THERE were record attendances for walks organised by Burley Walkers are Welcome during the recent Burley Summer Festival. The 14 walks on offer attracted well over 300 participants, up from 200 last year. Some walks booked up almost immediately, for instance an archaeology walk on the highest parts of Burley Moor with Dr Keith Boughey, a prominent local archaeologist and historian, a guided walk around the moorland beat of gamekeeper Michael Smith, and an informative walk with architectural enthusiast Bruce Speed to look at some of the historic buildings in the village. This included visits inside and out to some of the more recent additions to the building landscape. Other longer walks, such as a walk to Denton Hall and Church, a walk to and then tour of Wharfedale Brewery in Ilkley, and a high level walk from Addingham to Burley via Beamsley Beacon and the Lippersley Ridge also proved very popular. An innovation for the group this year was a circular night walk from Burley Woodhead to the Twelve Apostles, which succeeded in losing no one thanks to the perfect weather conditions and almost full moon.

David Asher, chairman of Burley Walkers are Welcome, said: “As with previous years, we wanted to provide an opportunity not only to have a good walk exploring the delights of our village and the beautiful countryside that surrounds us on all sides, but to encourage conversations between people living and working in and around the village that are sometimes hard to have for all sorts of reasons. For instance, talking with two of the architects about the factors which influenced the design of some of the newer houses in the village was fascinating, especially as we were privileged to see inside two of the properties. Similarly, hearing from Pat O’Brien about the Environment Agency’s plans and rationale for the proposed fish pass at Burley Weir as part of their plans to repopulate the Wharfe with salmon, sea trout and eel was exciting as well as very informative about the life cycles of the fish. We could probably have run two gamekeeper walks given the high level of interest, and Michael Smith provided an eloquent and informative account of the annual tasks involved with grouse moor management which included a thoughtful discussion with the group considering the arguments for and against grouse shooting. Colin Speakman led a poetry walk again, but this time reading his poems on the theme of water. Pop-up poets from the Wharfedale Poets collective were also in attendance at various points of the route to contribute their own evocative verse. We were particularly pleased this year to offer for the first time a walk for younger children and their parents, organised jointly with Maddy Coelho from Burley Community Library. Maddy designed a superb Bee Trail around the village for 4 to 11 year olds, with lots of bee themed tasks to do after the children had heard some bee stories. Before finishing, each child was able to make a bee habitat to take home, so the library was literally buzzing with busy children, parents and grandparents. All in all it was a highly successful programme, and I would like to thank all the contributors, walk leaders and back markers for the hard work put into preparing and making the walks fun, entertaining and very friendly events. Also to the Burley Festival Committee for their impressive administrative support and encouragement.”

Burley Walkers are Welcome now provide two short guided walks a month that don’t need to be booked. A five mile walk takes place on the third Sunday of the month, and a three mile walk takes place on the first Friday of the month. Both walks start at Burley Railway Station at 10am, and dogs on leads are welcome, providing owners confirm that they have third party liability insurance in place. For more information about the group visit www.waw-burleyinwharfedale.org/ or email burleywalkersarewelcome@gmail.com in order to receive a monthly update about walking activity in Burley.

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