Heber’s Ghyll Wood

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Quick description

What’s there?

People head to Heber’s Ghyll Wood to climb the dramatic walk up to Ilkley Moor. The path traces the course of Black Beck crossing over numerous bridges with spectacular views of several waterfalls that thunder down the steep-sided wooded ravine when the beck is in spate.  There is the welcome sight of a shelter with a bench at the top of the trail.  Beyond the mature woodland lies the world-famous Ilkley Moor and its many ancient monuments, such as the enigmatic Swastika Stone.

Hidden dinosaurs

Younger visitors can have fun whilst traversing the route leading to the top of the waterfall, searching for the ten dinosaurs hung up on the trees along the way!

History

Between the opening of the railway line to Ilkley and The Great War (1914-18), Heber’s Ghyll attracted visitors in their thousands from far and wide.  

Heber’s Ghyll became public pleasure grounds at some point in the second half of the nineteenth century.  Before that, it was simply one of many unknown, if spectacular, becks draining water from Rombold’s Moor into the River Wharfe.  The railway, after 1865, transformed Ilkley from a town largely dependent on farming sheep to one farming day trippers keen to sample the health-giving waters and breathe in some fresh air. We don’t know who discovered and saw the potential of Black Beck as a visitor attraction and re-branded it “Heber’s Ghyll”, but it served to meet the demand for new places to visit, rewarding more intrepid visitors with a sylvan idyl far removed from the grimy industrial cities of Bradford and Leeds.    

Heber’s Ghyll, Ilkley

Interest in the ravine developed in the 1870s, but took off following the discovery of chalybeate wells or springs with their beneficial waters around 1880.  In 1882, the short-lived “Heber’s Ghyll Hydropathic Establishment Company Ltd” was formed with £32,000 in capital, hoping to replicate the success of other similar enterprises in the town. The proximity to the Ghyll also became a key selling point for wealthy business owners who bought up nearby land for palatial villas. It seems likely that the growth in visitor numbers led the owner, Charles Marmaduke Middleton, to grant permissive rights to use the footpaths in the woods in 1887. The importance of Ilkley Moor and Heber’s Ghyll to both the economy of the town and the health of people generally was not lost on the Ilkley Local Health Board, which raised £14,000 in 1892-4 to purchase Ilkely Moor, Heber’s Ghyll and Panorama Wood from the Middleton’s estate.     

The following year, 1895, the pleasure grounds fell under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Ilkley Urban District Council, which extended Heber’s Ghyll Drive toward Upper Woodhouse, culverted the beck, surfaced the paths, upgraded the bridges and installed public toilets (long since closed).  In 1974, IUDC was abolished and responsibility for wood passed to the City of Bradford MDC.  Heber’s Ghyll may not attract the crowds it did in its heyday, but it is still a popular if less well-known place for an outing. 

What’s in a name?  

Why Heber’s Ghyll was chosen as a name remains a mystery.  J. R. Fletcher, in his A Picturesque History of Yorkshire (1901), repeats the popular idea that it was named in honour of Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta, who died in 1826, and was renowned for several popular hymns and had family connections with the town.  Information about when the naming occurred and by whom is unknown. Dr Collyer in Ilkley Ancient and Modern (1885) notes the family connection: the Hebers who tenanted Holling Hall between 1619 and 1701 were distant cousins of Bishop Heber with shared roots in Elslack and West Marton.  However, it seems more probable that the name arises from the Ilkley Hebers themselves, who were instrumental in setting up and supporting Ilkley’s free school, lived at the foot of Heber’s Ghyll at Holling Hall and were held in some affection by townsfolk. 

Natural history

The extent of the wooded area has changed over time.  It is probably that the ravine itself has always been wooded, but its name on the 1851 OS maps – “Bracken Intake” – suggests land enclosed from the waste or moor. This intake land may have been reclaimed by trees some decades before, as a sale of trees in 1849-50 offered a substantial numbers of trees for sale in “Black Beck Wood”.

Today, the woodland still comprises a mix of mature deciduous trees (oak, birch, ash, sycamore) and, as such, is designated a priority habitat in the U.K. When the walk was laid out, the designers may have added the conifers to the mix to enhance the “alpine” feel of the ravine.  Off the main path, the woodland can be quite wet and boggy, but bluebells pop their heads out where they can, and there are a few good spots for blackberries toward the end of summer.  Deer are frequent visitors.

Resources

Self-guided circular walk including Heber’s Ghyll