Hog Lowe Pike- an intriguing name for an intriguing place. The humpback hill sits high on the surrounding moorland and despite its modest size, it is a prominent landmark easily seen by travellers on the Grane Road.
The earliest evidence of human activity on the hill comes from the Mesolithic era. This was a time before farming, where people survived by hunting and gathering. Hundreds of flints were unearthed by Brian Scofield in the 1980s, following a moorland fire. These included microliths (tiny stone tools), cores (larger stones from which the tools were chipped off) and wasters (discarded bits of stone that were of no use). Lancashire is not a flint rich region, with the less desirable but locally sourced chert being used to make tools. Flint is a far superior stone, and the pieces found at Hog Lowe Pike could have been traded from the East coast of Yorkshire. The discovery of so many artefacts indicates this may have been a temporary camp, where people prepared tools. It is possible that it could also be used as a vantage point to watch for prey animals.
To decipher the name, Hog Lowe Pike, the most likely origin of each part is from the Old English language, used by the Saxons (most Lancashire place names derive from a Saxon origin). While a modern interpretation of Hog is that the hill looks like the back of a pig, it is perhaps more likely to come from the Old English word ‘hoggi’, meaning a place where wild boar live.
The word ‘Lowe’ could give a clue to further prehistoric use. ‘Lowe’ often indicates a burial mound dating from the Bronze Age. In Lancashire, very few lowes have been archaeologically excavated, but in nearby Derbyshire many have, and have yielded Bronze Age burial remains. (Whitelow in Bury is a good example of a Bronze Age burial, excavated by Bury Archaeological Society). While the hill is natural, it could well have been enhanced with the construction of a mound on top. The actual word ‘lowe’ is a corruption of the Old English ‘hlaw’. The Saxons were clearly good at spotting and naming prehistoric burial sites, and perhaps did so as landscape aids to help with navigation on journeys.
The easiest part of the name to decipher is ‘Pike’. This simply means ‘peak’ and the Saxon word would be ‘pic’ in Old English, and ‘pik’ in Old Norse (the language of the Viking settlers in Lancashire).
On visiting the hill, the walker can easily see evidence of digging in the form of pits. At first glance it might be tempting to think this could have been done by antiquarians in Victorian or Edwardian times looking for prehistoric grave goods. However, the holes are more probably associated with the quarrying that is widespread throughout the area (see our page on nearby Musbury Heights Quarry here).
Atop Hog Lowe Pike is a trig point, a now obsolete pillar that was used to measure the distances between hills during the national survey of Britain. This immense task started in the 1930s and continued until 1962, to map the whole country accurately. The trig point was a stable concrete pillar, on top of which would be erected a moveable telescope on a tripod, known as a theodolite. This was secured by a distinctive three legged mounting plate (known as the spider) embedded on top of the pillar. Measurements could then be taken from one trigpoint to other visible ones on neighbouring hill tops. By calculating the angles of overlapping triangles, surveyors could use the information to work out exact distances between points.
Today Hog Lowe Pike is worth the trek to make a visit. There are good views over towards Winter Hill (with its Bronze age burial mound, see here) on one side, and Thirteen Stone Hill (surely the site of a vanished prehistoric monument) in another direction.
Site visited by A. and R. Bowden 2026
Access
Park at the Haslingden Grane car parks, either Clough Head car park (which has toilets and a cafe) or Calf Hey car park. Hog Lowe Pike is located at 748 214. There are paths up to it from the South of Calf Hey Reservoir. Take a map and a compass. See the United Utilities website here
Nearby
The Whisky Spinner of Bentley House
The Lost Village of Haslingden Grane
The Church that Moved- St Stephen’s
References
The Mystical Moors: A historical field guide to the Rossendale Valley, East Lancashire, Stephen Oldfield (2022). Carnegie Scotforth Book Production and Cambrian Printers. This book is excellent and deserves to be on the shelf of all who are interested in the history of Rossendale.
The Place Names of Lancashire, David Mills (1976) B.T. Batsford Ltd, London
ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/a-history-of-the-trig-pillar
unitedutilities.com/my-local-area/parks-and-reservoirs/acres-of-nature//Haslingden-Grane/
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