Lancashire Witches Walk

Coordinates: 53°58′05″N 2°26′10″W / 53.968°N 2.436°W / 53.968; -2.436

Lancashire Witches Walk

A tercet waymarker at Clitheroe Castle
Length 51 mi (82 km)
Location Lancashire, England
Trailheads Barrowford, Lancaster
Use Hiking

The Lancashire Witches Walk is a 51-mile (82 km) long-distance footpath opened in 2013, between Barrowford and Lancaster in Lancashire, England. It starts at Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford before passing through the Forest of Pendle, the town of Clitheroe and the Forest of Bowland to finish at Lancaster Castle.[1]

The route has been created to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the trials of the Pendle witches. Ten cast iron tercet waymarkers, designed by Stephen Raw, each inscribed with a verse of a poem by the Poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy have been installed at sites along the way.[2]

History

The route was designed by Sue Flowers, the artistic director of the Lancashire-based arts organization, Green Close.[3]

Route

The route is described in a series of seven sectional leaflets. The first section begins at Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford and ends in the village of Barley.[4] From Barley, section two heads via Newchurch in Pendle, Higham and Read to Spring Wood near Whalley.[5] Section three heads to Wiswell, then through the town of Clitheroe, before crossing the River Ribble at Brungerley, to Waddington.[6] The forth section crosses Waddington Fell to Slaidburn,[7] with the fifth over Salter Fell to High Salter Farm.[8] The penultimate section heads to Claughton Quarries,[9] before section seven passes through Caton and on to Lancaster to the end at Lancaster Castle.[10]

Tercet waymarkers

Tercet waymarker locations
No. (ref) Location Coordinates
One [4] Pendle Heritage Centre, Barrowford 53°51′12″N 2°12′41″W / 53.8533°N 2.2113°W / 53.8533; -2.2113 (Pendle Heritage Centre)
Two [5] Ogden Valley, near Barley 53°51′16″N 2°17′16″W / 53.8545°N 2.2879°W / 53.8545; -2.2879 (Ogden Valley)
Three [6] Spring Wood, near Whalley 53°49′13″N 2°23′41″W / 53.8202°N 2.3947°W / 53.8202; -2.3947 (Spring Wood)
Four [6] Clitheroe Castle 53°52′16″N 2°23′34″W / 53.8712°N 2.3928°W / 53.8712; -2.3928 (Clitheroe Castle)
Five [8] Slaidburn car park 53°57′58″N 2°26′18″W / 53.9662°N 2.4382°W / 53.9662; -2.4382 (Slaidburn)
Six [8] Croasdale Quarry, Bowland Forest High 54°00′17″N 2°29′06″W / 54.0046°N 2.4850°W / 54.0046; -2.4850 (Croasdale Quarry)
Seven [9] Claughton Quarries, Caton with Littledale 54°04′26″N 2°39′30″W / 54.0738°N 2.6583°W / 54.0738; -2.6583 (Claughton Quarries)
Eight [10] Crook O’Lune, Halton-with-Aughton 54°04′35″N 2°43′57″W / 54.0763°N 2.7325°W / 54.0763; -2.7325 (Crook O’Lune)
Nine [10] Williamson Park, Lancaster 54°02′44″N 2°46′53″W / 54.0456°N 2.7814°W / 54.0456; -2.7814 (Williamson Park)
Ten [10] Lancaster Castle 54°02′55″N 2°48′17″W / 54.0487°N 2.8048°W / 54.0487; -2.8048 (Lancaster Castle)

The UK Poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy was commissioned to create a poem, The Lancashire Witches to mark the anniversary of the 1612 witch trials. The poem is made up of ten tercet verses, for the ten people hanged at Gallows Hill in Lancaster. Stephen Raw designed waymarkers, each inscribed with a verse of a poem and featuring the name of one of those executed, which have been placed on the route.[3]

Gallery

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lancashire Witches Walk.

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.