Gadgie Walks

Seven go off the rails in Teesdale, again. (Durham/Yorks.) November 2nd
Another repeat but a relatively easy 10 miles down the old railway line in Teesdale. There are seven of us out, Brian, Harry, Ben, Dave., John H., John Ha., and me.
The walk starts from Middleton in Teesdale but to get here we are driving to Barnard Castle, breakfasting and bussing to Middleton in Teesdale and walking back.
The car park in Barnard Castle is reached by driving down the high street, turning left at the ancient market and almost immediately left again. A bargain at £1.50 for the day. A few minutes walk away on the main street is the Penny café which is very welcoming and, more important, does a fine bacon sandwich, and a sausage one too.

This week's car park in Barnard Castle, a mere £1.50 for a day's parking

The ancient market in BC, vertical still after all these years. The Penny café is behind it and slightly down the road. The bus stop is to the right of the market.

Across the road from the café is the bus stop for either the 95 or 96 bus that leaves at 4 minutes to the hour and goes through the Teesdale villages to Middleton
You could do this walk without a amp but it is covered by OS OL 31 The North Pennines.
The walk:
We got off the bus in Middleton as soon as it crossed the bridge over the Tees, turned back and took the footpath on the north bank of the river. (There are three paths in the Tees valley; Teesdale Way on the north bank from Middleton, Teesdale Way on the south bank from Eggleston, and the Tees Railway Path)
Initially the north bank footpath clings to the river bank, crunchy underfoot this time of year with fallen leaves The river sparkled in the autumn sun, lovely day for a walk.

On the north bank footpath.

At one point the path leaves the river and goes to Egglesburn Farm, but we didn't, probably talking too much. A couple of fields later, realising we had made a mistake, we wandered a little before finding a narrow lane that brought us to the point MS height 208 on the OS map. Turning right on the road we found, on the left, a sign post pointing in the direction of New Town.

Blame them for missing our proper route.

Harry and I, honest citizens, crossed the fields to the farm and few houses at New Town and rejoined the Teesdale Way, following it all the way to the village of Egglestone. The others took a short cut, it is marked on the map, and cut out part of the village. We all met up at Egglestone Bridge and called a Herbie.

Waterfall on the road down from Egglestone to the bridge

Herbie time in the sun in November: Titan bars, cookies, cookies, chocolate cake bars, ginger biscuits and savoury scones from Mrs A

Herbie time over we crossed the river and joined the Teesdale Way on the south side of the river.and headed for the village of Romaldkirk.

The Tees at Eggleston Bridge.

Romaldkirk is another pretty Teesdale Village and once through it we followed the signposts to join the Tees Railway Path.

The church in Ramaldkirk. The only church dedicated to St. Ramald about whom not much is known. It has 14th century origins

Easy walking on this dismantled railway which you can follow from Middleton to Barnard Castle. It crosses the River Balder on a fine viaduct and comes close to the village of Cotherstone.

River Balder from the viaduct.

At Cotherstone decisions had to be made. The clocks had been put back and it was dusk, to continue to Barnard Castle meant we would probably arrive in the dark so five of us decided to walk across the fields into the village and catch the bus back to BC. Ben and Dave, both athletes and not afraid of the dark, chose to finish the day on the TeesRailway Path.

Cotherstone pub, it was closed, probably as well.

Back in BC and knowing we would have to wait for Ben and Dave we had a swift half in the Golden Lion before we all met up in the car park. Changed we headed for that good old favourite The Boathose in Wylam, it had its usual large selection of hand pulled beers and soda and lime for the driver.