A FUN and practical week of events, organised by the Friends of Ilkley Moor, took place on Ilkley Moor during the Easter holidays.

Events started with the Cow and Calf heritage walk, where people discovered the famous cow and calf rocks, the geology of the quarry, streams, a small gorge, a cup and ring stone and Rocky Valley.

This was followed by two river and pond exploration events for young people, where they discovered the different habitats of the streams and tarns and the animals, insects and plants which live there. Animal tracking and pond dipping were part of these events. One of these was accessible for people in wheel chairs and push chairs, making this an inclusive event.

Events in wildlife identification and surveying for newts and water voles also took place; where people were introduced to the ecology, surveying and conservation of these two species. Biological records were collected at these events as part of the Big Ilkley Moor Survey.

Friends of Ilkley Moor project officer Tracy Gray said: "People learnt great skills at these events as well as helping out with valuable research."

There was an event to introduce people to community science surveys, where they learnt how they could help out with the valuable surveys taking place on Ilkley Moor using a simplified version of wildlife surveys.

There was a corporate team day were volunteers from Funeral Binns in Ilkley undertook a litter pick at the Cow and Calf rocks. The volunteers worked hard all morning to clear litter from this well-used area on the moor.

An event also took place to help restore and maintain some of the eroded and well used footpaths on Ilkley Moor.

Tracy added: "Everyone had a great time on these events which as well as helping to conserve Ilkley Moor also provided time for people to discover and explore the beauty of the moor. People said that they were looking forward to attending more events from this year’s events and learning programme."

The events programme and heritage walks can be downloaded from the FOIM website www.ilkleymoor.org or collected from Ilkley Information Centre and shops in the Town.