Lob Wood viaduct

Here are a few more photos from my walk to and through Lob Ghyll, near Addingham.  I was looking for the viaduct, once part of the Midland Railway's Ilkley to Skipton route, abandoned in the Beeching cuts in the mid-1960s. I did walk down the valley once in the winter, slithering on the mud and rather fearful of the steep drop, but it was slightly easier ascending from the road. The viaduct is now well hidden and very overgrown. 

Finding it wasn't easy either. The map clearly showed a path up from the Dalesway trail, but on the ground the Dalesway was poorly signed and I made a navigational error, so I then had to retrace my steps. I wasn't the only one who made the mistake, as I passed another two sets of walkers who'd missed the turn as well. (You don't expect the Dalesway to pitch you out onto the side of a busy road and expect you to walk along it with no footpath for half a mile!) The missteps did, however, lead me through some lovely bluebells:

Where they were growing in amongst stitchwort, it looked especially pretty: 

I can't resist sharing another picture of the bluebells and wild garlic along the streamside:

In the same vicinity there is a charming and very old Quaker Meeting House and burial ground, now in the care of the Historic Chapels Trust. It was built in 1689, the year that an Act of Parliament allowed non-conformists to meet freely to worship. It is a very tranquil little oasis. I wrote about it on a previous visit - see HERE.