Hebers Ghyll

George had stayed overnight and I’d tried to think of a walk that would interest him and not find too boring.  I thought he might like this one and it wasn’t too far to drive to the start.  We set off about 9.30 Sunday morning – arriving in Ilkley around 10 ish.  Parked up and set off – walking along the quiet roads towards the walk proper passing Heathcote on the right built by Sir Edwin Lutyens as a private residence and now offices. 

We followed the road round, past all the houses, turning up some steep steps to turn right and walk through some woods to the foot of Heber’s Ghyll. Here we took the path up alongside the stream, which crosses and re-crosses it by small wooden bridges. 

At the top is a chalybeate well. 

We went through the kissing gate onto the moor and half right up through the bracken. Here we could see the old iron railing on the cliff edge that protects the Swastika Stone.

After looking at it – it was a lot smaller than we thought it was going to be we went back to the top of Hebers Ghyll, to walk past Panorama Reservoir and along the edge of the moor. 

We crossed the road and headed over to White Wells Café  - here we looked inside the bath house which was supposed to have been used by the Victorians if they felt ill – George rightly said the walk up from Ilkley was enough to make them feel ill as it’s a steep pull up from the town.  

We then made the long walk back down to the car and headed off home for bacon sandwiches.  A good 4.5 mile which I really enjoyed with George as my walking mate.