I thought it was a bit ironic as a Yorkshire photographer that I’ve been to and photographed the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia but I’d never been to the Twelve Apostles stone circle on Burley Moor! So this summer, with the heather in bloom, I decided to go and have a look..
I hiked from Ilkley up onto Ilkley Moor, approaching White Wells under a stormy looking sky. It was a bit drizzly too, so I put a hat on (wouldn’t want to be baht ‘at on Ilkley Moor after all).
I climbed up Ilkley Crags and followed the Millennium Way to the Lanshaw Lad boundary stone. I’ve been here and photographed Lanshaw Lad before so it’s doubly odd that I’ve not been to the Twelve Apostles before as you can see the stone circle a short distance away!
I guess my excuse is that the stones are only about three feet high so they’re not that obvious in the landscape even when you’re quite close to them! It’s an interesting location and I liked the rather threatening sky above them, despite the drizzle.
Whilst it was nice to photograph the whole circle, the shots that seemed to work best were of single stones from a low viewpoint – probably because they appear a bit more imposing from low down!
After spending quite a while at the stones I continued across Burley Moor, finding more natural looking gritstone boulders by the path.
There’s also a rather lonely looking hut further along, presumably used by shooting parties given the number of grouse butts in the surrounding moorland.
Further down at Lower Lanshaw Dam I crossed to the edge of the moor and made my way back towards Ilkley via Stead Crag.
You can see more images from the shoot in the West Yorkshire gallery on my website.
Mark Sunderland Photography 
I place I know and love…thanks for the photos, Mark. Just beyond the hut is the Grubstones circle… an odd one and hard to spot in the heather, but well worth a look next time you feel obliged to traipse over the moors 🙂
Thanks, I shall have to seek out the Grubstones circle too!
Then there are the ancient tracks, cairns and barrows… as well as all the petroglyphs. You could spend a lifetime up there. Well, I could, anyway…
Yes, plenty to keep me busy with the camera!
I’ve set this up to reblog on Sunday at twelve, Mark, if that’s okay?
Yes, that’s fine Sue, thanks!
Cool. I just wanted to check 🙂
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Reblogged this on Natural Light Photography Workshops and commented:
Here’s a recent post from Mark’s blog on a trip back to Ilkley and Burley Moor to photograph the Twelve Apostles stone circle – we thought we’d reblog it as one of our Yorkshire Photography Locations posts!
[…] on from my recent Twelve Apostles and Burley Moor post, here’s another place that I really should have visited before, having been to nearby […]