Pendle Hill rises to 557 metres and dominates the skyline across much of east Lancashire. The ascent from Downham is the most popular route — a steady climb of about an hour through fields and moorland that opens out to wide views across the Ribble Valley, the Forest of Bowland, and on clear days as far as the Lake District and Morecambe Bay. The top is grassy and slightly boggy; the trig point sits at the southern end of the flat summit plateau.
The hill is permanently associated with the Pendle Witch trials of 1612, when twelve people from the surrounding villages were accused of murder by witchcraft and taken to Lancaster for trial. Ten were hanged. The story is well told in local museums at Clitheroe and Lancaster, and a good deal of the Pendle tourism industry is built around it. None of which diminishes the hill itself, which is handsome and rewarding.