Oh, The Moors…
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 10:09 PM 
When you come to The Magic of the Moors retreat, we may well walk the lanes and cross the fields…and we’ll certainly visit the local towns. But there’s no denying it’s the moors themselves that dominate this area and give it its distinctive beauty.
Moorland - for those who don’t know - is uncultivated upland….land too high and wild for normal agricultural purposes. So the heather and grasses and moss and bilberry bushes run rife across the hills.
Gamekeepers manage the land, carefully monitoring the numbers of game birds; and burning the heather every few years to encourage fresh growth. But most of the time, the moors are left to themselves, populated by wild creatures and a scattering of hardy sheep.
August - the time of our meeting - is the month when the heather blooms and the vista turns purple as far as the eye can see. The landscape is clothed in its most gaudy finery. It’s a good month to be here.
We’ll be staying, during the retreat, in small apartments on the very edge of Haworth moor - the same ground the Bronte sisters trod and where the ghosts of Cathy and Heathcliff still linger! The apartments are very simple. Their trump card is their situation; they have views across the fields and fells, and you can walk right out the door into the heather….and keep on walking for miles.
The moors have many moods, as evidenced by the photos above; and there’s no guaranteeing which will be on show whilst you’re here. But there’s magic in them all, so we’ll take whatever comes.
I’ll be back next week with more about the two towns we’ll be visiting…but first - on Sunday - an announcement of a different kind!
Reader Comments (4)
Hello! Nice to meet you too! Your retreat sounds lovely! Good luck with it all! x
The retreat sounds GLORIOUS, Helen... I wish I could come, but August is spoken for already...*sigh*... I hope this will be a success for you, that you may be able to offer it again. :o) Happy Days ((HUGS))
:) so happy this dream is coming to life for you, Helen!
Wow, tooooo beautiful! What an amazing landscape. You are so fortunate to live right there!