The Leeds Owl Trail 21st December 2013


The Leeds Owl Trail - 21st December 2013

 


Eleven walkers decided to brave the throng of Chistmas shoppers on the last Saturday before the big day in order to complete the Leeds Owl Trail. The walk is around the centre of Leeds and takes walkers to some very interesting corners of the city which even the locals had not visited before. The quest is to find 25 owls on and in buildings around the city, some tucked away in secretive positions so the walk can become a little bit of a challenge. After much searching and long deliberation we managed to spot twenty four of the twenty five owls, the final one in Leeds Minster eluded us as the Minster was closed and we could not gain entry in order to"spot" it. However as we did manage to spot several owls which were not on the list of twenty five we finished in very good spirits and promptly retired to the splendid Palace pub on Kirkgate in order to celebrate ou success and sample their excellent selection of cask ales. The walk was only around five miles in length but it took us most of the day to complete due mainly to the fact that we were tempted into visiting a couple of other hostelries along the way both of which come highly recommended  both for the quality of their beers and their ambience (Foleys on the Headrow and the Angel on Briggate). The significence of the owl is that it is prominent on the City's coat of arms and consequently appears on many of the prominent civic and commercial buildings, ranging from several examples outside the City Hall to the Leeds City Tapestry inside the architectural gem of the City Library and a stained glass window inside the rather stylish Quebec Hotel. For anyone interested in completing this super little walk details can be found at this web address - http://www.leedsowltrail.com/

Our thanks go to Chis & Maggie Hayley for leading a great little walk.