Thimble Stones

Today was the last day of my break, and as the little ones had returned to school, a chance to take an extended walk over the moors.

So it rained.

A lot.

Still, walking in the rain can be bracing, so long as it isn't lashing into your face, which it was only doing for part of the journey. I set off on another of my transects of Rombalds Moor, the last of which was back in August. A lot of the route was over familiar ground, but I managed to build in some variations to take me to parts of the moor that I hadn't yet visited.

As there was rain, I thought I'd make the most of that with some white water, so I took a slight detour down from Baildon Moor into Shipley Glen, and then along the little waterfalls of Glovershaw Beck, before arriving on Bingley Moor at Dick Hudson's. This stretch is part of the Dales Way Link, and is a boggy motorway of a path, so when I hit the Bingley/Burley Moor boundary wall, I veered off along that toward Ashlar Chair, where Bingley, Burley, Morton and Ilkley Moors meet. I crossed over the wall onto Ilkley Moor, and carried along it to reach this spot, Thimble Stones.

@Alicemaylara blipped this formation a few months ago, but I hadn't been here since August 2010, when there wasn't a lake in front of them. This is a natural gritstone formation, but in a landscape full of ancient cairns and rock carvings, it has an air of mystery to it. I assume the "thimble" is the small stone caught between the two boulders.

It was pouring when I took this, but the rain was more or less horizontal, so with my back to it, I managed to create a little shelter to take a picture. The wind is captured in the ripples of the pool, and I like the way those ripples take forward the rippled grooves of the rocks.

ruffled water ~ rippled rocks ~ the power ~ of wind ~ and water

After this, I carried on along the wall, before starting a crossing of Ilkley Moor via the old Keighley-Ilkley Road, the Badger Stone, White Wells and Ilkley Tarn. This landscape will be familar to you if you follow @earthdreamer's, @Alicemaylara's or @drmackem's journals. It was very tempting to blip @earthdreamer's favourite trees, but I think I'll leave them to the master.

I did get a bit of a soaking, but it was worth it to make the most of the day.

trapped ~ between two boulders ~ one small stone