Burley in Wharfedale

According to the legend, a giant by the name of Rombald used to live in these parts. While striding across the moor that now bears his name (in some versions of the story he was being chased by his angry wife) he dislodged a stone from a gritstone outcrop, and thus created the Calf, of the Cow and Calf rocks. Giants such as Rombald and Wade – and even the Devil himself – were apparently busy all over Yorkshire, dropping stones or creating big holes in the ground. It was perhaps an appealing way of accounting for some of the more unusual features of the landscape.

Rombalds Moor is pitted with old quarries, from which good quality stone was won.

The Hermit of Rombalds Moor

At Burley Woodhead a public house called The Hermit commemorates Job Senior, a local character with a chequered career. Job worked as a farm labourer, before succumbing to the demon drink. He met an elderly widow of independent means, who lived in a cottage at Coldstone Beck, on the edge of Rombalds Moor. Thinking he might get his hands on her money and home, Job married the old crone. Though she died soon after, Job took no profit. The family of her first husband pulled the cottage down, in Job's absence, leaving him homeless and penniless once more.

Enraged, he built himself a tiny hovel from the ruins of the house. Here he lived in filth and squalor on a diet of home-grown potatoes, which he roasted on a peat fire. He must have cut a strange figure, with a coat of multicoloured patches and trousers held up with twine. He had long, lank hair, a matted beard and his legs were bandaged with straw. He made slow, rheumatic progress around Rombalds Moor with the aid of two crooked sticks.

His eccentric lifestyle soon had people flocking to see him. He offered weather predictions, and even advised visitors about their love lives. The possessor of a remarkable voice, he 'sang for his supper' as he lay on his bed of dried bracken and heather. These impromptu performances encouraged Job to sing in nearby villages, and even in the theatres of Leeds and Bradford. His speciality was sacred songs, which he would deliver with great feeling. Nevertheless, his unwashed appearance meant that accommodation was never forthcoming, forcing him to bed down in barns or outhouses.

It was while staying in a barn that he was struck down with cholera. He was taken to Carlton Workhouse, where he died in 1857, aged 77. A huge crowd of people gathered at his funeral. Job Senior, the hermit of Rombalds Moor, was buried in the churchyard of Burley in Wharfedale. His life is commemorated in the old sign hanging over the entrance at The Hermit.

From the station, walk back to Station Road, turn left to cross underneath the line and go left along a quiet lane. Follow the lane past houses and between fields up to Hag Farm.

When the track wheels right, into the farmyard, keep left on a track to a stile and a gate. Follow a wall downhill for 100yds (91m) to a gap stile in the wall. Don't pass through, but turn right, climbing beside a stream up to a stile. Carry on uphill, crossing two more stiles and then a footbridge across the stream. Continue up to cottages, winding out between them to meet the Guiseley–Ilkley road. (To visit The Hermit, go right here for 0.25 miles/400m.) Cross the road and continue on a stony track opposite. After 50yds (46m), leave left to ford a stream. Follow a path uphill through trees and then between walls to a gate. Turn right beside the wall, which soon curves away, leaving you heading upwards on a trod.

Meet a stony track and follow it to the right, along the moorland edge. Follow a wall to a stile by a gate. Immediately after, keep right when the track forks. Keep to the right again as you approach a small brick building. Route-finding is now easy, as the track wheels around a farm. At the next farm (called York View because on a clear day, you can see York Minster from here) branch left off the main track, gradually descending by a wall on your right. As you approach a third farm, look out for two barns and a gate, on the right. They stand opposite an indistinct path to the left, which curves around a small quarry. Enjoy level walking through bracken with great views over Lower Wharfedale. After 0.25 miles (400m), drop into a narrow ravine to cross Coldstone Beck. As you climb away, bear right and follow a path downhill to meet a road by a sharp bend.

Walk 100yds (91m) down the road to another sharp bend. Turn off along Stead Lane, a stony track which leads past several houses, to continue between the fields beyond. After passing a wooden chalet, leave the track as it swings left towards a farm, dropping through a kissing gate to the right. Walk away beside the wood on your left. Beyond another kissing gate, keep by the right-hand boundary, leaving at the far side to follow a fenced path ahead.

Reaching a track, go right, but after 200yds (183m), bear off left along a path which leads to a second track within trees. Follow it right to the road and turn left back to the station.