Harley Wood, Hawk Stones and Great Bride Stones

Important note: Though my walk route completely follows permissive paths, there are many paths criss-crossing the ones I took. Therefore, it is important to keep checking your map and location during the walk. You are unlikely to get lost, but with this being farming land and an area of smallholdings, paths may have been temporarily or permanently changed.

The Walk

One of the great attractions for me in my walking is visiting interesting rock outcrops. The shapes that have been weathered in the stones over millions of years always fascinate me. I will never tire of visiting them. Local to me in Leeds there are examples at Otley Chevin and on Ilkley Moor. A little further away in Nidderdale are the famous Brimham Rocks. In the Yorkshire Dales there are examples scattered everywhere, like my favourites at Norber Erratics. I am now discovering there are many more superb examples in Yorkshire like these I visited today above Todmorden in Calderdale on Bride Stones Moor.

The Bride Stones are a super example of Yorkshire bouldering crags formed when glaciated within the last 15,000 years. These edge tors are periglacial in origin and probably the result of freeze-thaw and sandblasting. They post-date the end of the Devensian Ice Age and they are spread all over the hillside. Many of the interesting ones are individually named. They include the Indian's Head, the Villain, the Cheeseblock, and the Bride Stone itself, which is a large rounded rock in the shape of an egg perched on a slender pillar. It is an amazing sight as it stands precariously on its small base. Myth has it that the stone is a rich source of fertility for newly married couples. I wonder how many have come up onto this moor and 'touched the stone'.

I wandered amongst the stones for ages as I was drawn from one interesting formation to the next. Around every corner unfolded new amazing sights, and I saw many faces in the rocks, strange beasts too. I am not superstitious at all, but it is not hard to understand the illogical reasoning of people to such fancies when I visit places like this. I enjoyed my time at the Bride Stones for as long as I could before I left and continued my meander on the moors above Todmorden. It was a reluctant departure.

I trust you like my photographs of the gritstone outcrops used in the report to accompany this walk. The moor itself is pretty bleak apart from the obvious attraction, and there are more eyesores local to the site, such as a large wind farm to the west. There are a couple more rocky outcrops to dwell your eyes on though. There are the Hawk Stones to the north-west to which there is no access, and the Whitlow Stones to the south, which are much smaller and more scattered. I visited them on my descent off the moor as I made my way to Kitson Wood and back into Todmorden.

The walk up to Bride Stones Moor was fairly steep, and the descent the same. It was achieved by the usual course of bridleways and tracks with a few dwellings having to be encountered. This was pleasant but not exceptional, and whilst there were some interesting sights and features on the way like gullies and woodland, they were insignificant in comparison to the fantastic sights I came across during the time I had at the Bride Stones. I can fully recommend a visit to this excellent example of geological features, whether you are newly married or not!