Anyone live in or been to Pendle Hill?

[Blankett]

I want to do the witch trail in September but I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos where the locals tend to be overprotective of the area and try and restrict peoples access.

Can anyone shed any light?

I’ve been and never encountered any problems. Everyone was lovely. The roads are very small and hilly so not easy to navigate if you’re not used to that. Overall though we had a great time.

The locals here are fine. If you drive an SUV around here you will struggle though. Narrow lanes and roads with complete blind spots. You need to be physically in good shape for the hill walks.

I live here!

I live about 20 minutes away and head over to either Barley or Sabden often for walks, I’ve never had a problem but have seen locals giving people an earful over inconsiderate parking and having dogs off lead (there are sheep on pendle). Essentially don’t be a dick and you’ll be fine.
But yes I would echo the roads are tiny and you might struggle with a Chelsea tractor.

I live here. The locals are lovely. Have a good time 😊

Be sure to avoid the hill after dark, many locals refuse to go up there because of the paranormal activity that goes on. It's not just the witches that haunt the area, there are ghosts of a crashed aircrew still make their presence felt from time to time.

It's fine up there in the daytime but keep an eye on the time and ensure you are safely away from the area when night falls.

😂😂

The place is lovely, as are the locals I've experienced. We loved both the actual hill and the sculpture trail. We stayed in a village called Fence, at the Fence gate and had a meal at The Forest, I highly recommend both!

Went on a ghost hunt weekend there. Never encountered any issues with the locals, or witches or ghosts for that matter.
Beautiful part if the country and lots of nice countryside and walks though.

People may laugh but there is a lot of dark energy in the area going back hundreds of years. I wouldn't be doing a ouji board anywhere near the hill or surrounding areas.
OP if you have an interest in our local witches then try to go Lancaster to visit the witch trial locations.

I remember watching ‘most haunted’ as a kid when they went to Pendle Hill, still scares me now thinking about it!

Also look up The Most Haunted Halloween special filmed on Pendle Hill and the Demdyke and Nutter cottages. You wouldn't pay me a million pounds to go near them. One has been converted and no family stays long. Make of that what you will

Oh I loved the Most Haunted Pendle Hill!

@Blankett this sounds amazing, what is the witch trail? Is it an organised thing? Or just going for a look yourself?

Pendle Hill is a super popular spot for walkers, regardless of the historical connection. I've been for loads of walks there and it's lovely. We've never had a hostile reaction from locals. Or any reaction at all, really! There are lots of signposted footpaths and things and I can't think of any way that locals could, or would need to, attempt to restrict people from accessing them.

My guess is that if people have had a hostile reaction it's because they've been intrusive - either trying to access private land, or maybe looking into people's homes or taking intrusive photos or something like that. Sometimes when people live on the route of a historical trail like that, visitors seem to forget that their homes and private land aren't fair game just because they're in a historically significant spot. That's the only reason I can think of that people might have had a different experience of the area than I've had!

JFC

It's fine up there in the daytime but keep an eye on the time and ensure you are safely away from the area when night falls

That's advice which applies to any decent sized hill, nothing to do with 'paranormal activity'.

I like the walk up pendle, haven't done it for a while. I'm not very keen on the 'witch trail' being hyped up as some sort of tourist attraction ... women being persecuted for being different somehow, that's the only age-old 'dark energy'.

My dad thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk up there once.
On halloween. He got lost, and we ended up coming down in the pitch dark, meeting all these odd characters going up.
Wasn't fun.

I do want to see Alice Nutter's statue sometime though

www.roughlee.org.uk/roughlee-commemorates-alice-nutter/

@ErrolTheDragon it is a known fact that Elizabeth Demdyke took part in ritual sacrifices. That's more than being a bit different.

I'm not laughing. But I do now really want to go up Pendle Hill after dark.

Ah brings back memories of one of my expeditions up the hill, me and best friend 17 and pissed decided to walk up on Halloween, it was packed and raining, ended up having to go to the phone box and ring my mum to come and pick us up! 😂 Have not seen any ghosts though in all my time living here, I have lived around here all my life, here is a pic from my back garden in all its windswept glory😁

We used to camp just off the nick of Pendle on Halloween. @MargaretThursday if this was the late 90s and you saw a bunch of teenage goths it was probably me 😂

@Littlegoth
Late 80s, so not you. And definitely odder crowd than goths!

I’m from near there. Please remember that these women were not “witches”. They were women who were suspect because they did not conform to 17th century ideas and stereotypes about how women should behave. It was political, not occult.

Have some respect for these women who were persecuted.

@ErrolTheDragon and @SideWonder thank you, those were my thoughts entirely.