Bit of a short blog, the rather glorious weather we’ve been enjoying, unless you’re a crop farmer or Yorkshire Water, has been a pleasant change but a dry time for photographic opportunities.
Rylstone fell and indeed Cracoe fell are the western edges of high ground that lay between Skipton, Grassington, Burnsall and Bolton Abbey. Known by various ‘moor’ names depending on which bit of high ground you’re on. The western edge, which overlooks the villages of Rylstone and Cracoe has lots of interesting weather shaped erratic’s, along with a couple of memorials that are clearly seen from the road at the bottom of the dale.
Looking south from Rylstone edge, with large covering of heather in bloom.
Rylstone might be more famously known as the inspiration for the film Calendar Girls, not that there was any partially hidden nudity to be seen these fine evenings.
This moorland has an excellent coverage of heather and offers a varied number of potential compositions for photos. It has been quite a dry year, so I was concerned this would affect the heather flowers. Only way to find out, is to go up and have a look. The walk upwards starts at a layby on the B6265 at Rylstone and follows farm tracks to the bottom of the fell. From there is a steep but quick ascent to the tops. During the walk up, I notice one of the hills opposite has a distinct iron age ramparts to it. Unknowing of an iron age hillfort in the area, a quick google confirms that it is a hillfort, known as Rough Haw hillfort, though there is seemingly very little information about it available.
The walk is about 45mins and I’m soon up in the heather area. It looks wonderful. Lots of colour, lots of weather worn rocks to include. First call, I go to the cross, or Rylstone Cross as its known, a memorial to the fallen soldiers of Rylstone.
The memorial to Rylstones fallen in various wars, especially the world wars. Cracoes is around a mile further along the edge.
As is often the case, the western skies had a lot of cloud in them and this was making its way over, blotting out the sunshine. It did give some lovely side light before being consumed in the Lancashire gloom.
Sun beams penetrating through the incoming cloud.
The moorland is quite large and with the fading light there isn’t enough time for a good exploration. I pick a couple of lovely shaped rocks, surrounded by heather and wait to see if the sunlight will be kind and highlight the area before setting. It didn’t. This meant, I’d have to go back.
The stone outcrops, with even less nice light around during my second visit.
The second visit, a week or so later. The weather forecast promised a lot but delivered very little. The cloud was thicker and the sunshine even more brief. Still I lined up a composition and waited around. Not a bad place to relax, no one else around, a warm evening, very few midges thanks to the slight breeze and the odd grouse keeping their head down but making that comical call that grouse make, a lovely evening. I hung around an hour but it was evident that there would be no lovely golden light this evening, I took the photo more for future reference and began the walk back to the car. This moorland has a lot to offer and not 5mins into the walk back, I see this simple composition of the wall and heathery purples. Spent a few mins taking some ICM style shots before continuing my descent, as id left the head torch in the car and didn’t fancy walking back in the dark.
A lovely wall/heather composition. Essentially a tighter version of the larger shot at the top of the blog using a zoom lens.
Thanks for reading!