This 10 miler was our first walk in Lancashire. Pendle Hill offers spectacular views from the 1,837 ft (557m) summit. Sadly, as you will see from the images below, low cloud and mist featured for the day.
The walk starts in the village of Barley with parking readily available in both the local car park (see link) and on the road. Parking costs just £1 for the day and there is also a cafe and toilets on site. On leaving the car park you walk through the village (passing the two pubs and a small stream). Once you leave the village you follow a tarmac road to the Black Moss Reservoirs and then across farm fields to Barley Lane.
This is where the ascent begins. The path itself is very good underfoot but steep. We saw a range of walkers, young and old on our ascent and as long as you take as many breaks as you need - you will make it to the top. At the end of the steps is a short and gentle climb to the trig point. At this point I would love to tell you about the amazing views but visibility was at around 20m max and blowing a gale. So it was onwards to the descent.
Again good paths on the descent but a little muddy so watch your footing. At this point the clouds did clear for a very short time and teased the views across the valley and several reservoirs which looked very promising. At the end of the descent you arrive at a path between the upper and lower Ogden Reservoirs. Take the road towards the lower reservoir and you will soon pick up a path to the right taking you through a small forest (and another small climb) and then onto the tiny village of Newchurch in Pendle.
Once leaving Newchurch you pass the water treatment works and head down a good path passing several farms and across several fields, then it is a descent down to Roughlee. Here you pick up the main road back to Barley and the carpark. At Roughlee there is the Roughlee Old Hall dating back to 1536, the Alice Nutter statue and the excellent Bay Horse pub where we stopped for refreshment.
All in all a surprisingly good walk despite the weather conditions and a return is definitely on the cards on a clear day.
[Map] [Download GPX File] [Suggested Parking]
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