Top Withens by night. The ruin is passed by walkers on the Pennine Way national trail

A professional photographer will chart the decay of a ruined farmhouse high on the Yorkshire hills, which is passed by thousands of walkers on the Pennine Way.

Top Withens is also visited by countless tourists who make the walk to the ruins, almost 1,400ft (423m) up on the moors above Stanbury in West Yorkshire.

Local photographer and videographer Simon Warner will showcase the progressive ruination of the building, said to be the location in which Emily Brontë set Wuthering Heights in her novel.

Using images taken by some of the best known photographers over the decades, including Bill Brandt, Fay Godwin and Alex Keighley, Mr Warner who is artist in residence for the Pennine Prospects Watershed Landscape project, hopes to explore the literary landscape of the South Pennines and people’s connections to it.

He said: “The more people know I’m interested in Top Withens the more they want to tell me their stories.

“It’s a special place to so many people: ashes have been scattered there and I know of at least one person who has proposed to his girlfriend at Top Withens.

“But why is it so important? Obviously it has the Brontës link; Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath both wrote poems about the site and many photographers have captured the scene over the years. But is there more to it than that?

Photographer Simon Warner. Photo: Steve Morgan

“From Top Withens and the Alcomden Stones not far away you can see for miles.

“There’s a feeling of being on the top of the world and despite its remoteness there’s a connection with the continent with an unbroken line direct to the Urals.

“Maybe the human desire to stand on the highest point relates to our survival instincts. I’m hoping that this survey will give us some insight into people’s motivations to make the journey and their feelings when they arrive.”

People travel half way around the world to visit the ruin, with many Japanese tourists among them; others pass it while hiking on the Pennine Way, but many may just be out for a Sunday afternoon walk with their dog.

Working with a group of tourism students to conduct a survey Simon hopes to find out why people hike to the remote spot above Haworth.

A three-part exhibition will be staged later this year, with Mr Warner’s video films shown on miniature screens; the photographic exhibition featuring the famed photographers; and work produced by collaboration with community groups.

The exhibition will open in September in the village of Haworth, which was home to the Brontë family, with a symposium on the subject the following month.