Join in the 6th annual Pendle Walking Festival

Tuesday, 21st July 2009

Categories: Latest News

Thousands of walkers will be making their way to Pendle this September, to join in this year’s Pendle Walking Festival. Now in its 6th year, the Walking Festival offers over 80 free guided walks in some of Lancashire’s most beautiful countryside. It gives walkers of all abilities a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the beautiful countryside of this part of Pennine Lancashire.

Mike Williams, Pendle’s Tourism Officer, said:

"We’re very proud of the Pendle Walking Festival. It was recently crowned runner up in the Best Tourism Event category at the Lancashire & Blackpool Tourism Awards. The Walking Festival is always extremely popular, and I am sure that this year will be no different. It offers a great choice of guided walks of varying lengths in Pendle’s excellent walking country. And don’t forget – all the walks are free!”

This year’s festival will run from Saturday 5 to Sunday 13 September.

From easy walks of two miles to more challenging ones of 14 miles, there really is something for everyone. New for 2009 is the Pendle Way – walkers can cover this fantastic 45 mile route in four stages over five days. We’ll give you a certificate to prove it if you do!

And there’s the Three Peaks Challenge – that’s Pendle, Boulsworth and Weets. Our walk leaders are going up each of these hills six times throughout the festival! There’s a wide choice of pub walks on midweek evenings, which take walkers between pubs to sample the, mostly CAMRA approved, beers. And as the festival coincides with the Pennine Lancashire Festival of Food and Culture, there are even a few food walks taking walkers to rural eateries or beautiful picnic spots.

Like last year, Geocaching will be part of the festival, at our Letterboxing event on (date). Regular Geocachers will find out about this through the usual channels. The 2009 Walking Festival will be officially launched by the Mayor of Pendle, Councillor Marjorie Adams, on Saturday 5 September at 10am at the Aisled Barn, Wycoller.

Following this launch, four walks will begin at 10.30am. Councillor Allan Buck, who is responsible for tourism in Pendle, said:

“The Walking Festival is a great way of bringing people into Pendle and showing them everything that we have to offer. We have some of the best countryside in the UK with amazing views around every turn.”

“We hope these free guided walks will give people the inspiration to explore Pendle even more.”

Anyone making the trip to Pendle for the Walking Festival will find a good range of accommodation.

We’ve got everything, from friendly B&Bs to homely self-catering cottages, from the former grand house of a tea merchant, now a fine hotel, to a pretty village Youth Hostel. All in all, those that venture to this part of Lancashire will find much to surprise and delight them.

Free Pendle Walking Festival programmes, which contain information about everything on offer at the event, are available to download from the Pendle Council website – visit www.pendle.gov.uk/walking.

Programmes are also available in hard copy by calling Pendle’s Tourism Team on (01282) 661981.

Copies of our Visitor Guide, with details of accommodation in the area, can also be downloaded from the Pendle Council website. For more information about Pendle Walking Festival, please contact Mike Williams, Tourism Officer, on (01282) 661963 or mike.williams@pendle.gov.uk.