The write way to appreciate moors

Yet while many people are moved to write about the natural world, few, if any, actually have their work etched into the landscape itself.

But a new literary walking trail that snakes its way across 47 miles of the South Pennines from Ilkley to Marsden in West Yorkshire, is being officially launched today and will immortalise the work of Simon Armitage.

The Stanza Stones trail features six new poems by the acclaimed Yorkshire poet that have been painstakingly carved into individual stones dotted along the route.

Inspired by Yorkshire’s dramatic landscape, Armitage took water as his starting point for the stones, highlighting its role in shaping the landscape and powering local industries, with each poem describing water in different forms – beck, puddle, mist, rain, dew and snow.

The Marsden-born poet said: “People have been visiting the moors of West Yorkshire for thousands of years to offer their prayers and express their hopes and dreams in the form of carved stones; this is my contribution to a legacy that will remain in the distinctive Yorkshire landscape for future generations.”

In a foreword to the trail’s guide, he writes: “They [the stones] consist of six carved poems sited across the South Pennines Watershed, all celebrating or paying their respects to the element which gave shape and form to this region, namely water. The water that sculpted the valleys, the water that powered the industries, the water we take for granted but which is our most precious life-giving substance.”

He adds: “In my experience the moors are both brutal and blissful, an essential part of our ecology, economy, our vocabulary and our sub-conscious. So as well as being landmarks in their own right, I hope the Stanza Stones act as beacons of inspiration, encouraging people to engage with West Yorkshire and Lancashire’s great outdoors in thought, word and deed.”

The project is a collaboration between Armitage and Ilkley Literature Festival, along with rural regeneration company Pennine Prospects and Imove, part of the Cultural Olympiad in Yorkshire.

Letter carver Pip Hall engraved the poems in six locations between Marsden and Ilkley over a period of several weeks. Each stone presented a different challenge, from carving the poem Rain directly onto a rock face with the help of local climbers and the British Mountaineering Council, to spending two weeks kneeling in a moorland stream to carve the poem, Beck.

The location of each stone has been carefully chosen to give visitors the chance to experience six walks ranging from 600 metre strolls, to a two-and-a-half mile hike, taking in wild moorland, wooded valleys, Victorian canals and reservoirs, ancient quarries and forest paths.

At each end of the trail – on Pule Hill and Ilkley Moor – drystone waller Nick Ferguson has created a Poetry Seat where visitors can sit and admire the view, or try writing a poem themselves.

Rachel Feldberg, Ilkley Literature Festival director, believes the trail will prove popular with people.

“Stanza Stones has been a huge undertaking and collaborative effort involving many partners, as well as more than 140 young people from 13 different arts groups, and over 30 workshop leaders offering their expertise,” she said.

“We hope that this subtle, thoughtful and engaging new trail will encourage people of all ages to head out and explore the landscape, taking the time to look afresh at one of the country’s most beautiful settings and enjoying Simon’s remarkable poems in the landscape which inspired them.”

A free guide to the trail and the short walks can be downloaded from www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk and is available in local tourist information centres and libraries.

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