South Tyne Trail

The River Tyne, the river that flows through Newcastle and reaches the North Sea at Tynemouth, is formed by the confluence of the River North Tyne (which rises near the Scottish border north of Kielder Water) and the River South Tyne. The confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne is just to the west of Hexham, thus the upper reaches of what I always thought of as the Tyne Valley to the west of Hexham (which I know best from the train line between Newcastle and Carlisle), in particular through Haltwhistle, Bardon Mill and Haydon Bridge, is actually the River South Tyne. The South Tyne rises at NY753352 to the south of Tynehead (NY762380), which is itself southeast of Garrigill which is southeast of Alston.

The exact length of the South Tyne Trail varies depending on your source of information. Some of the information boards on the former Haltwhistle and Alston railway line describe the South Tyne Trail as running just from Alston to Park Station, south of Haltwhistle. However, most comprehensively, it runs from the source and all the way into Haltwhistle, a total of about 23 miles.

We stumbled across the South Tyne Trail in August 2015 at Tynehead, at which time we were following a route of our own invention in preference to the Pennine Way. We'd followed a path down from the B6277 on the watershed of the South Tyne and the Tees, so I've regarded that as our starting point. South of Tynehead we followed Clargill Burn, past mine workings. Beyond that, now on the official route of the South Tyne Trail we were following the young South Tyne River through beautiful North Pennine countryside to Garrigill and on to Alston. From Alston to Haltwhistle the trail follows the route of the Haltwhistle and Alston Branch line, which for the first few miles is now also used by the narrow gauge South Tynedale Railway.

After discovering this lovely walk in August 2015 and progressing as far as Garrigill, it was nearly a year later - at the end of July 2016 - when we managed to work out the logistics to get back to Alston by public transport, and then to walk to Garrigill and Ash Gill waterfall and back. We then walked on to Haltwhistle before catching a train on to Hexham and a bus to Halton Red House to resume our walk along St Oswald's Way. In terms of our linking of paths, the South Tyne Trail followed on from a walk that had vaguely followed the Pennine Way, and it led us, via a delightful link path, to Hadrian's Wall Path.

The South Tyne Trail is waymarked with a sign bearing a "TT" logo, presumably for "Tyne Trail". It is shown on Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure Sheets 31 (North Pennines) and 43 (Hadrian's Wall). It was generally easy to follow, though in 2015 we had to climb over a fence on one occasion and in 2016 the route was diverted a couple of times, and was not quite as shown on the Ordnance Survey map on another. This meant that a route that we had expected to be very easy walking, along a railway line, was actually rather more difficult, with descents and ascents. So don't be tempted to set off on the route without maps and proper walking boots; I also used my walking poles, in particular in the diverted sections.

For more photos of our walk along the South Tyne Trail click here.

First leg (from B6277 at top of South Tyne Valley to Garrigill)