Light and Time (1)
Wood engravings by John Altringham and poems by Daniel Hoffmann
Ilkley Moor
The northern scarp of Ilkley Moor looks down on the River Wharfe, which emerged from the Yorkshire Dales National Park a short distance upstream. You take in the view of this part of northern England from a seat of a hard, rough sandstone, and behind you, to the south, the moorland plateau has one of the richest concentrations of prehistoric rock carvings and monuments in Europe. With a few exceptions, most are small. All are enigmatic. The stones are convenient perches for the birds that nest there - curlew, golden plover, skylark, meadow pipit, stonechat and more. Before the stones were carved, the moor was a mosaic of open, patchy woodland with a rich ground cover of heather, bilberry, crowberry and other woody shrubs. After a few thousand years of human activity, trees are returning to the steeper slopes and sheltered gills, still rich in bilberries and the birds of the valley follow them.
Text and photography by John Altringham.