The Twelve Apostles of Burley Moor

I have been interested in our ancient past for a very long time, and have been visiting and photographing many of the stone circles, standing stones and other artifacts of our amazing heritage. I have even found several items myself including two large standing stones, ancient tracks and numerous carvings. I have written about them in various magazines including OnLandscape #204 and others.

For many years I have been working with Paul Armitage (Bennett) and the team at 'The Northern Antiquarian' providing photographs to highlight many of the site profiles, books and magazine articles he has edited and written. We have a couple of books in the pipeline but Covid has put these projects on hold for the time being.

I am lucky where I live as the nearby moors are covered in these artifacts, one of the most famous is the Twelve Apostles stone circle, which sits atop of Burley moor. It is a little circle, 4500 years old - much battered and broken (until the '70's the stones were scattered on the moors). It is amazing how the people visiting these moors make a bee line to it - and in recent times it has taken on a new life. Folk seem to be giving it the respect that it deserves and this is a good thing. I will put a link below to Pauls article on the 'Apostles - well worth reading.



I had photographed it over the years, and I had a decent one of the circle at sunset, and this was quite a popular seller, so I thought I would try my luck to photograph it at dawn. Early morning shots are always difficult as it is hard to predict what the sunrise will be - is it going to be glorious or a damp squid. So very early on an October morning found me in the Cow and Calf car park with a heavy rucksack of gear and crossed fingers for a nice start to the day. The moors were sodden, having rained constantly for weeks and I had to forge swollen Backstone Beck in the dark (twice), slipping over slimy rocks with a heavy bag of cameras and tripod, and slip and slide my way through a very muddy path. The Apostles are a couple of miles from the car park and I could see the sun starting to rise just as I got there.

I set up the gear and took many shots from various angles, and when it got too light I returned home to a good breakfast and several hours on Photoshop. The result is here and it has graced various magazine articles, a book cover and numerous walls. Well worth getting wet and muddy for.

For those who are interested, here is the link to the Apostles on The Northern Antiquarian website.
Twelve Apostles, Burley Moor, West Yorkshire - (thenorthernantiquarian.org)