Top Withens

Top Withens (or Top Withins) is a ruined farmhouse near Haworth, West Yorkshire, England, notable for its association with Emily Bronte's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. It occupies a remote and exposed position on Haworth Moor, 1,377 feet (420 metres) above sea level. The name comes from a dialect word meaning "willows". A plaque affixed to a wall reads:

This farmhouse has been associated with "Wuthering Heights", the Earnshaw home in Emily Brontë's novel. The buildings, even when complete, bore no resemblance to the house she described, but the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the Heights. The popular misconception that Earnshaw's house was styled on Top Withens may have arisen from a series of letters between publisher George Smith and Charlotte Brontë's friend Ellen Nussey, as he sought a list of places that had inspired the novels. The ruin is east of Withins Height below Delf Hill. It lies on two long-distance paths, the Brontë Way and the Pennine Way. It is a popular walking destination from nearby Haworth and Stanbury. Such is the attraction to Japanese literary tourists that some footpath signs in the area include Japanese text.