Today I decided to visit Castle Hill on the outskirts of Huddersfield. It's a natural hill on which earthworks were built in the late-Bronze Age or early Iron Age to create a hillfort. Later, the Victorians built a stone tower on top of it. The things in my little excursion that made an impression were:
The drive there. It was like the Alps at times (slight exaggeration). Small hills but some of them go up in a hurry. And some of the roads through the former mill towns are narrow, tricky and windy. Driving over the brow of a hill and suddenly seeing the tower perched on the 'castle' in front of me was quite impressive. The picture shown here was not the best view of it, the better view was a bit further back and higher up but this one is still a decent photo.
The last bit of road up the hill. Yes, you can drive right on to the plateau. There's a car park there. The final bit of road is horrible. It's steep with a nasty bend, a dangerous drop on one side and most of it is not wide enough for two cars. I drove up quickly and prayed no car would be coming down at the same time. If there had been, one of us would have had to do some very unpleasant reversing. The road was a bit of a shock because it looks like a piece of cake on the satellite view.
The views. There aren't any spectacular snow-capped peaks in this part of the World but it's nice to get up high and see the patchwork of towns, villages and pastures laid out below you. It's nice to take in a big sky as well. It made me take some panoramas, something I rarely do.
