Van Miles

Barley is one of those little Lancashire villages that feels like you’ve travelled much further than you actually have. Sitting right at the foot of Pendle Hill, it’s surrounded by countryside and makes a great starting point for several different walks.

Even the drive into Barley is lovely, with some really scenic views along the way. The roads do get quite narrow in parts though, so something to bear in mind, especially if you’re visiting in a larger vehicle.

Parking in Barley

We parked at the main Barley Picnic Site car park, BB12 9JX.

It’s a large car park and you pay on the way out rather than having to decide how long you’re going to stay when you arrive.

When we visited it was:

£1.50 for 3 hours
£3 all day

There are public toilets here as well as The Cabin café, which is handy for grabbing a coffee or something to eat before or after your walk.

There’s also a lovely stream running close to the car park with picnic benches, so you could easily come here without doing a big walk and still have a nice few hours out.

Our Barley Circular Walk

We decided to do a circular walk that would hopefully take us through Fell Wood and down towards the reservoir.

Turning right out of the car park, we went straight across the road by the community hall and then veered right down a lane towards the fields.

From here we headed upwards through three fields. There were sheep in the fields when we visited. Worth noting to turn back an admire the views at this point.

After the third field we reached a path. We crossed straight over it and continued uphill towards another gate.

At the top we turned right and went through a gate by what looked like a run-down, empty house. It felt slightly like we were going the wrong way at this point, but the footpath does continue through here and out through another gate at the other side.

From here we followed the path downhill towards the reservoir.

This was where our planned route changed slightly.

Unfortunately, when we reached the bottom, the path we wanted to take to the right towards the reservoir was closed off.

Rather than turning back, we turned left and followed the reservoir route back towards Barley.

It actually worked out really well and made a lovely circular walk back towards the village.

There was one stile to get over on our route, so this is worth knowing if you’re walking with dogs. There are also sheep in several of the surrounding fields, so I’d definitely be prepared to keep dogs on leads for parts of the walk.

One other thing worth knowing is that once you leave the car park we didn’t see any bins along our route, so take something to carry your dog waste back with you.

Black Moss Reservoirs

The reservoirs just outside Barley make this a really pretty area for walking. If you don’t fancy heading up into the fields like we did, there are other routes from the village that take you towards the reservoirs and Aitken Wood.

This makes Barley quite a good place to visit more than once because you can choose a different walk depending on the weather, how far you want to go and who you’re walking with.

Pendle Sculpture Trail

Another option from Barley is the Pendle Sculpture Trail in Aitken Wood.

It’s around a 45-minute walk each way from Barley before allowing time to actually explore the sculptures, so I’d allow a good couple of hours if you want to do it properly.

The trail was created to mark the 400th anniversary of the famous Pendle Witch Trials of 1612 and includes sculptures and ten ceramic plaques representing people caught up in the trials.

It’s definitely one I’d come back to Barley to do.

The Pendle Witches

You really can’t visit Barley without mentioning the Pendle Witches.

The area around Pendle Hill is closely connected to the famous witch trials of 1612. Twelve people from the area were accused of witchcraft. Eleven eventually went to trial and ten were found guilty and hanged.

More than 400 years later, their story is still a huge part of the history and identity of the Pendle area.

You’ll see references to the witches throughout the villages around Pendle Hill, and there are several walking and driving trails where you can discover more about what happened.

Walking up Pendle Hill from Barley

If you want something a little more challenging, Barley is also a popular starting point for walking up Pendle Hill.

Pendle Hill rises to 557 metres and dominates the landscape around the village. There are various routes up, so you can turn a visit to Barley into a much bigger walking day if you want to.

We didn’t climb Pendle Hill on this visit, but it’s another good reason to come back.

Barley Village

Barley itself is small, but it has enough going on to make it worth spending a bit of time here after your walk.

There are two pubs in the village, the Pendle Inn and the Barley Mow, both within easy walking distance of the car park.

There’s also a small children’s play area near the Pendle Inn.

With the stream, picnic area, café, pubs and several walking routes all starting close together, you could easily make a full day of it without needing to move the car.

Would I Visit Barley Again?

Definitely.

I really liked Barley. The drive in was scenic, parking was cheap and there were plenty of different walking options straight from the car park.

Our original route didn’t quite go to plan because of the closed path near the reservoir, but that’s sometimes part of exploring somewhere new. We simply changed direction and still ended up with a really enjoyable circular walk.

Next time I’d probably head out towards the Pendle Sculpture Trail and spend some more time around the reservoirs.

For a relatively inexpensive day out with countryside, walking, somewhere for a coffee and a couple of pubs for afterwards, Barley is well worth putting on your list.

Quick Information

Barley Picnic Site
Barley, Lancashire
Postcode: BB12 9JX

Parking when we visited: £1.50 for 3 hours or £3 all day
Public toilets: Yes
Café: Yes – The Cabin
Pubs: Pendle Inn and Barley Mow
Children’s play area: Yes
Dog friendly walk: Yes, but sheep in fields so leads needed
Stiles: We crossed one on our route
Dog bins: None seen once we left the car park
Nearby walks: Black Moss Reservoirs, Fell Wood, Pendle Sculpture Trail and Pendle Hill