It’s easy to see how the land around Parson Lee Farm could offer so much inspiration to the Brontë sisters as they penned their famous novels. The wild, windswept moors and the gentle folds of the land form a backdrop to rural life, where villages, like nearby Wycoller, are characterised by ancient bridges and stone-walled homes. Ruined Wycoller Hall is said to be Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre, while Top Withens, a three-mile walk from Parson Lee Farm, provided the setting for Wuthering Heights. Who knows what fictional place the farm’s new Mongolian-style yurts might have inspired today?
Set at the head of a valley at the end of a long single-track road that passes through tiny Wycoller, past it’s cute, stone café, through a bubbling ford and along the side of a small river, Parson Lee Farm’s glamping site feels wonderfully remote. In total it has just four luxury yurts, each raised on a flat, wooden deck and a short stroll from the shower and toilet facilities. Inside they feature chunky double beds, a wood-burning stove, bedroom and dining furniture and tea and coffee making facilities. Outside, meanwhile, each yurt has a large firepit for late night barbecues and campfires. The quiet isolation of it all is only accentuated by the fact that children aren’t allowed, helping keep things especially peaceful as you gaze into starry skies.
While the Brontë related attractions aren’t hard to come by – the museum at the Bronte Parsonage in Haworth is well worth a visit – bringing a pair of walking boots to stomp around the hills is perhaps one of the best ways to immerse yourself in the location. There are several footpaths running through the farm’s 64-acres and out into the moors, while looping back to cross the ancient bridges in Wycoller and re-fuel in the café is always a good way to end. The oldest bridge is believed to be of neolithic origin (at least a thousand years old) and is officially listed as an ancient monument.
By car, meanwhile, a half hour journey to the Forest of Bowland or the Yorkshire Dales opens up a whole new can of walking worms, though there’s no need to rush away. Perch yourself in the glampsite’s swinging chair, take in the views and perhaps begin to pen your own masterpiece of a novel. Who knows where it might end up?