Distance: 6.7 miles
Ascent: 984 ft
Walking: Andrew & Mark
Weather: Cloudy, sunny spells, cool
OS Map: OL21 South Pennines
Parking: Colne Road, Stanbury
Pork pies: Keelham Farm Shop, Skipton
Photography: Andrew using Nikon D610 / Nikon 24-70 mm f2.8
This is a moderate 6.7 mile walk over open moorland, including the ruins of Top Withens Farm (believed to be the inspiration for the location of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights), Alcomden Stones and towering escarpment of Ponden Kirk.
We parked at the Bus terminus on the edge of Stanbury but made the mistake of arriving just as the kids were being dropped off at school and, in the space of a couple of minutes, it went from secluded country lane to rush hour at Piccadilly Circus. Note to self....
The walk began with a steady 1.75 mile gentle uphill stroll, with a couple of steeper bits, to the famous ruined farm of Top Withens. It can get quite busy there because of the links to Wuthering Heights, in fact it is said to be the only tourist attraction in the UK where the signs are in Japanese. The ruins themselves are not that impressive but the location is incredible and your destination can be seen in the distance for most of the walk up to it. I've spent many happy hours up there admiring the views and wildlife, particularly this year when I've had a bit more spare time than usual.
After a short stop, we headed up Delph Hill behind the farm where I was surprised to see the heather was still flowering, albeit a bit past it's best. We reached the trig point on the summit and turned to continue on to Alcomden Stones, a short distance to the west. This cluster of rocks sits just below the top of the hill and has great views over the nearby borders into Calderdale and Lancashire and, in the opposite direction, towards Oakworth. This was the obvious place for a pie stop and for Mark to take the usual standing-on-a-big-rock selfies.
This week's pies were a bit disappointing, to be honest. The meat filling was great but they were in a foil dish, which seemed a bit odd, and the pastry was very greasy. All the ones we've had on previous walks scored 5/5 but these were definitely only a 3/5.
Our intention, like the two ladies who passed us while we were eating, was to follow the boundary line with Calderdale district north east across Middle Moor Flat and up to the summit of Crow Hill but there is no established path and the ground was extremely boggy after recent rains, so we decided to retrace our steps to Alcomden Stones then follow the path along the line of grouse shooting butts down Middle Moor Clough (which also proved to be pretty boggy). The ladies who'd passed us earlier could be seen silhouetted on the horizon at the top of Crow Hill, so their navigation skills were clearly better than ours.
The path eventually reaches Ponden Clough, where the stream drops steeply down quite a distance and the views across to Haworth are spectacular. There is a choice of paths at this point and Mark decided to take the upper one and I descended the tricky, uneven steps which follow the stream to the bottom of the escarpment. Mark's route took him over the top of Ponden Kirk, a rocky outcrop which was immortalised by Emily Bronte as Penistone Crag. Local legend has it that anyone who crawls through the hole in the rock, known as the Fairy Cave, will be married within the year, always assuming they manage not to fall down the umpteen foot sheer drop that awaits them as they exit at the far side.
Our paths converged a short distance further on and we headed on towards Ponden Reservoir, passing the beautiful Ponden Hall (currently up for sale, if you have £1,000,000 to spare), which also appears in Wuthering Heights as Thrushcross Grange, and then back up the hill to Stanbury.
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