Lancashire Witches Walk
A 51-mile long-distance walk crossing striking Lancashire countryside and moorland from Barrowford (where the Witches of Pendle lived) to Lancaster Castle (where they were tried and condemned). With map, statistics, and GPX route file.
Statistics and Files
Grid Ref: SD 862 398
Distance: 51 miles (82 km)
Time: 20–26 hours
Duration: 3–5 days
Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps (1:25,000):
OL2 Yorkshire Dales – Southern and Western Area
OL21 South Pennines – Burnley, Hebden Bridge, Keighley and Todmorden
OL41 Forest of Bowland and Ribblesdale
287 West Pennine Moors, Blackburn, Darwen, Accrington and Bolton North
296 Lancaster, Morecambe and Fleetwood
Summary
The Lancashire Witches Walk is a long-distance footpath opened in 2012 between the village of Barrowford and the county town of Lancaster. It starts at Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford, near where the witches lived, before passing through the Forest of Pendle, the town of Clitheroe, and the Forest of Bowland to finish at Lancaster Castle, where the witches were tried, sentenced, and hanged. The route was created to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the trials of the Pendle witches. When the route opened, ten cast-iron tercet waymarkers designed by Stephen Raw — each inscribed with a verse of a poem by then Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy — were installed at sites along the way. The route takes a general south-east to north-west course across the county, though from the start it deviates south to Read Park and then north to Clitheroe before taking a diagonal course tracking across the Ribble Valley and then the Forest of Bowland to reach the Lune Valley at Caton, from where the river leads the walk downstream to the finish in Lancaster.