Hi JOhn!
lowergate wrote:You say that the shaft goes in for some 30yards then bends west. I take it then that a human can crawl through, & if so what are the internal dimentions of the shaft and is it cut through rock or earth?
When we first found this, we were only 13yrs old; and although we intended walking over the western edge of Ilkley Moor, we spent the next hour or 3 here. We were unable to get ourselves inside the tunnel, so a week later I brought my poor young brother up here as we were too big to get inside it ourselves. My brother Phil was 6! Up we came with a torch and half-bullied the poor lad to get inside the tunnel. He didn't have much choice tbh! We could work out what seemed to be a blocking stone about 10yds dead straight down the tunnel, which stays on an even level - and we initially presumed that it stopped there. But when Phil crawled to the blocking stone, he found he could crawl to its left, then back right again and the tunnel went straight on again. He refused to go round the blocking stone, but with the aid of the torch he told us how the tunnel went straight on again for twice the distance he'd crawled, then made a very gradual bend leftwards and into the hillside itself. And it's a big hillside mate! Someone went to a helluba lot of effort to build this - and we've always wanted to know what, if anything, is at the end of it!
Phil got back out, trembling, but excited as I remember! He'd been the first person to go into this tunnel since.....well, since whenever the blocking stone had been placed over it many centuries beforehand.
When we first found the site, summer vegetation was well in growth. It was only the following winter when we came here (though it had become one of our regular sitting spots) that we saw how the hillside itself had been artificially altered. This is blatantly obvious on some of the photos we have of the place and when you visit the site; but I've found no written record of any human activity here.
I came here years back with a regional archaeo from the Midlands - who didn't know what to make of the place (not surprisingly, when I contacted the Bradford council's archaeologist about the place, he wasn't even interested; I think that was my first encounter of his apathy). Archaeology and folklore writer Bob Trubshaw came here and was equally puzzled, though thought it medieval in age. And we've since found foundation ruins of rectangular buildings on the hill above the site, but I don't think they're 'officially' logged again. There's a line of old walling running up on the flat above here (I'm uncertain whether it's Iron Age or later) about 100 yards away; and we have a well-preserved unrecognised prehistoric cairn, very similar to Bleara Lowe, a coupla hundred yards away. However, the medieval nature of the site seems more probable John.
Odd innit?
If you fancy a look at the place, we could meet up & show y' the place. It's not the sorta spot I wanna show to archaeologists, as I no longer have any faith in them. Every time I come here, I always make sure I close the entrance so it cannot be seen; though that's only possible for just a few months of the year. We came looking here only a few months back with Dave and, after nearly an hour, gave up trying to find it! - cos when the vegetation's here, it's nigh on impossible to locate - and as I always cover it up very well to stop other people finding it. Silly I know, but there's some other ingredients here which have always made us do this, from its very first discovery...
All the best - Paul
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