When his epoch-making book, The Origin Of Species, was published in 1859 to great controversy, Charles Darwin - apparently a bit of a hypochondriac - was undergoing hydropathic treatment at the Yorkshire spa town of Ilkley.

Now the world-famous naturalist has been remembered on the edge of the equally famous Ilkley Moor through the creation of the Darwin Gardens Millennium Green.

I visited the lottery-funded recreational area during a recent visit to Ilkley on a foggy autumn day.

The highlight for my daughter was undoubtedly a Millennium Maze, comprising not hedges but 1,000 flagstones set in the grass, one for each year in a millennium.

The winding, twisting maze links two carved headstones. The starting stone draws on symbols from ancient rock carvings on the moors, which include a famous Swastika Stone dating back many thousands of years. The finishing stone, which symbolises the coming of Christianity to Ilkley, is based on Anglo Saxon crosses situated outside the town's parish church in the bottom of the valley.

But my daughter and her cousins just enjoyed trying to run around the maze in record time.

The gardens also feature pebble mosaics. One, The Living Waters, celebrates Ilkley's spa traditions while The Tree of Life looks to its Roman origins as Olicana. There's also a human sundial, and a special viewpoint, dubbed Darwin's View, has been created as a memorial to the scientific genius who stayed just a couple of hundred yards away at a newly-opened hydro called Wells House.

This distinctive moorside building, until recently a college, is currently undergoing conversion into luxury apartments.

After visiting the gardens, it was time to warm up with a cup of hot chocolate at White Wells up on the Moors.

Darwin himself visited this landmark whitewashed building while staying at Ilkley to have a very cold bath in the springwater.

At that time you could get a donkey ride up the hill. Now, you go on foot through the grass, heather and bracken or take a longer route via a roughly-paved road. You go past a paddling pool - definitely not an option on this particular day - and also past an old tarn, a pond frequented by frogs, newts and other pond-life.

White Wells opened in the 18th century and in its heyday attracted thousands of visitors wanting to improve their health with the cold water treatment.

The building fell into disrepair in the 1960s and 1970s, and I can remember wandering around the semi-derelict site when I was a schoolboy growing up on the edge of the moors.

It was eventually rescued and restored, and you can once again climb down the stone steps into the crystal clear water, if you are mad enough, but you are asked to check first with the people who run the White Wells cafe.

You can enjoy a drink or basic snack at the cafe - and you can tell from the road down below whether it's serving or not. Flags fluttering on the flagpoles outside mean it's open for business.

This is the last Days Out feature for this year.

Fact file

How to get there: Take A64 to Leeds, and then outer ring road and A65 Skipton Road to Ilkley. Turn left at traffic lights into Brook Street, then up on to moors via Wells Road. Gardens are on your right just beyond cattle grid - you can't miss White Wells above you on the moors.