to Ilkley Crags. There was an alternative flatter path back to the Cow and Calf, but I thought I'd take the opportunity of the lifting mist to get some photos from a higher vantage point. A grouse was stood on one of the Ilkley Crags and was very accommodating as I took a photo of it. I descended back down the other side of the crags and headed over to the Cow and Calf. A few people were mooching around the rocks, but the weather had probably put people off visiting the site. I walked down to the carpark and was surprised that it was only half full. 

The weather had not been the best today. That was a shame, since there are some great views on this walk. I did learn about puddingstones though, and so all was not lost.