Cow and Calf, Ilkley Moor
I was recently lucky enough to spend an afternoon up on the Cow and Calf at Ilkley Moor, Wharfdale with a couple of visiting bands from Chattanooga Tennessee, The Bohannans and The Black Diamond Heavies and their tour managers for the trip, Road Bitch. We took a stride through the bracken up the Cow and Calf (also known as the Hangingstone Rocks) in a howling gale and took in some jaw dropping views over the valley while the wind filled our lungs blew us about like peices of straw and did wonders for all our hangovers.
Cow and Calf Ilkley Moor
The graffiti on some of the rocks is over a century old, and it was good for the guys to get at least a little bit of a sense of the history of the place and the people who had visited. In fact the bands pretty much had a tour of historical graffiti in Yorkshire since we had already spotted some initials carved into one of the walls at Kirkstall Abbey earlier that day dated in the 1700s.
Cow and Calf Rock formation
The Cow and Calf Rock formation supposedly resembles a cow, and a calf, hence the name. Although I'm not too convinced, and after seeing a mountainside in the red centre of Australia which was a near perfect profile of Homer Simpson, its going to take a lot to impress me when it comes to rocky outcrops that are supposed to look like something recognisable.
Apparently there are quite a few megalithic carvings in the vicinity of the Cow and Calf, including cup and ring marks (apparently cavemen didn't use coasters to stop their coffee cups leaving stains on the furniture). Its well worth spending a bit of time wondering off the path and into the bracken for the off chance of coming across one of these.
The Cow and Calf Pub
Following our jaunt we predictably popped into the predictably named and conveniently located Cow and Calf Pub for a swift pint to get out of the cold.
Cow and Calf Pub