Beamsley Beacon is a well known landmark near Bolton Abbey and a prominent feature above the Wharfe valley. Round Hill is higher but less obvious except, perhaps, when view from the east as one approaches Blubberhouses Moor. I had been up Beamsley Beacon a few times but had never made my way on to Round Hill. So today was the time to rectify that.
Both Beamsley Beacon and nearby Old Pike have large Bronze Age mounds, probably used as burial chambers.
There is a parking area on the minor road to the west of Beamsley Beacon where we parked. It is a short 750m horizontal and 150m vertical to the top.
Old Pike is another 400m further. Strangely the public footpath ends here but there is a permissive path across the bleak moor with Round Hill only slowly coming nearer on the trudge across. Here I was walking along the boundary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
In a couple of places there are boundary markers.
It is straightforward if occasionally wet. We were overtaken by 3 fell runners. We came to a wall with a pedestrian and a vehicular gate. Here a bridleway passes north to south. This was the view west back the way we had come.
The summit is at a small pile of stones with a view of the golf balls of Menwith Hill and the very distant North Yorks Moors. To the north was a vast expanse of moorland including Simon’s Seat. To the south were hints of urban areas plus Ilkley Moor and The Chevin.
We followed the bridleway south across Middleton Moor Enclosure and then followed a line of grouse butts back to Old Pike and then over Beamsley Beacon back to the car.
That took just over two hours for the round.
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