Windgate Nick

Today I’m walking with Bradford Council guided walks. We met up at 11am at Wesley Place Silsden.  It was beautiful weather – feel lucky it’s a bank holiday and good weather.  I have been up to Windgate Nick before but from the Addingham side so this was a change.  We started off along the canal.  

This is a lovely part of the canal with some pretty houses along the way.  After about ¾ mile we turned off and crossed over the canal heading up a track to some farm buildings – crossing a road and walking alongside a golf course.  I have walked here before around Swartha and Brunthwaite. However once we had crossed the golf course the walk went in a different direction and we started the pull up to the top of the moors.  

We went up through a field to come out onto a country road.

As I looked up there were people taping off areas of rocks and hill climbs – this is motorbike trialling/scrambling and there must be a meeting tomorrow that they were preparing for.  The sections taped off looked horrendous – they would be hard enough to walk up never mind go over the routes on a bike.  It was interesting see though.

From here it was over a stile and steep pull up to the seat and the plaque at the top.  This is where a de Havilland mosquito plane crashed in WW 2 – it got off course and the RAF pilot was looking for familiar landmarks to finds its way home after it had completed its mission when it caught the hill tops and spun into a dip in the moors. 

We stopped here for some lunch – it was quite cool and breezy up here.  After lunch we walked along moorside – the tops of the crags to then begin the long walk down.  In parts this was a little tricky, I had to keep my eyes on where I was walking as we were going down over rocks and narrow tracks.

At the bottom we went down through some fields to eventually arrive at Brown Bank Caravan site.  We walked through here; the static caravans were lovely with gardens and decking around them, very peaceful.  On leaving here we continued down through fields and past some garden allotments to eventually bob out on the main road through Silsden – from here we just walked back down the road the car park.  A very good 7 ½ mile walk and back down in Silsden it was lovely and warm again.