Crow Well

I spend lots of my time walking the moors with my granddad and some of his friends. There are many moors nearby – Blubberhouses, Ilkley, Denton and Askwith are just some.

Last year our friend Paul Bennett came to stay at his parents house near Bradford. Paul lives in Scotland and we don’t see him that often so we decided to head out to Blubberhouses moor a few miles away.

Paul is very interested in the stone circles, old tombs and cairns and the prehistoric stone carvings, and he has written several books on the subject.

Paul wanted to visit Crow Well which is an ancient settlement, but last time he was there it was overgrown and he couldn’t see much. This time the three of us thought we may have a chance of seeing it.

As we started on the moors we came to patches of burnt heather. The gamekeepers burn the moors so that the heather grows fresh to feed the grouse.

There are lots of old piles of stones lying around – but Paul says some may be parts of old prehistoric settlements. The archaeologists know about them, but occasionally people find old burials or cairns. They are often hidden in the deep heather and only come to light when the heather is burnt.

As I was wandering about I came across a small pile of stones that Paul thought may be a new burial mound. That would be really exciting if it was!

We decided to head for Crow Well and see if we could locate the settlement. Paul said it was huge, but when we got there it was all covered over with deep heather and we couldn’t see anything.

We walked along old moorland tracks, and often we just walked through the deep heather not following any paths at all. We rambled for hours on the moors, jumping streams and climbing stiles. We got a bit muddy!

After stopping for a sandwich and a drink, we decided to head to Round Hill and see what the views were like. My granddad said they were superb – you could see for miles on a good day.

It was a long way to Round Hill and we really enjoyed the walk – but we were tired when we got there.

When we got to the top we had a rest, and then we set off for home. We took a different way home and had to cross several streams on the moors and got our feet wet. I was glad to get back to the car. We walked about 8 and a half miles and it was a really good hike, one of the best that I had done.