Kirk Yetholm to Wooler
Tuesday 15th June 2010
13.5 miles, mostly on St Cuthbert's Way
Click here for all our photos from this walk.
Kirk Yetholm is a peaceful place, but it is a Border village so has seen both conflict and smuggling in the past. It is only a short distance from the border with England and the name 'Yetholm' means 'the gate town', yett being an old Scottish word for a gate or doorway. Today we crossed the border into England and we were walking at high level for most of the day. We woke to sunshine and it was warm and sunny until lunchtime. It clouded over later, but stayed dry all day.
Richard had a 'full Scottish' breakfast at Cross Keys House and I had bacon, egg and tomato - lovely! We looked at Kathleen Boyle's collection of books about the area and talked to her about her visitors (who are mostly walkers on St Cuthbert's Way or the Pennine Way). I've always thought that the Pennine Way would be a boring walk (mile after mile of walking across moor), but looking at the official guide to the northern part of the path made me think that I might have been rather hasty in reaching that conclusion. It goes through or close to several places that we like (e.g. High Force, Alston) and from what Kathleen told us it is clear that some 'normal' walkers walk the Pennine Way, as well as the super-fit. Kathleen will collect walkers from half-way along the final leg, thus reducing a 26 mile walk to 2 times 15 miles (and, yes, I do know that two times 15 is not 26 - you have to walk 2 miles from the path to a road).
To return to St Cuthbert's Way. We picked up our sandwiches (and Kathleen insisted on giving us yoghurts and bananas too), posted postcards, and set off back up the road into the Halterburn Valley (as walked the previous afternoon). However this time we left the road after about a mile, taking a path across the lower slopes of Green Humbleton which climbed to the border ridge. We parted company with the Pennine Way just before the border, then crossed into England. We continued to climb for a while, with the summit of Eccles Cairn to our left, then we descended gradually.
The path is less well signposted in England, a fact that we discovered pretty quickly, in trying to find our way through a Forestry Commission wood. We descended to the farm buildings at Elsdonburn, passing though a field of delightful baby cattle, with a group of four walkers in the distance in front of us. From Elsdonburn we followed a farm road down to Hethpool, past Little and Great Hetha. Approaching Hethpool we passed the 'Collingwood Oaks', planted by (Cuthbert) Collingwoord to provide timber for warships. Unfortunately he had not taken into account the winds and poor soils, so by the time the trees had reached maturity, the Navy had moved on to iron-clad ships!
We passed the entrance to Hethpool House and then turned left down a path opposite Hethpool Cottages, thus turning away from the College Valley, whose claim to fame appears to be that only 12 cars per day are allowed into the valley.
We crossed College Burn then turned left again on a track through a wood and up onto the lower slopes of Easter Tor. We took a short diversion down to the waterfall Hethpool Linn and stopped there for lunch - it was a delightful spot and on the climb back to the main path we saw both orchids and feral goats.
We turned right and climbed steeply, between Easter Tor and Yeavering Bell, passing more feral goats. Yeavering Bell is Northumberland's largest hillfort and is believed to have been the stronghold of the Votadini, who occupied the area in Roman times. The climbing became less steep and eventually levelled off. The path crossed heather moor for a considerable distance - rather boring, especially since the heather wasn't in flower. However the views were good, to the Cheviot range on our right-hand side and as far as the sea to our left. As we rounded the head of the valley ('The Trows') we passed what we thought to be three female walkers, however this turned out to be the four walkers we had seen this morning.
We descended gradually towards Wooler. but the final approach to the town was rather convoluted. We descended steeply through the wood to a Forest Enterprise car park and then took a rather circuitous route across Wooler Common (at one point following two sides of a triangle). We were walking close to the four female walkers; they were usually slightly in front. though we overtook them when they took a wrong turning (they missed a boggy area, renowned for its two species of newt - not that we saw them!). They stopped for a chat when were putting my walking poles away on the final descent into Wooler.
We turned left onto High Street, passed the Black Bull (where the female walkers were staying) and found Tilldale House further up the High Street,on the right-hand side. Julia Devenport, who has been running the B&B for twenty-something years, showed us to a room at the rear of the house. It was lovely and quiet (apart from rather persistent bird song) with a huge bed (actually two single beds joined together) and a bath, and very tastefully decorated, with drapes etc. In the evening, we ate at Milan, an Italian restaurant behind the Black Bull. It was a slightly odd, with rather pseudo decor (complete with Roman - or Greek - statues) and a distinctly Northumbrian take on Italian food.. However the waiters and waitresses were very friendly and we had a delicious meal.