Tag: harewood

HAREWOOD CIRCULAR

Nice local 19 mile ride. starting the directions from Adel church ride north past the church on your right and take a right past Headingley Golf Club and past York Gate Garden then left down Staircase Lane. A nice downhill until over the bridge theres quite an ascent past Adel Woods, great for mountain biking and dog walks. At the T junction with King Lane turn left and first right onto Alwoodley Lane. Gawp at all the weird and wonderful mansions all the way along this road until you meet traffic lights at the crossroads, where you carry straight on onto Wigton Lane otherwise known as millionaires row. At the T-junction at Shadwell turn left downhill and uphill turn first right.

This is a lovely quiet country road where I saw Red Kites and a Kestral. Carry straight on across the next two junctions through Scarcroft until you meet the A58 Wetherby road and turn left, ride along here for a short while and turn left at East Rigton, or you can turn sooner and go through Bardsey, making your way to Rigton Grange. At the T-junction turn right towards East Keswick. Nice pub at Bardsey incidentally, another “oldest pub in England!” The Bingley Arms. Oh and another in East Keswick too, The Duke of Wellington. After passing this pub at a right bend turn left up a quiet country lane. This eventually joins up with the A659 from Collingham to Harewood. This is the least pleasant bit of this ride as it can be a busy and fast road. However, once you reach Harewood, you will be riding off road through the Harewood estate. So at the traffic lights, straight ahead will be the gates of the Harewood estate, but don’t go through here, turn right and then second left, Church Lane, straight on through the village and straight into the estate. Muddy Boots cafe is well worth a stop.

This ride was done on my Volt Kensington pictured above. Below that is one of the stags that roam the area. follow the road until you meet a cross roads and carry straight on, over the cattle grid bear right and follow this until you reach the gate. Here, at the village of Weardly, turn left uphill. At the top follow the road round the left bend. The next uphill is a killer. I had to stop halfway and nearly fainted when I reached the top. Some fab views – see below.

This is Red Kite country. Click on the link to find out about the reintroduction of this bird, which had been driven to extinction in this country. They have spread all over the country but are most prevalent here. They are beautiful, majestic birds and I never tire of watching them soar over the county.

From here continue on the road past the New Inn , another that’s worth a stop, and keep on going straight until you arrive back where you started.

Red Kite Walk

Yesterday, Mike, Sparky and I went on one of our regular walks, not far from home, in fact, I think of it as part of my patch.  We call it the Red kite walk because you nearly always see these beautiful birds.

The walk takes you through the Harewood House Estate. This is the Earl and Countess of Harewood’s estate (he’s the Queen’s cousin).  Its a massive well run estate, with lots of walks throughout.  There is plenty of wildlife to see and the estate is involved in conservation.  One of their success stories was the reintroduction of the Red Kite.
“Red Kites were released on the Harewood estate in 1999 as part of a UK conservation initiative. Harewood Estate was originally part of a partnership involving the RSPB, English Nature, & Yorkshire Water PLC. Their spectacularly successful re-introduction to Lowland areas of Yorkshire is now complete. The Red Kite now has a self-sustaining population, whose numbers are gradually increasing yearly.
This is a far cry from a species which was persecuted to extinction in England and Scotland by the end of the 1800s. At the last count there were over 300 Red Kites in the area around Harewood and Yorkshire. ”  (taken from the Harewood website).
Anyway, back to the walk – you will find a map at the link below
http://www.getamap.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk/?key=1JIJLHj24bCWT27oe0x3_g2
We saw at least a dozen kites circling and gliding in the skies.  It was positively balmy at 6C and there was this strange round yellow thing in the sky!!!  Apart from the kites, we saw a nuthatch and treecreeper along with the usual blue and great tits, blackbirds and thrush.
Red Kite

Red Kite

Red Kite

The kites are amazing and soooo beautiful.  When they’re soaring in a blue sky, with the sun shining trough their wings, you can see all the gorgeous colouring and markings.
The forked tail is the main giveaway in recognising these birds.
I often wonder how they manage to survive on scavenging.  I know they eat worms and other small things, but even so, its pretty amazing!  When fields are ploughed nearby they follow the tractor, often landing in order to pick up a morsel or two.
I still haven’t managed to get the ultimate photo of one of these yet.  I have some I quite proud of, but its hard to get everything just right when the background is sky!
We also saw some lovely red deer stags.

And some Highland cattle.
Highland cattle

Highland Cattle

It’s only a short walk, but plenty of other paths to take if you want too.