Following 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 Saltaire on many occasions, but never quite got round to it…

Shipley Glen lies just over the River Aire from Saltaire and to the West of Baildon.  It’s an easy walk from Saltaire station, crossing the river and passing through Roberts Park will get you to the Shipley Glen Cable Tramway station which runs up through woodland to the Old Glen House pub and tea rooms from where you can walk along the craggy rocks at the top of Shipley Glen, or head down through Trench Wood to Loadpit Beck.

I chose to wander down through the woods.  It’s still rather early for autumn colour, but a few leaves were starting to turn and there was a good covering of fallen leaves on the path.

The path took me down to the bank of Loadpit Beck, where lots of paths leads off through the woods so it’s nice just to wander around and explore.

I spent quite a bit of time here, finding the best spot to photograph the beck running through the woods (which turned out to be standing in the middle of it!).

The glen is quiet craggy too, with lots of nice gritstone boulders dotted around, some covered in bright orange and green lichen.  Following the path back up the side of the glen, I emerged onto the rocky rim to find a great little oak tree cliging to the rocks (see feature image, top).  This was difficult to photograph against the bright sky, but it was worth setting things up and exposing carefully to get a decent shot of it – it’s definitely one to come back to.

There are some nice silver birch trees along the edge of the glen too, which were just starting to turn yellow on my visit – it should be looking really good in the next week or so (as long as the strong winds this weekend don’t strip all the leaves off) so I may be back soon!