A literary walking trail spanning nearly 50 miles of diverse Yorkshire countryside has been completed.

The Stanza Stones route runs along the Pennine Watershed from Ilkley to Marsden and features six new poems by British poet Simon Armitage, in a bid to create a permanent legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Mr Armitage’s six poems have been carved into stones on moorland and uplands between the two towns and are named after water in different forms – beck, puddle, mist, rain, dew, snow.

A seventh, and final stone has yet to be placed on a secret landscape to encourage walkers to discover it naturally.

“I have always been inspired by the surrounding landscape since growing up in Marsden which is one of the locations on the trail,” Mr Armitage said.

“People have been visiting the moors of West Yorkshire for thousands of years to offer their prayers and express their hopes and dreams in the form of carved stones.”

The ‘Stanza Stones’ project is a collaboration between Imove, Ilkley Literature Festival, Mr Armitage and Pennine Prospects and the poems have been engraved by carver Pip Hall, either in situ where she has battled against the wind and rain, or in her studio in Dent.

The location of each Stanza Stone has been chosen for visitors on six walks ranging from 600m strolls to walks of 4km.

Ilkley Literature Festival director Rachel Feldberg said: “Stanza Stones has been a huge undertaking and collaborative effort involving many partners, as well as more than 140 young people from 13 different arts groups, and over 30 workshop leaders offering their expertise.”

The Stanza Stones locations are ‘Snow’, Pule Hill, Marsden, ‘Rain’, Cow’s Mouth Quarry, ‘Mist’, Nab Hill, near Oxenhope, ‘Dew’, Rivock Edge, off the Silsden to East Morton road, ‘Puddle’, Whetstone gate wireless station, Rombalds Moor and ‘Beck’, Backstone Beck on Ilkley Moor A free guide to the Trail and the short walks can be downloaded from www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk and is available in local Visitor Centres and Libraries.