Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire - The Druids' Playground

Number 24 bus runs hourly from Harrogate to Pateley Bridge

This route approaches the Brimham Rocks along the river southeast from Pateley Bridge, via a delightful waterside path. Delving into the thickly wooded tributary valley of Fell Beck, it then winds towards the hill’s base over land inhabited since Neolithic times. Having crested Brimham Moor and explored the famous boulders, you’ll then descend back to Pateley Bridge along a bracken-covered hillside, followed by an enjoyable ramble over farmland criss-crossed with ancient drystone walls. To wrap things up, the final leg follows Pateley’s “Panorama Walk”, offering more fine valley vistas.

[1] Immediately before you cross Nidd Bridge from the town side, turn left along a public footpath. Follow this attractive riverside track for 2km/1.2miles, past a weir and large mill reservoir until you reach a road. Turn left here towards Glasshouses, but after a few metres go through a doorway in a wall on your right. Bear left, then right to pass in front of the mill. At its far side, just beyond the smoke house, and before a large building, turn right down a track that soon bends left back to the river.

(A) The Metcalfes, one of two families that used to dominate industry in Pateley bridge,  also built the large flax mill at Glass houses on the riverside just southeast of Pateley. Smartly renovated, the old stone building now accommodates a mix of modern businesses, including a winery where you can taste elderberry and rhubarb “wines” in the comfort of the former wheelhouse

[2] The riverside path is clear,running up a bank to a stone stile at one point, then across a wooden one cutting across the corner of a field before rejoining the riverside and, further on, under a disused railway bridge. Ignore the footbridge across the river, and instead continue ahead until you reach a wide beck. Here, the path leads away from the river to cross the beck via a footbridge. Once on the far side, turn left and cross the field to reach the main road at Low Laithe.

[3] Cross to the public bridleway opposite. When the tarmac surface ends, keep straight ahead along the track and follow it to the next road. Turn left here over the bridge, but a short way up the hill fork right onto a footpath signposted “Pateley Bridge”. You pass a pretty mill pond on the right, after which the beck flows below you through a deep ravine. The course of the path is obvious from here on, passing through beautiful woodland as far as a footbridge, after which you bear right up a stony track; 30m before the derelict brick building, turn sharp left along a path through a birch wood, then fork right soon after, at the waymarker, along a narrower path. Follow this as far as another fork  where you should turn right through a gate and onto a grass path running in front of a farmhouse. At the end of the grass path go through a gate and turn right onto a track. Follow this uphill for 1.6km/1mile, past a farm, until you reach a junction with the National Trust Brimham Rocks access track.

[4] Turn left up the track. Walk through the car park, and take the footpath to the left and on for 5–10mins through some amazing rock formations until you reach the National Trust Information Centre.

(C) Brimham rocks, the famous and intriguing rock formations. 

At the point where the tarmac track bends sharply right, just in front of the centre, head along the unsurfaced track branching left, which soon after narrows to a footpath. Follow this as it skirts more superb rocks, past our featured viewpoint of the day, until you arrive at a big spread of open heather and a junction. Instead of following the main path sharply to the right at this intersection, keep straight ahead for a short way, then bear left down a shallow valley as far as a surfaced track where the National Trust boundary is marked.

[5] Turn left onto the tarmac and follow the track until you reach a right hand bend where the track becomes a driveway. At this point the footpath goes through a metal gate then runs along the left edge of a field, then bends right towards the houses. Follow the driveway ahead but where it swings sharply right, bear left along a clear footpath cutting across the field to a ladder stile. Cross this and follow the wall along the end of the field, bearing left at the bottom to a second stile. Keep to the right of the next two fields on a well worn farm track with woods to your right, at the bottom of which a ladder stile leads to a footbridge over a beck. Cross and bear right up the track. At the junction, take the track half left, which shortly after crosses a cattle grid. You’re now on the Nidderdale Way. When the wall on your right bends right, fork half right across the field to a gap in the wall ahead. Go through this and bear right to a gap stile, then keep left along the wall to reach some houses. Pass to their left, along a walled path, and turn left at the crosspath at the top. This track takes you to White Houses

[6] At the junction, go straight over and follow the right-hand fork, finger posted to "The Raikes", which in a few metres leads to a gate. Go through this and continue for approximately 500m/550yrds to a farm access track, which takes you to a road. Turn right (uphill); then left at the Nidderdale Way sign and cross the stream; soon after you’re between two drystone walls.

[7] At the next road junction, keep straight ahead and follow the lane for 230m/250yds. Just beyond the entrance to Rock House, fork right by a bench onto a public bridleway, signposted to "Pateley Bridge", which runs past the houses of Blazefield to the B6265, which you turn left onto Walk down the hill to where the road bends left, head right along a track that is finger posted " Knott & Panorama Walk". This soon narrows between walls. Keep left at the next fork, continuing right on a tarmac lane through Knott. You’re now on the Panorama Walk, which takes you back to Pateley Bridge, with more stunning views over the valley. On reaching the hairpin bend, keep straight ahead past the entrance to the cemetery, then follow the path all the way down to the main road, turning right to regain the town centre and main street.

(B) Lead mining was until the late nineteenth century the mainstay of Pateley Bridge, a small town located next to an ancient crossing point over the Nidd whose industries were long dominated by two families: the Metcalfes and the Yorkes. However, despite the arrival of the railway in 1862, Pateley Bridge’s industry went into sharp decline in the early 1900s, leaving the town in the unhurried time warp it still occupies today. Home to Britain’s oldest sweet shop which claims to have been established 1827.

(C) “Could Brimham be transported to Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge itself would be reduced to a poor & pygmy miniature,” enthused the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1860. The comparison may be invidious, but it conveys the astonishment that generally attends first glimpses of these famous rocks. Rising from a cloak of purple heather and rosebay willowherb, the outcrops are scattered over a fifty-acre hilltop, buttressed on its northern and western flanks by steep escarpments. Some are the size of houses, others little larger than the children that scamper around on sunny weekends, but no two are alike. Names dreamed up by visitors and guides over the years point to resemblances both real and imagined. There’s the “Dancing Bear”, with muzzle and paw raised; the “Camel” and the “Turtle” side by side; “Donald Duck”, complete with beak and flat feet; and the uncannily realistic profile of “De Gaulle” himself, with nose raised disdainfully. Although the names of some of the formations here (eg the “Smartie Tube”) clearly date from modern times, those of the most famous boulders – including the one at our featured viewpoint, the “Druid’s Writing Table” – imply ancient roots. No evidence, however, has ever come to light connecting Brimham with the white-robed mistletoe worshippers of yore. Rather, the druidic connection probably dates from the mid-eighteenth century, when these curious outcrops were believed by visiting scholars to have been fashioned for long-forgotten ritual purposes. In fact, the rocks at Brimham, formed in the Carboniferous period 320 million years ago, originated in the gritty sands lining a massive river delta. Swept down from the high ranges of what are now Scotland and Norway, the sandy gloop, flecked with quartz crystals and feldspar, became buried under later deposits, compacting over time into dark-brown gritstone. This was then thrust to the surface by plate movement for the elements to work their magic on. The erosion responsible for the rocks’ dream-like shapes occurred mostly in the wake of the last Ice Age, when the desert landscape that predominated hereabouts was devoid of plant life. Wind-blasted sand, blown at ferocious speeds along the ground, scoured the base of the outcrops, wearing away the bottoms of the boulders to narrow pedestals. The most extreme example of this is the iconic “Druid’s Idol” – a bulbous, 200-tonne monster precariously perched on a collar of only 30cm/12inches. Sometimes, the connecting stem wore away completely to leave the boulder literally rocking in the wind. Local legend holds that the “White Rocking Stone” – which used to sport a coat of whitewash and could be seen all the way from Harrogate – can only be moved “by honest people”. Plenty of other old tales and superstitions swirl around these stones. Edmund Bogg, in his 1895 travelogue From Eden Valley to the Plain of York noted that, “[in] bygone days [they] were supposed to be the habitation of spirits… From a conversation we had with the peasantry not far from here, it seems the ancient belief had not yet fully disappeared.” One large, cave-like hollow used to be the abode of a witch called “Great Sybill”, while “Lovers’ Leap” is where a star-crossed couple allegedly threw themselves to their deaths after the girl’s father refused to allow the pair to marry. It is said that magical spirits intervened and rescued them before they were dashed on the rocks below. We can safely assume such stories have probably been told about Brimham Rocks for as long as people have inhabited the Nidderdale region – a very long time indeed if the carved boulder lying in a field just off our route at High Wood Farm is anything to go by. Sculpted with so-called “cup and ring” marks, the stone’s patterns are believed to be between 3500 and 6000 thousand years old. 

There are pubs and accommodation in Pateley Bridge. Along the way, there is a tea shop at Glasshouses, a refreshment kiosk at Brimham Rocks and a pub serving food in Fell Back, a short diversion north from the route. 

For more walks in this area see the book  Country Walks Around Harrogate (Vol 2 West) by West Riding Area of the Ramblers. Two dozen short and medium-length routes in the Nidderdale and Washburn Valley areas, described by local experts. Illustrated with sketch maps and b&w photographs, this book provided the original inspiration for our Brimham Rocks walk. 

This route is covered by OS Explorer 298

This route originally appeared as route number 7 in Walk Britain - Great Views in 2009 and was checked at that time by the West Riding Area of the Ramblers.