Emerald Fennell has adapted one of history’s most famous love stories to the big screen. Wuthering HeightsMargot Robbie, Jacob Elordi. Much of the new film’s shooting took place around the Yorkshire Dales National Park in North Yorkshire, the moors that inspired Emily Brontë’s original novel are located around the village of Haworth in the west of the county.
I grew up in the windy, flat-topped Pennines. Brontë portrayed these landscapes as being bleak, unforgiving, and tempestuous—and at many times of year they are, but they are also staggeringly beautiful and have given birth to some of the United Kingdom’s greatest 20th-century artists and sculptors.
We have the reputation of being somewhat Heathcliffian in our moroseness. Sometimes we’re temperamental and tight-lipped, but often direct to the point that it seems rude. Our personalities may be shaped in part by the terrain, and the harsh conditions that formed it. Like Heathcliff’s rugged surface, there is a romantic feeling beneath it. The hearts here are warm enough to break through the cold winter night. One day we can be dark, brooding, and the next day bright and joyful, just like the sun breaking through clouds on the fell or the heather carpeting the moors in purple on a late-summer’s day. If you visit our towns or villages, you will find that there is a direct kindness underneath the bluntness and a sharp sense humor.
In my teens, I couldn’t have waited to get out of West Yorkshire, to travel away from these treeless mountains, from the long, dark nights, and from that niggling sense that the area was too small to satisfy a wanderlust heart. But now when I return to West Yorkshire, I finally—and gratefully—see it for what it is. This is not a place that tries to be pretentious, but wears its beauty with ease and comfort like a worn-in pair of boots. It’s not just the rawness and untamed nature of these landscapes that makes them so romantic. These are the places in West Yorkshire which have inspired many artists, sculptors and writers.
This article was originally published in Condé Nast Traveller Middle East.
Haworth Village and Brontë Country
As with the Brontë sisters’ stories, we must begin in the cobblestone village of Haworth, 16 kilometers outside the city of Bradford. This is the heart of Brontë Country, a collection of sites associated with the sisters’ novels that draw literature lovers from around the world. The first stop is at the former family home, which has been transformed into the Bronte Centre. Brontë Parsonage MuseumThe visitors can look at Emily’s diaries, Charlotte’s desk, and Annes collection pebbles found on the Scarborough Beach. What scathing remarks they may have about the whole thing is hard to imagine. Stride outside to blow off the cobwebs. Top WithensThe ruined farmhouse that inspired the film Wuthering HeightsThe newly designated National Nature Reserve of Penistone Hill Country ParkThe museum is located just above. Haworth has a surprising twinned city in the form of Machu Picchu in Peru. While there may not be a citadel of the Incans here, and alpacas are far more numerous than sheep, both places have a similar textile heritage, steam railroads, economies that rely on tourism, as well as landscapes that are so stunning they deserve global recognition.
