A day of action and archaeology in deepest darkest Lancashire as we took the theme of Macbeth’s witches and ran with it all the way up Pendle Hill (well, not literally).
The day before, in a rare bout of forward-planning, we spent part of the day making tasty goods for our picnic. Aggie made pasties (we know; we can’t call them “Cornish”) and Peggy made a batch of her Unicorn Poop Meringues.
We parked in the Barley Road car park – a very handy and reasonaby priced spot with a cafe and a lovely little park (as well as toilets, if you need them) and walked along the river, through the village, until it was time to turn off.
The walk up Pendle Hill is incredibly scenic from the start, as the path meanders through open countryside and along tree-lined inclines. Before too long the gradient starts to increase and we were obliged to have a stop and a meringue or two.
There are two routes up the hill itself. We chose the easier (left-hand) one, which comprises a number of switchbacks to lessen the incline. It’s still hard going, and a fierce wind blows as you get higher and higher, but the view as you near the top is pretty spectacular.
We made our way down the harder, more steep track, and realised we’d done the paths the right way around – we wouldn’t have fancied walking up the way we came down. Back at the car park we devoured our pasties before heading off to Clitheroe Castle.
Archaeology at Clitheroe Castle
The approach to Clitheroe Castle is positively lovely. Swathes of open fields, a decent playground (always a bonus) and an imposing-looking castle atop a hill. The sky looked pretty angry as we neared the castle entrance, but thankfully most of the activities planned were taking place indoors.
Yet again, EventBrite led us here.
We were greeted at the entrance and split into groups. We would take it in turns rotating through four different activities: a touch-and-feel explanation of what exactly archaeology is; a treasure hunt/fact-finding mission in the castle grounds; a pottery lesson; and a go at sifting through soil in order to unearth artefacts.
We had the opportunity to look at items dating back to the neolithic periods right up to the modern day, to get an understanding of how archaeologists work and what they look for, and we were well looked after by volunteers at the castle, as well as a visiting archaeologist.
After a quick go on the playground, we jumped back in the car before the heavens opened. We had a great day out and would encourage you to keep an eye on EventBrite for future events, as well as just popping into the castle if you’re in the area.
