Weets and Witchy Places

This trundle with the bro has been on the cards for a while. I lived in Earby till I was 16 and, very close to this hill for the next echty blob years, but I never climbed it. I don’t know if i had some superstitious beliefs about Barnoldswick or something (can’t have – I remember at least half of a specially fine New years Eve party there).

Anyway, at roughly n minutes past ten , me and John met in the lovely car park of the delicious Letcliffe Park which probably overlooks Barlick when its not misty and snowing so much.

Yes, readers, it was snowing in great white fluffy lumps, and sticking too. I expect its due to the winter or something.

We found the bridleway that goes up Weets Hill and lost it again, fortuitously, as it happens, because otherwise we wouldn’t have met the garden statue shown in the intro picture. I expect there’s a tale about the statue, and the other one next to it that I didn’t snap.Eventually, through the fog and incipient blizzard, we found the trig point with it’s sad and frozen flower.

We wandered a bit and then decided to stravaig for a while.

We stravaiged to the Moorcock Inn, which was firmly closed.

Then we rambled along the Pendle Way and up the snowy hill opposite The Weets. And down again.

For speed, we used country lanes to make progress towards Blacko with it’s tower wot you can’t visit cos there’s no right of way (dhuhh), then along pleasant paths through various people’s gardens to Malkin Tower. Malkin Tower appears in the story of the Demdikes – the Pendle witches, who had a dirty hovel here. Its a holiday cottage now, so you can stay, if you dare. Ashley, it doesn’t look very scary. The Demdikes and their coven were transported to Lancaster, tried and hung. Its Ok, its not recent. We have medical care for geriatrics nowadays.

We progressed up the old Gisburn road, which, of course, goes to Old Gisburn  - and back along a lane to the start.

At some point, Bruno picked some litter – a plastic soft drinks bottle, and carried it for a mile or so, occasionally dropping it to be kicked along so he could catch it. At some other point, he seems to have lost it.

It snowed all day.

We did 12 miles and 2000 feet of up, which was a bit more than planned, but that’s rambling for you, I expect.  You can overplan sometimes.