Addlebrough in the Dales   (Or Brough Law in Ingram Valley)..........Sept 9th
  The nation has had a mini heat wave, warm air blowing up from Africa and sending records for the highest temperature in September to the highest "since records began" or at least 20 years. For a change we are off to the Yorkshire Dales, Wensleydale to be precise, home of Wallace and Grommit's* favourite cheese. white and crumbly with a sharp taste. Goes well with anything, especially marmalade in a sandwich.
There are five out: John x 2, Brian, Dave and me, the frustrated newspaper columnist.
The walk starts from the village of Worton near Hawes and it is covered by OS Explorer 30. Yorkshire Dales, North and Central. From Tyneside Worton is reached by taking the A1(M) South to Scotch Corner, The A6108 through Richmond to Leyburn and the A684 to the village. Off road parking is available.
Well that's as far as we got in that direction. I got to Brian's, John C., got to Brian's and much later John H. and Dave got to Brian's, thanks to heavy traffic and road works. Too late to drive down to Yorkshire, we decided to fall back on that good old favourite Brough Law. This well documented walk has been blogged several times but here it is again.
The walk starts from the car park at the Valley Cottage café in Ingram. A1 north, A687 at Morpeth, turn left some miles after Powburn into Ingram Valley, cross the road bridge and turn left , past the church and park. We had breakfast in the café, tea, coffee, bacon sandwiches, still175 pounds or 12 stones  7 lb.
This walk requires two OS maps; OL 16, The Cheviot Hills and Explorer 332, Alnwick and Amble.

  Car park and café. It has a small display of the history of the valley, starting 12000 years ago!
In the north west corner of the car park there is a footpath, it leads to the valley road near the bridge. This is the way we started. Once on the road we turned left and walked west, past Ingram Farm with its shy peacocks.

                 Too shy to flash those tails
Ignoring the first path on the left we walked on, taking the next footpath uphill, then along the side of a wood until we reached the top of Brough Law. An iron age bivallate hill fort, all that remains is the rubble of the perimeter walls.

                     Ruined walls, but they are Pre Roman, they have lasted well.
From the fort we took the footpath south above Chesters Burn for about a mile and a half before turning slowly through 90 degrees and heading over Cochrane Peak (mile 4). From here the footpath goes through bracken, crosses a farm track, continues through the bracken to a wooden gate of great interest.

Dave points out the added security of a two chained gate. It fooled the sheep but not us.

Once through this obstacle we followed the footpath north east to the top of Old Fawdon Hill which has a trig point and brilliant views of Simonside and the Cheviots. We normally sit on the top for a Herbie Spot but it was very windy so we descended  and sat in the shelter of a small wood. Another day of sharing; Fuesli bars, Almond Slices, Mrs A's chocolate cake and ginger with chocolate flapjacks fromwww.jesmondcakecompany.com.

 The trig point does not really lean, it was very windy.

Enclosure to the south east of Old Fawdon Hill. It doesn't appear to have a name, shame as it is very prominent.

Lunch over we walked across the fields to Fawdon Farm, turned left in the yard and almost immediately took the footpath round the side of East Hill. After about one and a half miles we took the footpath on the right across two fields to the Branton Ponds. Once gravel pits they are now nature reserves although there was not a lot of bird life about today, swans, Canada geese, lapwings and some ducks. Bur from the hide we were given a glimpse of the bird of the blog, a Kingfisher.

                     Not my picture, the Kingfisher is not exactly a common sight. The man in the hide had waited two hours for it to appear, and we scared it off as soon as it landed. Whoops, sorry

Having walked around the ponds we returned to the road, crossed the River Breamish by the footbridge, turned left and walked up the road to the car park.

Surprisingly we stopped at the Anglers Arms at Weldon Bridge on the way home. They had Young's London Gold, Bombardier and Diet Coke for one of our party who is off alcohol for a short period under doctor's orders. I hope he recovers soon, it is so embarrassing asking for a pint of coke please.

The Matrix MMXVI  YYYYYY

                                                                                steps              miles

NAK                                                                   30090                 10.44

Dave's 3D                                                           23560                 10.36

""""" USB                                                           22658                 10.38

  """   NAK                                                         22669                 10.37

OUTDOOR GPS                                                                           10.5

Garmin                                                                                           10.6

Brian                                                                                               10.5

For technical reasons there are two maps today

* Wallace and Grommit, a stop motion animation about one man and his dog. Very funny, very English and popular with people of all ages.