Holiday in the Yorkshire Dales

SITUATED high in the Yorkshire Dales is an unusual sculpture park. Unusual in that no artist made any of the exhibits.

These shapes have been designed by nature, with the aid of a giant glacier and over 11,000 years of wind and rain.

Surrounded by nearly 400 acres of moorland, the Brimham Rocks have attracted visitors for nearly 250 years and were recorded in the Domesday Book. These rock outcrops are made of what is known as grit – the same substance from which millstones were made.

The grit was formed around 320 million years ago, of granite, eroded, pounded and washed down from mountains in the north of Scotland. This grit substance settled here in Yorkshire, together with quartz and feldspar crystals.

You’ll find Brimham Rocks just outside Harrogate in the Nidderdale area that is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The exhibit is free, the only cost is the car park – unless you’re a National Trust member, in which case that’s free, too.

And you won’t find any signs asking you not to touch the exhibits. In fact many climbing clubs use these rocks to help train climbers. The only signed request is “Don’t Damage the Rocks”.

The rocks have been given names – they’re on an information board at the site – such as The Druids’ Writing Desk and The Idol.

Some names are more obviously derived from the shapes of the rocks than others, and you do have to look from a particular position to get the image.

The Eagle Takes a Leap of Faith is a little obscure – but, yes, it does look like the stereotype pose of the American Bald Eagle.

Personally I found giving them names myself rather fun; one formation near the visitors’ centre reminded me of the cartoon character Pink Panther. Brimham Rocks are high in Nidderdale, 300m above sea level. From the top of the rocks, it is said, on a clear day you can see York Minster, some 36 miles away.

Some claim that you can even see Ferrybridge Power station, and that’s 40 miles away. But the visibility wasn’t quite clear enough on the day of my visit. Getting up there doesn’t require rock-climbing skills. The visitor centre is the highest point and you can see the vast panorama from there.

The National Trust has created several paths around the rocks for visitors, some of which are all-weather paths suitable for wheelchairs, and has also thoughtfully provided a refreshment kiosk, serving tea, coffee and hot chocolate plus ice cream.

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