Morebattle to Kirk Yetholm and beyond
Monday 14th June 2010
14 miles including 7.5 miles on 'today's leg' of St Cuthbert's Way
Click here for all our photos from this walk.
The weather forecast for the rest of the week was good, so when we woke and discovered that it was raining, we weren't very happy! However it had stopped raining by the time we went down for breakfast at 8am and, with the exception of a few spots of rain in the late afternoon it stayed dry all day. It was pretty good walking weather - quite cool with high cloud - and visibility was good for this leg which, although short, passes the highest point on St Cuthbert's Way.
We had a delicious breakfast at the Templehall Inn (I particularly enjoyed the local beef sausages) served by Marlyn Black, and we chatted to Marlyn and the other couple staying (who had been to a wedding in Bamburgh and then visiting friends down the road in Morebattle). We didn't rush to leave, and went down to the shop to buy a postcard and provisions for lunch before setting off up the road towards Hownam. As the road climbed climbed, we could see the location of the former Linton Loch (now drained), the origin of both the name Morebattle (actually 'mere botle' or 'the settlement by the lake') and the fabled 'Linton Worm' (a dragon which caused havoc in the area in medieval times). We descended into a flat bottomed valley, clearly glacial, with very attractive wildflowers, and walked alongside the Kale Water.
We left the road on a footbridge across the Kale Water and climbed steadily, with views opening up in all directions. We skirted the summit of Grubbit Law and then climbed to the summit of Wideopen Hill, at 368 metres the highest point on St Cuthbert's Way and also approximately the halfway point. The views were superb.
We descended quite rapidly along a long ridge over Crookedshaws Hill, with view to the Yetholms and Yetholm Tarn. We then turned right onto a beautiful tree-lined lane, which took us down to the Bowmont Valley. We followed a minor road and then the B6401 towards Town Yetholm, stopping for lunch at a slightly bizarre bench in an even more bizarre location (looking towards the road by a disused quarry). We turned right then left to take a path heading between Town Yetholm and Kirk Yetholm, with a sheet of water to our left.
We turned off the route of St Cuthbert's Way to go into Town Yetholm. The bunting was out for festival week (a tradition linked to Yetholm's links with gypsies, including the election of a young man and woman as the Bari Gadgi and Bari Manushi to preside over the celebrations) but there wasn't much going on. We walked over the bridge and across the fields to Kirk Yetholm, passing the Youth Hostel (formerly a school for gypsy children, and where Helen and Tom had stayed in Kirk Yetholm). We emerged on the large village green, with the Border Hotel with its large 'End of the Pennine Way' sign on the left and Cross Keys House (where we were staying) on our right. But it was only 1.45pm.
So we kept walking... We followed the shared route of St Cuthbert's Way and the Pennine Way up the road towards Halterburn, and when the main route of the Pennine Way and St Cuthbert's Way left the road on a path to the left, we stayed on the road (an alternative Pennine Way route) alongside the Halter Burn. We passed a 'revival centre; and continued to the end of the road, then followed a track towards the farm at Burnhead, and skirted the farm (a horsey place) on a path. We climbed very slowly, through very attractive countryside, getting closer to the main Pennine Way route (also the country border) on the ridge above us and to our left. At the disused farm buildings at Old Halterburnhead we turned round and retraced our steps to Kirk Yetholm.
We'd told Kathleen Boyle at Cross Keys House that we would arrive about 5pm and we were just slightly early. We had a nice family room, with good views of the green, with the Border Hotel on the other side. Cross Keys House dates back to 1760 and was originally an inn. More recently, in 1913 it was the birthplace of Professor John Gray, a theologian and one of Yetholm's famous sons. In the evening we had a truly excellent meal at the Border Hotel, being entertained by a single woman who was eating with a couple nearby. She had completed the Pennine Way yesterday but then had got lost today trying to follow part of St Cuthbert's Way because she had no map! I'm not sure wheher this was because she had walked the Pennine Way without maps (and we have seen some walkers on long distance paths doing this) or whether she had used 'strip maps'. Either way it's stupid - we really don't like strip maps and were caught out on Offa's Dyke when a forest fire meant that we had to take a diversion. At just the point we really needed a map, we didn't have one. Rant over.
After dinner we walked down to the 19th Century Church (presumably the 'Kirk' in Kirk Yetholm) enjoying the evening sunshine.