Cragg Vale

I had a good long walk yesterday from home to Mytholmroyd, through Cragg Vale to Withens Clough reservoir then over the hill to Lee Dam and back home - about 11 miles so time to look around and wonder about stuff.

Going through Cragg Vale (which is the longest continuous incline in England, rising 968 feet over 5.5. miles, cyclists love it) I found a footpath that I hadn't used before in all the dozens of times I've walked through there. In most of the cloughs around Calderdale there are the remains of old mills which were water powered, so they were built in the steep cloughs to make use of the free power from the streams. However, I haven't come across an actual water wheel or even the remains of one before so this was a wonderful surprise:

 I think it's called Castle Gate Mill as just 100 yards further up I passed a small row of cottages and outside one of them was a post box:

 The stream was flowing normally for a change as we haven't had the torrential downpours recently that we've almost become accustomed to over the past year.

  Not many birds about which was very disappointing for such a long walk, but the usual Goosander and Teal were at Lee Dam and the ever-present Little Owl was in the barn at Mankinholes.

There was a Brambling in the garden yesterday morning though, which is my first of the Autumn.