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The Pennine Way | |
| Introduction Edale Crowden Globe Farm Slack Top Ponden Thornton Malham Horton Hawes Tan Hill |
 Padon Hill currick |
Bowes Middleton Langdon Beck Dufton Garrigill Alston Greenhead Twice Brewed Bellingham Bryness Uswayford |
Another misty start to the days walking. However you cannot blame any mist for the navigation mistake I made on starting the walk - turning left instead of right on exiting the hotel. Maybe it was too much amber liquid the night before! Anyway, it was not until I noticed that the green dale of Hareshaw Burn was on my right (about 10 minutes later) that I realised my mistake. I quickly backtracked into the town. One benefit from the unplanned detour: I noticed an interesting church conversion at the end of town (worth a look at if you are looking around the town).
Back on the correct route, I followed the West Woodburn road downhill and then uphill past the Bellingham Youth Hostel. The road was left when the PW went up the access lane to Blakelaw Farm and through the interesting collection of farm buildings into the fields on the other side. Up above the top of the Hareshaw Burn woods, the path forked - I took the lower fork which avoids disturbing stock in the enclosed fields near Hareshaw House. North of the farm a wide track was joined - the remains of a small railway line for a coal mine - and followed to the B6320 minor road.
Over the road the track dived into moorland covered with heather. It was clear on the ground but not very visible from a distance with the heather growing over it. The climb to Deer Play was not hard and gave good if limited views across the gently rolling moors. The direct route to Whitley Pike was followed by a sharp descent down to a minor road and then a gentle walk up the side of Padon Hill following a fence. At the highest point of the path, I took a detour up to Padon Hill currick - constructed in the 1920's by the Morrison-Bell family (who lived in the nearby Otterburn Hall) this appropriately bell-shaped monument commemorates the Scottish preacher Alexander Peden. It is well worth a close look and also gives some good views of the surrounding countryside.
I followed the fence down to a wall by the new plantation that almost surrounds the farm of Gib Shiel. The wall lead me up a short steep ascent to Brownrigg Head passing along the way a "flock" of emperor moths darting around. Here the PW turned left along a fence and dropped into the Redesdale Forest where it joined onto a 'road' (now used mainly for logging) that used to be the route by which sheep were driven from Redesdale to Bellingham. The walk along the road was very boring - the only excitement was keeping an eye out for the occasional logging truck.
The end of this boring section was signalled by appearance of Blakehopeburnhaugh Farm (the longest place name in England although nearby Cottonshopeburnfoot may displace it as recent maps have it as one word rather than two as previously). From there it was just a short distance to the River Rede and a chance to soak my road-weary feet in nice cold water. Note that the official Pennine Way route is impassable from here. The choice is to either walk up to the A68 road and follow it into Bryness (very boring along a busy road) or follow first the north banks of the Rede (up to a bridge) and then the south side (through forest) and then cross the river again to Bryness. The second option is much the better one despite the couple of points where the path was overgrown by tall grass.
I ended up near the Bryness church - a nice little building - with the Bryness Hotel in front of me. However my nights lodgings were at a B&B in the village itself so I turned left along a track that 500m later got to the village (the post office/shop and Bryness Youth Hostel are also here). I found myself sharing the B&B with Marilyn and Ian Charles. Fortification for the following long days was taken at the Bryness Hotel with many other PW walkers - good beer, good food, great company and worth the short walk from the village.
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