I have wandered through the Pine Woods at Harrogate a number of times on visits to Harlow Carr gardens but have never explored the woods at nearby Birk Crag, so with the autumn colours coming to their peak I picked a nice still overcast day last week to explore…

There is an area of woodland immediately next to Harlow Carr Gardens around Birk Beck leading down to the crag which proved to be delightful with lots of colourful trees and a carpet of fallen leaves by the stream.

There’s even a place to sit high on the bank above the beck and enjoy the autumn colours!

By this time it had started to rain but the woodland gave enough cover to carry on taking photographs regardless – and the light was just lovely for autumn photography.

The path eventually turned to follow the top of the crag and a large boulder amongst the silver birch trees indicated a slightly different landscape to come.

The edge of the crag was more dramatic with much larger rocks and the surrounding woodland was almost entirely silver birch trees which, despite the recent windy conditions, still had some delicate yellow leaves clinging to them.

The path continued along the crag top for some way, with more interesting rock shapes and autumn colours along the way, before finally emerging onto a road for a short walk back to my starting point at Valley Gardens.

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