Worpac one

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 75.00% of reviewers

After walking three Slow Ways in a day around Burnley, just before Christmas, I set my sights on a walk across the Pennines from Worsthorne to Haworth, taking in two more Slow Ways. This is a route I first walked in 1973, and while I wish the weather could have been better, at least the ground wasn't too wet and muddy. A school friend of mine once said that the Gorple Road out of Worsthorne was the most boring walk in the world. He found a lifetime of adventure in Tasmania, but I'm happy enough with how directly the old road climbs straight into the Pennines and eventually crosses the Pennine watershed at Gorple. This first part is along the Pennine Bridleway and is firm and dry throughout. After passing the ruined farmhouse, I took the trodden moorland path to the reservoir dam, rather than the slightly more circuitous and indistinct path on the Slow Ways map. The shooting hut between the two Gorple reservoirs used to offer shelter to anyone who was passing through these bleak moors, but now it's locked and bolted. Joining the Pennine Way to cross Graining Water, the route then makes a beeline for the whitewashed Packhorse Inn on the Ridge Road. It's an odd place to end a Slow Way, instead of a town or village, and the bus that used to occasionally run this way from Hebden Bridge no longer operates. Still, not a worry for me, as I intended to continue straight along the Slow Way from the Packhorse Inn to Haworth. The pub is in business, by the way, but just happened to be closed when I was passing.

This is an excellent route largely following the Pennine Bridleways. I walked it as part of a longer trip between Burnley and Hebden Bridge.
Minor issue with the routing across Black Moor. The footpath here is not at all clear on the ground. The permissive path which leads directly down to the Gorple Upper Reservoir dam is much clearer.

I walked from the Pack Horse Inn to Worsthorne

This was a wonderful walk. It was occasionally tricky to navigate on the top but nothing that stopped it being a really enjoyable hike.

The Pack Horse Inn was open and serving food so that is great if you are using it as a midpoint in your walk if you are combining it with another Slow Way as I did.

The view are incredible and the ground was pretty solid underfoot despite being February.

I did a couple of detours to look at some of the rock formations and the stone circles, which added to the walk.

A fine route over the Pennine watershed, which mostly follows surfaced tracks and the Pennine Bridleway (PBW).
There are some very boggy bits across Black Moor, north of the Gorple Upper Reservoir, that could be avoided by continuing on the PBW below the Gorple Stones for a further c.0.5km, and then taking the permissive path south that leads down to the dam past the rocky outcrops (great views!) on Shuttleworth Moor.
The main problem with this route however (and hence only 3, not 4 stars) is that the Packhorse Inn is now closed so does not offer a proper Slow Ways destination/network node as such, so an alternative route and destination is suggested to Blackshaw Head (see photos 5 to 9 below). It's only really worth continuing to the Packhorse Inn (seen in photo 4 below, taken from Gorple Lower Reservoir dam) if you intend to continue on from there towards Haworth or Hardcastle Crags.

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