Ilkley North West Trail #1B: OPR Puzzle, Pause & View
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 and #1A have been added to the original series to fill a large cache gap and thereby 'nourish' hungry geocachers as they head ('slog' for some) up Owler Park Road (OPR) to #2 in the woods.
The location is a good spot to pause and admire the view back towards the Cow & Calf and over the roofs of the houses across the Wharfe valley to Rombald's Moor beyond.
The cache, a camo-taped sample tube, is hidden in a location which will be revealed by completing the jigsaw puzzle accessed by clicking on the image above.
To reach the cache location: simply continue up OPR from #1A.
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.