11 Miles / 17.7km with 1800ft / 560m Total Ascent
Addingham High Moor, the famous Ilkley Moor and Burley Moor are all part of the larger Rombalds Moor. This is Gritstone Country, with crags, quarries and strewn with boulders, many of which have bronze age carvings. This walk is mostly along the northern edge of the moor, so if the weather is good, we should have wonderful views of Wharfedale and the hills to the north.
We leave the coach Addingham, near Hallcroft Hall. From here we start in a south westerly direction, across fields, to reach the Dales High Way, which we follow to ascend Black Hill. Here we take a 5 minute detour to see the view to the west before continuing east along the Dales High Way as far as Swastika Stone.
From Swastika Stone, we turn slightly back on ourselves to climb up to a path that runs along the side of the moor at about the 330m contour. (I liked this path so if we have a clear day we might climb up to here at an earlier point). We continue eastwards, past Neb Stone, crossing Keighley Road and a few small streams before heading south past Badger Stone to the top of Rombalds Moor (402m). If conditions are wet or in mist we will go via Keighley Road and Whetstone Gate instead.
We continue east past Twelve Apostles stone circle and on to Burley Moor where we follow the Millennium Way towards Barks Crag, then the Ebor Way to the Cow and Calf. There are many paths back to Ilkley from here. The most direct is via the footbridge across Blackstone Beck and The Tarn or if we have the time we may go via Rocky Valley and White Wells (adds 0.5 mile/100ft ascent).
