Barnard Castle to Middleton-in-Teesdale

We slept extremely well at Newgate House and had scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast for a change. Our fellow guest at breakfast was Christine Finlay, doing back-up for a group of cyclists on holiday with Trailbrakes, the company she runs with her partner Pete Corson. The decorator arrived whilst we were eating breakfast, though Newgate House is all in such good decorative state that I don’t know where he was going to paint! We left Newgate House and bought provisions for lunch from the Co-Op, before heading out of Barnard Castle. We soon had a good view back to the Castle, though it was difficult to photograph because of the position of the Sun.

The Teesdale Way offers a choice of routes to the west of Barnard Castle, but we chose to take the main route to the north of the river. It was quite demanding walking, up and down through woodland. After a couple of miles we climbed steeply and emerged to the north of the wood; suddenly the character of the walk had changed – it was much more rugged, as you’d expect in the North Pennines. We passed East Holme House and West Holme House then eventually we descended to a bridge near Cotherstone, with excellent views to the river.

There was a choice of route from this point too, but again we took the main route, now to the south of the river. Before going too far we stopped for a break near the river, then we continued, close to the river. The signposting was good until it wasn’t! I should perhaps have realised when we climbed a rickety stile into woodland that we were no longer on the proper path; when the path fizzled out we began to realise that we’d done something wrong, so Richard went off to investigate and he found the correct route further away from the river. So I had to negotiate that rickety stile again.

We caught up with a group of Duke of Edinburgh students, with two teachers checking up on them. They were checking their map-reading skills so we overtook them, then realised that we’d taken the wrong route – so much for all our map-reading experience! We passed them again and walked on to the pretty village of Romaldkirk. We sat on a bench by the Church and watched first the two teachers and then the group of DoE students appear. The teachers checked the students from a distance then disappeared (to the pub?); the students headed off toward the Tees Railway Path, a rather more straightforward route than the one we were planning, but it meant we wouldn’t be continuing to leapfrog each other.

After lunch, we left Romaldkirk and walked across fields to Eggleston Bridge. We crossed the river here, then followed the road past Eggleston Hall, whose gardens are open to the public and where there is a tea shop; we didn’t take the risk of going to look for it, though I think it is very likely that it was open. We reached the village of Eggleston, and walked around a little green (complete with sheep). We were definitely in hill country now and there were good views. We took a minor road to the north of the village and followed a series of tracks and footpaths across open countryside. It had become quite misty, which also added to the feeling that we were in proper hill walking country.

We passed a caravan site in a rather unlikely spot near Eggleston Burn and after a false start we found the route of the Teesdale Way over the Burn, over a footbridge close to a ford. We emerged onto a road by the “Saddle House”, a reminder of the fact that we were on an old packhorse route. We reached the B6282 (the road between Barnard Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale) and stopped for a snack near Egglesburn Farm. Then, after what had been quite a long diversion, we descended back to the river.

The route from here to Middleton-in-Teesdale was quite straightforward; a couple of miles of riverside walking. However, just after passing Leekworth Camping and Caravan Site, it started to rain. We were so close to the end of our walk, and we were determined not to put on waterproofs, so we sheltered under trees by the river until it stopped. We then continued alongside the river to Middleton-in-Teesdale. This is the end of the route that is signposted as “Teesdale Way”; from here the route is shared with the Pennine Way, so before heading to the centre of the village we crossed the river and walked to the Auction Mart and to the Pennine Way sign to Low Force. And just as we did so, there were the two schoolteachers, waiting to meet the DoE students who were approaching across a field.