Thirty eight miles (3100 feet) to Watersheddles reservoir high on the moor above Colne. Although known to those who know the Bronte Way it is generally quiet relative to, say, Ponden Reservoir - a couple of miles away and which has good parking on its banks - and I rather like it.
On the way out I took the high road through Oakworth past the Grouse Inn and on the return the lower route past the Old Silent. Some years ago the Old Silent was chosen to be "the best pub in Britain", or some such nonsense, by The Sunday Times after which it was heaving with customers for months. When the rent review came round the brewery increased it so much that the landlord and team decamped and moved higher up the hill to take over at The Grouse. I for one never went back to the Old Silent but instead chose to support the team that had made the Old Silent so famous - in their new location.
However the pubs do share one even greater claim to fame. Their car parks have both been the start point for "Bedlamites" night races, although that may have escaped the attention of one of the trashier sunday rags.
I then returned home via Haworth rather than Oakworth and was surprised to see that Haworth is "twinned" with Machu Pichu in Peru. I must admit when I was in Machu Pichu I never thought that...but my imagination clearly did not recognise all the things the two towns have in common. A handy DVD spells out that these include both are reliant on tourism, are served by railway lines, have alpacas on display, think nice thoughts about each other... and well that's about it really.
Returning to Ilkley from the west often involves travelling though Silsden which is experiencing a staggering number of large new-build housing sites from major builders: dozens of acres and many hundreds of houses. So "No More Houses" signs are again appearing. Today I cycled past the site of the long closed Horn Cragg quarry, just outside Silsden, which can only be reached on a narrow farm track of a road which is gated at both ends. The signs opposing reopening threaten 20,000 tons of stone removal a year for 25 years and having cycled along the quiet quarry access lane I can see why residents might not be well disposed to welcome HGVs trundling past their front doors.
Still, the "local stone" would be handy for the hundreds of new homes being built in Silsden down at the bottom of the hill.
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