To Gibraltar and Beyond

 To Gibraltar and Beyond. August 1st

A new walk, almost. Today's wander starts at the village of Hunstanworth near Blanchland. Huntstanworth is in County Durham, just. A69 west, A68 south  and watch out for signs for Blanchland. Morning coffee in the White Monk cafe in Blanchland and a couple of miles on to Hunstanworth. Park on the roadside by the church.

Two OS maps for the walk:OS Explorer 307 Consett and OS OL 43 Hadrian's Wall

Hunstanworth first gets a mention in 1183. The village is an estate village created in 1862.

The church however is older. Built in 1781 on the site of a medieval church it was rebuilt in 1862. Next to it are the remains of a peel tower.

The village is one of the Thankful Villages, it suffered no casualties in WW1.

Parking near St James the Less in Hunstanworth

St James the Less, Huntstanworth

Walking away from the church, going west, we crossed a couple of fields, going downhill to the Nookton Burn. The first stile of the day took us into a wood. The path was hard to find as it wandered uphill through high bracken and trailing brambles which had a nasty habit of catching feet.

                    The first stile of the day.

Out of the wood we passed Gibraltar, not that there was anything to see (mile 1) and continued on our way across fields to Nookden (mile 2). Crossing Nookden Fell we came to a shooting Cabin and although only 3.5 miles into the walk it made a comfortable Herbie Spot.

The shooting Cabin

                 Fine dining in the cabin: apple pies, shortbread and caramel, scones, buns, cookies and ginger biscuits.

Full we walked on, turning north west to Heatheryburn, an isolated farm  at mile 4.

                            Heatheryburn farm and geese.

Beyond the farm we continued by track to the junction near Riddlehamhope, turned left and at a fingerpost hraded across fields to mile 5 where we took a bracken high and hard to follow footpath downhill. (mile 5) Hard going through the bracken but on Hope Fell it was difficult to find a path through the heather. Some stayed lower down and some climbed to admire the trig point before finding the Carriers Way, a metalled track at last.

                                       The trig point on Newbiggin Fell.

                        The second shooters cabin, more substantial than the first.

A choice of routes here, we decided on the one going south east. At mile m7 we entered a small wood. The path down and through the trees was very steep and quite difficult, hard on the knees. But once out and over a field we crossed the Nookden Burn again and a field later were back at the cars.

On the way home we enjoyed some well earned TTL or Wainwrights in the Fox and Hounds at Wylam.

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The walk is a little over 8 miles but quite hard going crossing heather covered moorland and there are a couple of steep descents.