Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire

A school trip to Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire
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They are not kidding. Getting to Brimham Rocks takes us through the beautiful Yorkshire Dales again, but I really wasn’t prepared for the incredible sight that met us. All around us were fantastical shapes and forms created from enormous boulders, these had been deposited here hundreds of thousands of years ago by retreating glaciers. They stood in huge piles forming all kinds of strange shapes, a gorilla, a turtle and an eagle, etc.

Our first priority is to find a suitable place for a picnic. This we find next to the car park of course! As it’s probably our first full family trip out, we’ve really gone to town with the food. I’d been to the supermarket this morning and picked up all sorts of goodies, including the freshest, tastiest tiger bread rolls. We all get stuck in whilst being watched by an ever growing number of Jackdaws. It’s like a scene from “The Birds”.

We all get stuck in whilst being watched by an ever growing number of Jackdaws. It’s like a scene from “The Birds”.

Rock stack, Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire
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Fed and watered and raring to go, Mum and Dad head off along the easy to walk footpath at the bottom of the rocks, whilst my Brother and I take the higher route in amongst the rocks themselves. But no sooner have we started, than he suddenly stops dead in front of me. He points at a small dead rabbit a few feet away and whispers to me that he had just seen a long thin animal drop it and run off. We realise it must be a weasel or stoat and decide that it is unlikely that it will give up on such a lovely meal. We both sit quietly nearby and wait … for a full 30 seconds, before my brother announces, “well that’s it, it isn’t coming back!”. I try to explain that generally you have to put a bit more effort into wildlife watching. I persuade him to stay for a while with his camera at the ready, but eventually he starts to put it away … at this point the stoat reappears, grabs the rabbit by the throat and easily disappears with it into the undergrowth.

View from a rock stack, Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire
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On we go marvelling at each new rock formation and clambering up, through and over them. We pass a group of school children at one point, all wearing safety equipment and helmets and generally clambering around on the rocks. The experience makes me feel years younger, at least until I’m confronted with the challenge of pulling myself up over a particularly large rock. Here the years come flooding back and, well, who really needs to climb up there that badly!

Eventually I pick my way through the rocks to a high cliff top and stand on a large flat rock with a wonderful 180° view. I feel like I’m on top of the world, just a shame that today is fairly hazy and overcast. As we pick our way through and around the rocks I keep catching glimpses of Mum down on the path below. She’s alone now as Dad has gone shinning up the rocks too.

Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire
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The whole place reminds me of that particular set of rocks that always used to appear in Star Trek episodes. Captain Kirk would generally have lost his shirt by now as he single-handedly does battle with some unfriendly alien. Of course there tends to be a lot more gorse, bracken and brambles around here.

At the very top of the site is a lovely old stone cottage and a smaller National Trust teashop just below. Ah what bliss! We all stop for a nice cuppa and look back down across the site. It gives us a stunning view of the rock fields and of the family currently trying to balance a three-year-old child on the top of a precarious rock stack. The things people will do for a photo opportunity.

The Rocking Chair, Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire
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On the way back down the valley, I find myself wandering amongst the rocks again, but this time come out onto the edge of a wide open moor. I can’t resist walking out a little way into this forbidding purple heather landscape. In front of me is a lonely, wild world. Behind me is a natural adventure playground with visitors centre, teashop and ice cream van.

My parents had promised that we would be impressed and they were absolutely right, I love this place and have had fun exploring it. It made me feel young, adventurous and just a little foolhardy again – which is a good thing by the way!