W Yorkshire
24 km / 15 miles
A strenuous and remote walk across the moors high above Oxenhope and Haworth, traversing the landscape that inspired Wuthering Heights, but avoiding many of the usual over-trodden paths. It takes in Top Withens and Ponden Hall, often cited as the model for Thrushcross Grange.
Although only 15 miles, wet and open moorland feature in this strenuous walk and navigational skills are essential. The isolated terrain is appropriate, with Emily the most reclusive of these literary sisters who enjoyed the solitude of the moors, but died young of consumption as did her siblings.
It is the longest of four walks devised by Michael Stewart around a series of stones carved with new poems about the Brontes. The Charlotte Bronte Walk is a short loop through the countryside around Thornton. The Anne Bronte Walk heads north from Haworth through Oakworth and Laycock, finding quiet paths and corners along Newsholme Dean and the Worth Valley. The Bronte Stones Walk is a linear route between Thornton and Haworth that provides a more pleasant alternative to the Bronte Way.
These walks have been available as a series of leaflets in Haworth and elsewhere. For the Emily Bronte Walk, there is a 2-page, A4 illustrated map guide with route description, by novelist Michael Stewart published by the Bronte Society listed below.
Stewart was inspired with the idea of engraved stones when walking the linking Stanza Stones Trail that links stones with poems by Simon Armitage. The Bronte Stones feature four new original pieces of writing, by leading contemporary women writers, engraved onto stones in locations between the birthplace and the Parsonage along a trail of about eight miles. Three of the works by Kate Bush, Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay each respond to one of the sisters, Emily, Charlotte and Anne, while the fourth by Jeanette Winterson is a response to the whole Bronte legacy. These authors at least no longer need to publish under male pseudonyms, as was common in the Bronte's time - Emily's was 'Ellis Bell', preserving her initials. These walks were associated with Bronte 200 - a five-year programme celebrating the bicentenaries of the births of four of the Brontes: Charlotte's in 2016, Branwell's in 2017, Emily's in 2018 and Anne's in 2020.
New walks with Bronte links are also useful as the former Bronte Way and Bronte Round walks are no longer fully promoted.
Details:
| Path Type: |
Other Paths |
| Attributes: |
Other Paths
Challenging
Moorland
Heritage
Literary
|
| Start and Finish: |
SE032353 -
Oxenhope Station Car Park, W Yorkshire
|
| Open Date: |
2019 |
| Web Sites: |
Emily Bronte Walk
|
