Skipton Castle Woods

My camera club had our last outing of the season, meeting up in Skipton to explore the woods behind Skipton Castle. As I've mentioned before in other posts, the Springs Branch of the Leeds-Liverpool canal passes behind the castle (see left) for about half a mile. It was built for the Earl of Thanet in 1773 to transport limestone from his quarry, which was brought by tram through the woods and dropped down chutes into canal barges. The busy industrial history of this area is long gone and it's now a peaceful oasis behind the town of Skipton. The waterfall is nothing more exciting than a large drainage ditch that pours into Eller Beck, alongside the canal. After all the rain we've had, there was a lot of water.                                     

Up until recently, the Springs Branch canal was still navigable and a small boat conducted tours up here from the marina in central Skipton. A huge rockfall from underneath the castle has now blocked the canal, and it doesn't look as though it could be reopened without a lot of expense. Rather worrying too, is that the fall was below the foundations of Skipton Castle on the crag above. Nasty! 

The 9' high willow sculpture The Huntress looks even better against the autumn leaves than it did in March when I last walked here. A little further along, Eller Beck falls away in a ravine and the ground was covered in fallen leaves. Autumn seems to be hastening on.