The Twelve Apostles from Dick Hudsons Pub via Dalesway Link
The Dalesway officially starts in Ilkley but it has links from Shipley, Leeds and Harrogate (The Dalesway Links) and ends in Windermere.
The section we are on is the Dalesway Link which dissects Rombalds Moor. Shipley to the main bridge over the River Wharfe in Ilkley where it meets the “Dalesway” via Shipley Glen.
Start at Dick Hudsons Public House, Otley Road. There is a small lay-by on the main road to avoid parking in Pub carpark. Cross the road from the PH and follow path signposted The Dalesway Link.
Stage 1.Walk up the walled path for about 95m and through a stile in the wall. You are now on the open access land of Rombalds Moor.
Rombalds Moor is a strip of high moorlands separating the two dales of Airedale and Wharfedale. Skipton and Keighley on the southwest Airedale side and Ilkley on the northside. Rombalds Moor is made up of many smaller moors named from the small surrounding towns. Addingham High Moor, Ilkley Moor, Burley Moor, Hawksworth Moor, Morton Moor and Bingley Moor.
Stage 2.From the stile go 355m to the next wall.
Handrailthe wall on the right. Open access to the left of the wall and non open access to the right of the wall. When you get to the next wall you are then engulfed by open access land.
Stage 3. Follow the path north for 1.6km to the next wall stile.It takes you over Weecher Mouth with Hog Hill Flat on left and Weecher Flat on right and past a Milestone (MS). After the flats climb gradually up past Wicking Stones Crags on your right to the stile in the wall.
From this junction boundary you can bare west handrailing the wall to Ashlar Chair then follow the boundary stones (BS) past Thimble Stones and the Wireless Station, across Keighley Road heading for High Moor Plantation and eventually leaving Rombalds Moor at Addingham High Moor or Turn left and bare south east following the boundary to Horncliffe Well and pick up the Millenium Way.
Stage 4. Follow the path northbound for approximately 2.5km till you reach the Twelve Apostles. The Apostles are about 25m from the path to the right (east). OS SE 12610 45062
The Twelve Apostles - Looking at the Twelve Apostles on a large-scale Ordnance Survey map (6-inch to the mile, or 1:10,000)—as most linear-thinkers do nowadays—we see a remarkable geometric image unfold before our eyes. Running straight eastwards 1180 yards away (1.08km) we reach the Grubstones circle. From the Apostles again, go straight north for another 1180 yards (1.08km) and you reach the ruins of the Backstone Circle (SE 1261 4613). Between these three circles we find a perfect isosceles triangle. But this isn’t the end of it: the longer axis connecting Grubstones to Backstone is some nineteen-hundred yards long (1.731km) and at the mid-point along this line, the now-recumbent Lanshaw Lass boundary stone once stood. Intriguingly, if we stand at Twelve Apostles for the Beltane sunrise (May day), we would see its golden orb rising on the far-eastern horizon right above our Lanshaw Lass.
Source: “The Northern Antiquarian”