Austby & Calvary

Well after this mornings amble around Penistone Hill on my Photo walk I figured everywhere was going to be pretty windy and muddy.  It had been really windy this morning.  I also wasn’t sure if it was going to stay fine or not.  So today I decided to go over to Ilkley and do the short walk up to the garden at Calvary.  I parked in the car park at Ilkley Lido – from here going left to where there was a short path alongside the River Aire.  The river was full and fast flowing today which meant it was going to be a really boggy walk.  I went up past the large house and into the woods heading to Austby.  Yep it was really muddy.  

In fact I found a stick to help me stay upright as where the path went downwards it was really slippy too.  

Going through the woods I emerged into a field and headed upwards to a small gate at the top to take me onto a small road from here I turned right along a track to eventually come onto a pathway.  Along here on the left is a gate which used to have a wooden sign saying Calvary, the sign has sadly gone. This is the entrance to Calvary. Going through the gate  reveals a series of carved stone Italian sculptures forming the stations of the cross. Well worth the short diversion off the path. 

  Having walked around I went back onto the main path and a few yards later took a gateway down through some woods and emerging onto a track to turn right past some cottages and Myddleton Lodge. Joining  Hardings Lane at the T junction, then heading onto an access road past a house called  (The Hollies) on the right, I thn went over a stile into the field. Across the field heading to the left of the large tree at the bottom end of the field and the stile in the fence into Middleton Woods. This took ages to walk through as it was very slippy and all the steps down to the bottom were green with moss and I was really glad I still had the stick with me.

At the end this short walk had taken quite a while to negotiate due to all the mud under foot but it had been good all the same 3 to 3 ½ miles I think.