Climbing Clitheroe Castle

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Wed, 31/01/2024 - 00:00

Clitheroe Castle looks impregnable, sitting on that limestone outcrop, glowering over the surrounding countryside. It is not clear whether it was ever actually stormed and taken, but if it was, it will certainly have given any attacker a run for his money. Today, it is wheezing tourists who ascend its summit, though the council had closed the keep the last time I tried to enter, doubtless citing some needless health and safety regulation.

The keep is not impregnable, though. Climbing plants have made it their business to scale its walls and climb its towers, with ivies and other creepers making it their home.

No matter how mighty the fortress, how grim the castle, how secure the stronghold, they all fall in the end. Where is the Mongol empire? Where now the Third Reich? Who today fears Caesar's legions?

Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Daniel 2:35