Alston to Haltwhistle

We woke to a sunny morning and it remained dry for almost the whole time we were walking, just raining on our final approach into Haltwhistle. We had a full English breakfast this morning, with Alston sausage (delicious!) then we left the Alston House Hotel, which we'd certainly recommend. We bought provisions for lunch from the large Spar Shop at the petrol station across the road, then we walked down through Alston to the South Tynedale Railway.

Alston is at a junction of routes across the Pennines and as such we have driven through it occasionally on various different journeys, most memorably when staying in Memersby when the children were teenagers with a misbehaving car which broke down completely up the road at the Killhope Lead Mining Museum and, even more years ago, en route from our wedding in Newcastle upon Tyne to our honeymoon in the Lake District. However, we haven't stayed in Alston before and I think we stopped here for the first time on the way back to our holiday cottage after walking to Garrigill last August. It's a memorable place, apparently rivalling Buxton for the title of highest market town in England, and with a steep cobbled Main Street. It was once in the heart of a mineral mining area, but times have been hard of late. Now it relies on farming and tourism, and the town has a rather down at heel feeling. It's a pity, because it's a characterful place and surrounded by fantastic North Pennine scenery.

The South Tynedale Railway follows the route of the former Haltwhistle and Alston line for about 3.5 miles and, in theory at least, the South Tyne Trail follows the former railway line all the way to Haltwhistle. In fact there were three diversions, but on each occasion these added to the interest of what might otherwise have been a slightly boring walk (though the countryside was attractive). The Haltwhistle and Alston Railway was a standard gauge railway, completed in 1852 with the construction of the viaduct over the river at Lambley Viaduct. By the time the line closed in 1976, the South Tynedale Railway Preservation Society had been working for three years, initially hoping to purchase the line intact from British Rail. They were unable to raise sufficient funds, and the track was lifted soon after the branch line closed. The decision was then taken to operate a narrow gauge railway, using rolling stock from railways that had supported mineral extraction; quite appropriate for this area! The first section of the South Tynedale Railway opened in 1983, and it is currently being extended to Slaggyford. They still aim to reopen all 13.5 miles of the line to Haltwhistle, but that feels a somewhat optimistic aim.

Yesterday we had watched a diesel-hauled train arrive at the station and the engine 'run around' from one end of the train to the other. The first train this morning wasn't due to leave until 10.45 and all was quiet at the Station. However when we walked past the sheds, a short distance along the line, a man was pottering about and the engine was already going on the same locomotive that we'd seen yesterday. We continued on the path alongside the track, first to the left of it (by the river) and then to the right. We emerged into delightful open countryside. We passed a man checking the track and shortly afterwards we reached Kirkhaugh Station; somewhat to our surprise, a couple of railway carriages had been left here. I've no idea whether this is a permanent feature or whether these carriages would be collected and fixed onto the 10.45 from Alston.

It wasn't too far from Kirkhaugh to Lintley Halt, the current end of the South Tynedale Railway; then suddenly, what's this "path closed" sign?...The path was indeed closed from here to Slaggyford and the route diverted onto the Pennine Way. The diversion was to allow construction of the extension to the South Tynedale Railway, and it was well sign-posted, but a very different type of walking (so, for example, I almost immediately needed my walking poles which I had expected would be firmly attached to my rucksac for the day); I pity anyone who had set out on the walk as a gentle potter without appropriate equipment.

However. overall, the diversion was definitely a plus point: we immediately got to see the viaduct that we would otherwise just have walked straight over, and the Pennine Way then took us down to and along a very attractive path by the River South Tyne. As yesterday it was not the sort of busy over-walked path that I'd come to associate with the Pennine Way. Eventually, after a short section on the A689, we climbed up to the village of Slaggyford. Our experience here was also positive; the views were good and within a couple of minutes of us sitting down on a bench, a lady who had just put away a sign advertising refreshments asked us if we were looking for something to eat or drink whilst another local, out walking his dog, stopped for a chat. We weren't quite sure from the map which route to take back to the railway line, but we just climbed up straight through the village, soon finding ourselves at the other end of the closed section, near the former Slaggyford Station.

Off we we went again, crossing another couple of viaducts. Then after just over a mile, just past Burnstones, we reached another closed section of the trail. This closure was only for about three weeks, and it is possible that (because it was a Sunday and they weren't working), we would have been able to get through, but it didn't seem worth taking the risk. There were several alternatives suggested and, again, the route that we followed was probably more interesting than walking straight along the railway: We followed the A689 back to Burnstones and over Thinhope Burn, then we took a minor road past a chapel and left to Eals Bridge; this is a bridge over the River South Tyne and just before the bridge the river has tried its hardest to wash the road away.We continued into Eals Village, with lovely stone buildings and a delightful setting in the wooded valley.

The road became a track and we were not entirely sure what the state would be of the footbridge that we were relying on to get back over the river; I am really not good on wobbly footbridges over rivers, though I could see I didn't have a great deal of choice. However I needn't have worried: the footbridge looked almost new - I wonder if its predecessor was washed away in the storms that had taken a chunk out of the road a mile to the south. Just before we crossed the bridge, we passed a group of walkers coming the other way, and then, after crossing the bridge and climbing up through the woods to get back to the railway line (which was quite a steep climb), a man was descending towards us. These were the first walkers we had seen all day. It was past our usual lunchtime, but we hadn't wanted to stop until we were confident that we were back on the "proper" route; amazingly there was a bench just as we rejoined the South Tyne Trail, so we took advantage of it in order to eat our lunch.

We then managed about another mile before the final diversion of the day. This one, in the shadow of the iconic Lambley Viaduct, is a permanent diversion away from the railway line; in brief it appears that the former Lambley Station is now a private house and somehow the right of way through their garden has been lost. This will be a real problem if they ever relay the track this far! Meanwhile, pedestrians are routed steeply downhill, then under one of the western arches of the viaduct, then back up steps to rejoin the railway line, just before it crosses the viaduct. It was quite a tough little section (and even more difficult for cyclists on National Cycle Route 68 - they are supposed to follow a longer diversion, but we met a man carrying his bike around the way we were going) but again it was really interesting to see the viaduct from underneath.

We continued across the viaduct, with pretty good views from here too, then continued along the railway line. Possibly because there are several carparks in the vicinity and possibly because it was a summer Sunday afternoon, there were many more people on the trail than there had been this morning. We passed Coanwood, Featherstone, Rowfoot and Park Village and continued towards Haltwhistle. To be honest it was a bit boring, and my knees were getting tired of what was now a tarmac walking surface, but the countryside remained attractive, and there were wildflowers and butterflies on the banks of the cuttings we were passing through.

Bizarrely, the South Tyne Trail appears to end just before the Haltwhistle by-pass (the A69) and Cycle Route 68 heads off parallel with the by-pass (goodness knows why!). However we crossed the by-pass and took an old road running roughly parallel with the river until we reached the bridge that we'd walked as far as when we were here in June and also when we were waiting for the bus on our way to Alston two days ago. It had started to rain, just in the final section from the A69; we donned cagoules and put the waterproof covers on our rucksacs, but we didn't bother with the over-trousers. This may have been a mistake; we were in a fairly drippy state when we reached Haltwhistle Station. We had three-quarters of an hour to wait for a train, but thankfully there was a waiting room.

So that was the South Tyne Trail done. We had joined up with the link path we had discovered in May, and that link path leads to the Hadrian's Wall Path. Meanwhile we caught a train to Hexham where we had a good night at the County Hotel and a pleasant meal at the Golden Dragon. We've spent a night in Hexham before and we'll never forget it; it was the night of my 40th birthday and the following morning the news broke of Princess Diana's death. Anyway, on that occasion we ate at a Chinese restaurant called the Jasmine Garden, and the Jasmine Garden became the Golden Dragon (we thought it was familiar so checked with a waitress). What a small world! The following morning we caught a bus to Halton Red House to continue our exploits, now to the north of Hadrian's Wall on St Oswald's Way.

Following leg of our linked journey north (Haltwhistle onto Hadrian's Wall)