Ilkley North West Trail #1A: OPR Mini-Multi
This 15-cache 4.3km trail takes you around some of the lovely countryside between Middleton and Austby immediately to the northwest of Ilkley above the north bank of the Wharfe. Allowing for an easy pace, stopping for caches | to admire the view | spot birds the trail should take you about 3 hours or so.
It starts from the riverside close to the Old Stone Bridge, continues up a private road past impressive large houses and gardens entering a small patch of beautiful mature broadleaf woodland before exiting up and across grassy slopes to the high point of the trail at High Austby Farm.
From here the trail contours along a lane with fine views to the south past Tivoli (a lovely old house & garden) and Calvary (an interesting religious site) then through more woodland to just above the historic Middleton Lodge.
Then it continues following a lane along down the edge of a wooded ghyll and adjacent to the site of a medieval settlement back down to the start point.
The cache themes are mainly focused on the rich birdlife and historical features along the route, which forms part of an official trail.
See below and the Gallery for a map of the trail showing parking spots and approximate cache locations.
This cache and #1B were added to the original series to fill a large cache gap and thereby 'nourish' hungry geocachers as they head ('slog' or 'toil' for some) up Owler Park Road (OPR) to #2 in the woods. This road has some of the finest houses in Ilkley with great views to the south across the Wharfe valley.
To reach the cache: from #1 head NW along the riverside trail to the road, cross over and a little up Langbar Road before taking the first left onto Owler Park Road (private road | public footpath) and up to the cache location.
Note: If not starting with #1, it is possible to park closer to the cache @ or near N 53 55.921 W 1 50.097 on Common Holme Lane nearer the start of OPR. As OPR is a private road, parking is not permitted there.
Step 1: head for N 53 55.968 W 1 50.141 - the location of a 'tall wooden sticky-uppy thing' - a telegraph pole* - or more correctly a power distribution pole - on which you will see several metal plates with various pieces of info on them.
The uppermost of these has three rows of figures which - by means of a stamped hole - record the date of the last pole inspection. The top row is the month and the middle row is the year. In this case the pole was inspected in month A of year 20B0 where A and B are the numbers required.
*There is a UK society for those with an interest in such poles and their 'heiroglyphics' - the Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society - whose members 'promise to uphold the values of the society - namely to be nice to telegraph poles and always speak highly of them as the opportunity arises'. There is also a guidebook - Telegraph Pole Appreciation for Beginners.
Step 2: Move on to N 53 55.972 W 1 50.139 where you will find another type of pole, this time a metallic one bearing three signs. The alphanumeric value (A=1 B=2 C=3) of the letter on the uppermost sign = C.
The lower sign shows a distance of D00 yards (with no footway) , where D is the figure required.
Step 3: Opposite this across the road there is a faded yellow painted grid on which, along with the name of the manufacturer, the number 52E0 is moulded at each end where E is the figure required.
The cache is hidden at:
N 53 55.(C+1)(A-3)(C-6) W 1 50.(B-1)(D-1)(B+E)
