High Cantle from Hartside in the Breamish Valley
(Northumberland) April 7th.
Hi Gloria!
  Back in the Cheviots for the first time for a while, five of us (later boosted to six) out for a walk in and out of the Breamish Valley on a cool, cloudy spring day. The five are John H., John Ha., Dave, Harry and me.
 To get to the start at Hartside in the Breamish Valley take the A1 north, the A697 and turn left at the sign for Ingram. In Ingram there is a café, Muddy Boots, with a fine if small display of the history of the valley. And history it has, the valley sides have ridge and furrow remains, cultivation terraces and several of the hilltops have forts on them, with ancient settlements on the lower land too. The name Ingram comes from OE angr-ham meaning grassland settlement and the wide valley remains a lush pasture. Breamish is pre Roman, brefu, and means to roar. The river isn't roaring much today though
We stopped at the café for morning coffee/tea/bacon before moving on to Hartside to start the walk.

            St. Michael's church Ingram. 11th century origins but mostly 18th/19th

 Muddy boots café. It used to be the information centre

                     Part of the display in the café showing the history of the valley
A book,  Reflections. The Breamish Valley and Ingram, by Sarah Wilson is on sale in the café and is full of the history of the area, anecdotes, characters and photographs.
Breakfast over we drove on the few miles to Hartside, which is as far as visitors are allowed to go. Hartside was the home of Nellie Heron who died on the moors in a snowstorm in the 19th century. (See  Looking for Nellie Heron 8/10/2015)
The map to use is OS OL 16 Cheviot Hills and Hartside is at GR NT977162
Walking due west from the grass verge that passes as a car park we passed the few houses that make up the hamlet of Linhope, including the big house built as a shooting lodge for the Joicey family.

                                                     Park on the side of the road at Hartside

                One of the Linhope cottages

                         The aubretia is about to cover the wall.
At the big house the road curves round the estate and becomes a farm track as opposed to a metalled road. Some short distance from the hedges surrounding the house there is a track on the left. We followed it, generally in a western direction but occasionally wandering off piste and across lauder grass and heather. We stopped to admire a shooting butt.

              Butt no 7. It has a metal ring to tie your dog down, or your kitchen maid.

Distant Staindrop outcrops, for some reason I don't understand the other boys call them "double D"

We watched a tractor cutting the heather  before burning it off. This is done to encourage new growth to feed the grouse ready for the shooting season. The smoke was visible for miles, like Cherokee signals.

                       Burned off heather, and smoke

                                   Rig Cairn
At Rig Cairn we were back on the official path, marked quite well. Heading south west we reached High Cantle and descended the steep path to the river Breamish valley.

                   Look carefully, there are two stells in the Breamish valley

Quad bikes, which have replaced the shepherd's horse or feet, can pass the gate without stopping, very useful, especially on cattle grids.
We entered a small wood and called a Herbie Spot, sitting on a grassy bank and causing two pairs of Oyster Catchers to warn us off their nests on the shingle by the stream.
Today's sharings were peanut biscuits, snickers, Jaffa cakes and very rich brownies from www.jesmondcakecompany.com. makers of extremely nice cakes and biscuits.
Lunch over we headed south east on the farm track past the farm at High Bleakhope.

                             Herbie Spot

                   High Bleakhope Farm. It looked deserted in spite of the TV dish. There was a very friendly farmer working nearby though.
At Low Bleakhope we turned right along Salter's Road Track, climbing slowly before beginning the descent towards Little Dod. Hear we took the grassy path to the left, leaving the farm track that leads on to the delightfully named Ewaryt Shank and Alnham.

               Low Bleakhope. Neither farm has the traditional look!
The path, which is well marked heads north east, passing the remains of at least one ancient homestead before coming to Alnhammoor Farm. A gate in the wall just beyond the farm leads across a field to the track which curves round back to Hartside.

            Go for it Wordsworth, write it down

Alnhammoor Farm

River Breamish at Alnhammoor

Back at the car we noticed Brian's car and left a note on the windscreen saying "Anglers Arms", knowing he would understand the cryptic message.

 At the Anglers Arms, Weldon Bridge, we enjoyed a choice from Adnams Lighthouse, Black Sheep and Jennings Cumberland. The first and last went down very well, and Brian joined us.

Another good walk out for the gang of gadgies, I always like the Cheviots.

The Matrix MMXVII OO

                                                                          steps                             miles

NAK                                                                 24960                           9.45

Dave's 3D                                                         19940                           8.77

 ""  USB                                                           19296                            9.13

  "" NAK                                                          19154                            9.06

OUTDOOR GPS                                                                                   9.1

Etrex                                                                                                      9.13

Walking time 3hours 30 minutes    talking time 51 minutes

Contains OS Data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2017

The Highs and Lows of Teesdale (Yorks/Durham) March 31st. (Sprechen von Brexit ist verboten!!)
  It is a while since we visited Teesdale. Six gadgies out today, John H., John Ha., Ben, Harry, Dave and me, walking along the river to escape the Brexit argument which will now rattle on for several years making money for lawyers.
We are off to Bowlees, a village on the Tees north west of Middleton in Teesdale, reached by us via the A69 west, A68 south B6278 to Stanhope and a minor road to Middleton in Teesdale and Bowlees, which has a picnic area, a visitor centre and parking. Like many a good walk it crosses OS maps, the ones I have used are OL31 North Pennines and OL 19 Howgill Fells. (Copied and laminated of course, got to keep the daughters amused)The car park is at  GR NY907282 On OS 31

     The car park is free but there is a very polite request for a donation of £2

                   Visitor centre, inside and out. Looks like it was built as a Methodist Chapel. Nice staff, good coffee and tea but nobody had a bacon sandwich. I wonder why.
Morning tea/coffee over we walked across the village road, through a field and arrived at Wynch Bridge, a narrow footbridge over the Tees with a notice advising only on person to cross at a time.
Before crossing we stopped to admire Low Force, one of the falls on the river. A group of amateur artists, under the supervision of a young teacher, were busy sketching or painting the fall, several young men in wet suits and helmets were practising life saving beneath the bridge.

                                    Low Force

                                                 Take heed.

                   Somebody is breaking the rule.

                                   Welcome to the nature reserve
Once safely across we turned right and headed west along the footpath next to the river. It is part of the Pennine Way, the longest footpath in the UK, somewhere in the region of 212 miles from Derbyshire to the Border with the referendum seeking Scots. The path is narrow and stony in places but at least it was mud free. On one section we walked through a wood where we were required to wash boots in some killer liquid as there were tree killing bugs in the area. Shortly afterwards we arrived at High Force, another waterfall and more impressive than the first. And it started to rain, and the wind got up, blowing into faces.

OK, so it isn't Niagara, we're only a little country.
Beyond the cataract, on the north bank of the Tees there is a large working quarry. Along the walk there are several no longer working quarries.

                           Working quarry. It produces road stone apparently
Some way beyond the quarry, having crossed boggy fields we turned south (about 3.5 miles) towards Noon Hill on a barely visible track. Once through the first gate we came to we turned east. Skyer Beck was deep and wide, we had to walk some way upstream before we found a safe crossing point, at least I did, not being the greatest of swimmers and wearing new boots. We continued east, the rain having ceased and now the wind was at our backs.  At Blea Beck we walked upstream to find a crossing point, this time a bridge carrying a Land Rover track built with crushed stone. There were two rough sheds, obviously for the use of grouse shooters but for us they made a luxurious Herbie Spot.

                                            Herbie's halt and café

Lunch time for gadgies. Note the delicious piece of sticky ginger cake that Ben will be enjoying shortly. It is my signature dish. We also had home made peanut biscuits, Snickers, Ben's ginger biscuits and PORK PIES.
After lunch we continued east along the track, pleased not to be crossing boggy fields. Approaching
Holwick Scars we turned off the track and walked down a grassy path. The scars are part of the great Whin Sil, an igneous rock called dolerite. It forms in columns, a bit like the Giants Causeway, he said, donning the tweed jacket of a Geography teacher.

                                           The dolorite scars of Holwick

I took a fancy to this little cottage. An ideal spot for sitting in the evening, rereading War and Peace and drinking tea from a samovar.
Beyond the cottage we turned left down a road, crossed fields full of sheep and a few early lambs and were soon back at Wynch Bridge.

                                  Mint sauce

At the falls two men were using kayaks to do some white water kayaking over the fall. Not for me.

Kayaks at Low Force

Changed we drove part of the way home, stopping at The Punch Bowl in Edmundbyers for refreshment, the choice being Wainwright or Golden Plover or coffee. Then we went home. Another good walk even in the rain and wind, the views in upper Teesdale are well worth a bit of damp.

Contains OS Data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2017
And I couldn't cut the bottom off without starting again, hence the gap

The Matrix MMXVII NN

                                                    steps                             miles
NAK                                          22673                         8.58
Dave's 3D                                  20123                         8.86
"" USB                                     18182                         8.6
""  NAK                                   17888                          8.46
 iPhone                                     22377                          9.7*
Etrex 20                                                                        9.32*
Walking time 3 hours 31 minutes. Talking time 1 hour 15
*I walked further upstream at Skyer Beck (And did you notice the streams are now becks, not burns)

The gallery;

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