Bradford Millennium Way #4: White Wells to Bracken Hall 13/09/13

Self at White Wells

It may have only covered four walking days, but I'm glad that the final stretch of the Bradford Millennium Way has arrived, as this has proved to be quite a challenge, probably fitting in more metres of ascent than the Dales Way managed in all of its mileage, and even with a week off work to do it, I feel like I'm going to need another holiday to get over it. Still, if you only do on walk in Bradford district, uh, don't do this one, there are far friendlier tracks among the three valleys than this stretch, and I may have unreasonably maligned this district, but this trail does show off most of its good faces and convinces me that the council should change the district's name to something altogether friendlier or amusingly amorphous like Wharfeaireworth, for instance. Many points for putting in the effort to get people interested in the district, and the number of different circular walks attached should invite many more people to these hillsides, perhaps ambling during the week has given me the wrong impression and these paths actually buzz with life at the weekends. Onwards, anyway, the last corner of the trail awaits and a final day for this holiday on the Bradfordian hills with my sore calves and even sadder looking boots...

Bradford Millennium Way #4: White Wells to Bracken Hall  7.4 miles


The Rocky Valley

Not many walking days start with me already out of breath, but hauling up to White Wells for a 9.50am start is not the easiest of un-counted miles, and I've decided that I actually hate the walk up out of Ilkley, which is why I prefer to finish here rather than start. No activity at the Spa at this hour, so walk on, taking the passage through the bathhouse to join the path that leads up to Ilkley Crags, thankfully the first of only three ascents on the day, and only 50m of going up, meeting the dog walkers and joggers as I go, the people who seem to perpetually dwell on this corner of the moor. Ont going up the path that leads above Ilkey Crags, one of my most hated paths, instead taking the route below, and if broken gritstone is your thing, this is undoubtedly the place for you, a pity that I don't have the best light for it as I'm starting to be convinced that Ilkley Moor attracts glum weather to frustrate my viewing pleasure. Lower Wharfedale's northern moors and the town below recede from view as the path rise to meet the Rocky Valley, a spectacularly prosaic name for a cleft running through the gritstone, an excellent spot for some bouldering and a great secluded spot that hides from view on all sides, and solitude is enjoyed along its length. Then views return, and the path leads downhill through the bracken, crossing Backstone Beck and then on the the quarry at Cow & Calf, and back into the relative crowds, taking their toddlers out for some nature enjoyment, and then hit the Dales Way link route from my March wanderings, but this time with a lot more views, and a lot more greenery to wade through. Hit the rising path that leads up below the Hanging Stone, a good 70m of ascent through the bracken to meet the high moor edge and look back to see that you do get the slightest of views of the Cow & Calf Rocks from this vantage point, lost in the fog 6 months ago, and then it's off along the high path with familiar sights towards Otley Chevin and the high points of Leeds off the the east, drawing the conclusion that the inward views of this moor are not the most exciting, so I hadn't missed much when they were obscured by mist.

Lower Lanshaw Reservoir & Wharfedale

Solitude returns along the gently declining path, and the accompanying heather turns to bracken turns to grass, with only sheep for company as I press on, passing above Stead Crag, pausing for elevenses and then descending to the crossing of Coldstone Beck, and it's from here that I'd expect to meet the path that heads to the interior of Burley Moor, But the waymarker is quite some distance from the beck, and the 'well-used path' is pretty sketchy as it crosses. Still no doubt at all about where you are going as the path starts its 80m rise to the spine of the moor, the last ascent on the trail, providing a surprise as Lower Lanshaw reservoir suddenly appears by the path side, and I again wonder what in the landscape might be a grouse butt misidentified as a tumulus. The top of the path comes up quickly, as I keep anticipating distance to be greater than they are, and the shed on the moor top and the rock outcrop without a name appear alongside the lateral path, and I hope that the guides naming of them as 'Large Rocks' is a name that will stick. Wharfedale recedes from view (aside from Chevin and Almscliffe Crag, oddly) and it's back into Airedale we go, and the long moorland walk offers scenery of mostly heather way past its prettiest point, but the view forward illustrates our destination as Baildon Moor rises singularly and behind it hides Bradford, still barely showing its face towards its own trail. Pace the path, realising that the circular stone-lined holes beside it are more shooting hides and I wonder how much shooting actually happens along her, and as I think that the going is good along here, largely spongy turf and dry underfoot, the path meets a quite unexpected bog and that needs some well applied paces to get across. Onwards, meeting the boundary fence that marks the edge of Hawksworth Moor, and a detour is needed to read the inscription on the boundary stone, 'The Pulleyn' it says, and the meaning of that escapes me, then another boggy stream passage is made before rolling up at the ruins of Horncliffe Well, a moorland house long since lost, as is the well that named it.

Baildon Moor & Weecher Reservoir

Presented with two stiles and an ambiguously worded direction of 'go through stile, turn left and follow the path down the hill', I pick the stile that leads onto Hawksworth Moor, following a grass track down by the wall, providing stubborn sheep and several boundary stones with more very specific inscriptions, but it's only when the track veers away to the east do I realise that this is not the right path and have to clamber over the wall to meet Bingley Moor. Pace down the wallside, past more shooting emplacements and there are a heck of a lot of spent cartridges littered on the turf, and then tramp into the long grass to find the correct path leading in the direction of Weecher Reservoir, and as I approach the moor edge, I finally meet some other walkers coming onto the path, having had this track all to myself since ascending to the high moor. Drop onto Otley Road and realise just how meaningless some road names can be without a ton of context, and roll down to the bridleway that drops below the curved embankment dam of Weecher Reservoir, and I haven't been keeping a close count but i think that is Reservoir #12 encountered on this trail, and I wonder if Yorkshire water had a hand in the plotting of the Millennium Way to show just how heavily they are involved in the landscape of this district. Take in some views east to a corner of Airedale that is still unfamiliar, and then meet Birch Close farm, nicely made-over, and the vista changes to the western view and those hill make a lot more sense to me now, though I still can't quite place that anomalously high one near Queensbury. The track leads onto what has become a trotting circuit, and that loose surface material maybe forgiving for running horses, but it's absolutely horrible for walking on, and pacing it goes on for far too long, before finally escaping to the edge of Baildon Golf Course, which seems to be made up of a lot more rough than fairway. The path momentarily goes missing, as the turn hides beneath a lot of grass, and I have to retrace steps to find the correct turn, but from there it's off across the fields to meet Golcar farm, and I wonder if their tethered goat was in residence the last time I came this way on my very first crossing of Rombalds Moor in June last year.


Self at Bracken Hall, Again

The remaining stretch of the day will follow that exact same path, and I wonder why the trail avoided Baildon Moor which is such a prominent feature, despite its relative lack of size, and the route almost seems to have made the effort to avoid it, tag it onto the 'to do' list, I guess, and then it's down to cross Bingley Road, and follow Glovershaw Beck, hiding in its cleft beneath the trees, with only a farm gate propped open across the path causing me any difficulty as I go. Emerge into the sea of bracken below Baildon Moor and above Shipley Glen, making rapid footfalls with the end of the trail just around the corner, but the paths above the glen turn out to go on for nearly half a mile when I feel like it should only be a couple of hundred metres, and under glum skies, the gritstone does not prove to look pretty or all that dynamic. Once again, there are very few signs of life up here, only two parties out to exercise dogs and toddlers, and I roll up at Bracken Hall, to find it predictably closed, again, and strike my pose by the Millennium Way stone without an audience at 1.30pm, and it's been a slow day to end a particularly challenging trail of some 47 (count 'em) miles. But it's another one off the walking slate, completed within a week with The End of Summer providing no rain at all, and that leaves me with Wakefield and Kirklees to do next year, but for now I'll find a bench to take lunch as my celebration meal, and look to drinks for tomorrow for my 'Almost 20 years in Leeds' reunion with my university flatmates. My boots look like they've really suffered though, and they'll need some professional re-gluing to get them to the end of this year, and I won't thank the tracks of this week for doing this to them, but ultimately, I'm going to have to admit that Bradford district is alright by me!

Next on the Slate: A slow dance along the Lancashire Border!

EDIT: There will be no long days on the trail after a fierce head cold (I know well the outcome of trying that trick), so instead something more modest: Three Hills between Aire and Wharfe!


1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 854 miles
(2013 total: 388.7 miles)