Harden Moor Features 1: Fairfax Coppy

Dotted around Harden Moor are various large isolated rocks or outcrops that provide navigational features and points of interest.  I'm not enough of a geologist to know if these are in fact glacial erratics or not - be nice to hear from someone who does.  This one sits on the part of Harden Moor referred to as Horse Course Hill, on the high ground above Currer Laithe Farm.  The Joseph Fox map of 1830 shows what appear to be the private enclosure walls of Thomas Parker utilising the rock as a convenient boundary point.  A later map of 1845 identifies it as the "pinnacle" or "pinacle".  At some point someone thought it worth the time and effort to build a small wall on top.

The 1851 Ordnance Survey map describes the rock as "Fairfax Coppy". Further to the east Fairfax Entrenchment is also to be found - a feature reputed to date back to the English Civil War.  Whether this rock did provide Thomas Fairfax with a stool or not, in the days before the moor was enclosed it would have afforded good views across this section of the Aire Valley.

Getting there: From Keighley Road take the public right of way from Altar Lane at grid ref: SE 08177 39920