Wayfinder 1: Threshold
Wayfinder 1: Dimples Lane Entrance @jed.pix
Walking directions: From the Old School Room in Haworth, take the path through the graveyard to the side of St Michael & All Angels Church, with a black metal railing to your left. Go down a flagstone step to continue past trees, chickens, and the quarry car park to your left. When you reach a fingerpost, turn right (towards Top Withens, Brontë Falls and Brontë Way). Head uphill, watching your step on the cobbled section of the path, until you reach the intersection with Dimples Lane. Cross the road to enter Penistone Hill Country Park and begin...
About this Wayfinder
As the Gateway to Brontë Country, Penistone Hill captures visitors’ imaginations with its rugged uplands and carpet of purple heather. Brontë fans may notice echoes of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre in Wayfinder 1: it’s impossible to write here without Emily, Charlotte and Anne at your side.
But in the Brontës’ time and right up until the mid-20th century, Penistone Hill was an industrial landscape dominated by quarrying. The first Wayfinder plays with these contradictions. How we imagine the moor as wild and untamed — roamed by giants, black dogs, and will-o'-the-wisp — disguises how we have used and abused this landscape over centuries.
That said, Penistone Hill is beautiful: there’s hope here in seeing how nature can recover. I saw the plants and wildlife mentioned in this poem during my residency, and many more. Look out for the gytrash and the kestrel returning later in the trail.
It was a wonderful summer for butterflies. I counted many species on my walks, including: painted lady, speckled wood, cabbage white, orange tip, and common blue. 99 Butterflies was also the name of a stunning installation as part of the Wild Uplands outdoor art exhibition here in 2025, inspired by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s haunting question: “Where will we go after the last frontiers? Where will the birds fly after the last sky?”
Eyebright flowers on Penistone Hill
