As we went down to the river to walk.....

(Oh gadgies, where art thou?)

  Still locked down, small groups allowed out but at a distance of 2 metres from each other. It would require a car each to walk so here's another virtual gadgie adventure, a walk in Teesdale. 

The walk starts at Middleton in Teesdale and is a linear stroll which requires a little more organisation. There is a bus from Barnard Castle to Middleton, one an hour, leaving BC at 5 minutes to the hour from the bus stop across the road from Penny's Café where we had breakfast. A map is not essential but the walk is covered by OS OL 31 Explorer, The North Pennines

Drive to Barnard Castle which is west of Darlington. Barney is a pretty little northern market town with old fashioned shops and cafes and pubs and information office and lots of plaques telling you things like "Charles Dickens stayed Here."

At the bottom of the main street is an old market, octagonal in shape and up the street to the left is a car park which charges £1. 50 for a whole day.

 Barnard Castle car park, £1.50 for a day.

                   Built in 1747 the Market Cross in Barnard Castle,.
The bus winds up the valley, calling at the villages along the way until it reaches Middleton in Teesdale. End of the ride for us.

               Middleton in Teesdale
Ftom the main street of the village we walked back down towards the river, crossed the bridge and went through the gate on the left.

                    Through the gate......

………………………..having crossed the bridge over the Tees.
We crossed several fields before reaching Lonton Farm where we climbed a short flight of steps and were on the Tees Railway Path. Turned left and set off for Barnard Castle.

                        Over here and on to the railway track.

                                    Difficult to go wrong....
  Being a disused railway line the walk is flat, easy going and with spectacular views looking across the Tees Valley.
The old line crosses several small rivers as they make their way down to the Tees. The first one, crossed by a fine viaduct is the River Lune.

                   Viaduct, warning and the River Lune. This is not the same River Lune I was familiar with in my youth. That Lune flows west from the Pennines, through Lancaster and out into Morecambe Bay at the magical Sunderland Point.
 For the next three miles the walk is between fields, passing the village of Mickleton to the north and then turning south at Romaldkirk. Here the walk leaves the line and goes through the village, so we decided it was a good place to sit near the green for a Herbie.

                    The walk leaves the line at this house which has ancient and modern means of communication.

                    Not the best picture of the church at Romaldkirk but it's a fine village. Named for St. Rumwold, a  minor Saxon saint who went off to live in Buckinghamshire Lunch was the usual spread of ginger biscuits, flapjacks, almond slices, the newly discovered Skinny Whips and Mrs A sent savoury scones.
After lunch we followed the main road through the village for a short distance before turning right and heading up hill to rejoin the old railway.
After a couple of pleasant miles through fields we arrived at the next viaduct which crosses the River Balder.

                               Crossing the River Balder. This area used to be in Yorkshire but was moved to Durham in the great upheaval of 1974 which saw the abolition of Westmoreland and Rutland although the latter has been reborn.
Beyond the Balder the path comes close to the village of Cotherstone. If you have had enough, walk into the village and catch a bus back to Barnard Castle, it has happened on some gadgie days.
About a mile from Cotherstone the line links with another disused railway near Lartington Hall. This is the end of the Tees Railway Path, the next section of line is not a public right of way.

But gadgies are nothing if not rebellious and we carried on. We met a lady walking her dog and expected to be reprimanded but she said most people ignored the sign too. Eventually the railway comes to a halt at Pecknell Wood. Once there was a steel bridge that took the line across the river and into Barnard Castle. When the line was closed the bridge was taken for scrap.

The end of the line, literally
From this point we walked down through the wood and joined the Teesdale Way, the section on the south side of the water. At Deepdale aquaduct we crossed the river and headed back into the town.

                                                  Deepdale Aquaduct

              Barnard Castle, once the home for a short time of that great king Richard III
But before setting off home we refreshed ourselves after a ten mile walk in The Golden Lion on the high street.

           Contain OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2020
Apologies for the poor quality of the map.