Walk up Pendle Hill from Barley

Walk up Pendle Hill from Barley  5/5 (2)

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Walk up Pendle Hill from Barley Details

Pendle Hill in the Forest of Bowland AONB is a popular hill, and at 557 metres in height provides a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside. This walk from the village of Barley is one of the more popular routes up, but it can also be climbed from various other driections. From Barley, you can also ascend Pendle Hill via the Ogden Reservoirs and Ogden Clough. There’s also an 11km circular walk up Pendle Hill from Downham, with a downloadable pdf file at this link. You can also ascend from the Nick of Pendle – with a route available here.

Why is it called Pendle Hill? This is a rare triply tautological name – basically meaning Hill Hill Hill. It was known as Penhul in the 13th Century, with Pen from the old Cumbric, and hull being old english for hill. You can guess where the final Hill came from!

Pendle Hill is best known for the trials of the Pendle Witches in 1612. Twelve individuals were accused of murder by witchcraft with only one of the accused found not guilty, one died in prison while 10 were executed for witchcraft. The accused were not all women, with 2 men also among those tried.  In 1652, the founder of the Quakers – George Fox reputedly had a vision on the summit that was instrumental in founding his religious movement.

It’s recommended that you start from the car park that can be found at BB12 9JX – which has ample room. This post code will take you to the village, but some common sense will then be required to find the actual car park which is well signposted. There’s a cafe here and toilets. Visitors to Barley aren’t short of choice of pubs either with the choice of the Barley Mow and the Pendle Inn both in the village.

The walk up Pendle Hill is a short, steep yomp with the initial section section following the Pendle Way and ascending steadily. You’ve then got a steeper ascent along the Pendle Hill Steps which bring you up to the flat summit plateau.

For more information, Download the Pendle Hill walk PDF that can be found on Visit Lancashire’s Walk Page.

Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts founded Walk Eryri in 2004, with the aim of providing routes that are off the beaten track. Walk Eryri is now part of Mud and Routes which continues to provide more off beat routes and walks in Snowdonia and beyond. Dave has been exploring the hills of Eryri for over thirty years, and is a qualified Mountain Leader. Dave also established Walk up Snowdon, Walk up Scafell Pike and Walk up Ben Nevis just to mention a few.

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