Top Withens

Top Withens, Wuthering Heights

Top Withens

Where is it – England, Yorkshire and the Humber

Who looks after it –  Local Authority 

What is it –  Countryside, Curiosity, Free access, Literary, Ruin, Walk 

When is it from – Victorian

Top Withens has long been thought of as the inspiration for the Wuthering Heights that Emily Bronte describes in her eponymous novel of 1847. Originally “Top of the Withens”, Top Withens (or Withins) is a remote, ruined, farm thought to date from the second half of the 16th century. It was last inhabited in the 1920s, has been disused since the 1930s and is now completely wrecked. In fact, ruined structures pepper the landscape all around. It is actually generally believed that the building Emily Brontë described bore no resemblance to Top Withens whatsoever; but, as a plaque placed on the wall by the Brontë Society says, “the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the heights.” You can walk to Top Withens from a variety of directions and along the Pennine Way.  It can be wet, and gloomy, but the paths are relatively easy provided you have decent footwear.  Close by is the Bronte Waterfall.

 


Address

Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire HX7 8RP 

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