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The Pennine Way | |
| Introduction Edale Crowden Globe Farm Slack Top Ponden Thornton Malham Horton Hawes Tan Hill |
 ...to the Border Hotel, Kirk Yetholm |
Bowes Middleton Langdon Beck Dufton Garrigill Alston Greenhead Twice Brewed Bellingham Bryness Uswayford |
The last day!
First I had the slightly daunting task of climbing back onto the PW. I choose to walk a little bit down the access road from the farm and join Clennell Street where they met. A short stiff climb of 300m got me back on the ridge. I turned right to follow the PW once again. Along here I noticed signs of impending improvements - there were several piles of flagstones. There may be a nice stone causey path there now.
There was a small drop and then a gradual rise to the OS pillar at Kings Seat. Here the ridge narrowed a bit and I climbed further until I met the worst part of the Cheviot crossing. Just after Crookedsike Head the track climbs through some peat hags and then through some more peat hags and then directly up a slope of crumbling peat. The path virtually disappears into the muck. I found myself at one point taking flying leaps to get over some of the channels baring progress. This gives you a taste of what the PW must have been in past times when the only way to get through some boggy sections was to run at top speed and hope for the best. The biggest surprise awaits you at the top of the peat slope where a boardwalk suddenly appears.
Here I caught up with the couple from the farm who were preparing to slog over the Cheviot and down the other side to Wooler (part of their own Coast-to-Coast walk). I wished them good luck and continued on the PW. No one I know of recommends the climb of The Cheviot - it is extremely boggy and has no views or features to be worth the effort. However there has been a causey (flagstone) path laid improving the access tremendously. The boardwalk went almost all the way to Auchope Cairn. The gleam of water underneath the boards certainly emphasised the need for the boardwalk. On a windy day Auchope Cairn would be a cold and forlorn place. Luckily for me there was little wind despite the gray skies.
I took the steep descent from the cairn in my stride since I could see the refuge hut (another creosoted wooden box) at the foot of the slope. From there I could see down into College Valley and up into the hanging valley of Hen Hole. There is a logbook in the hut. Before me was the short and sharp climb up into The Schil and its cornet of rocky crags. After the Schil there was an equally sharp drop down to a ladder-stile in a wall where I crossed into Scotland leaving England behind for the rest of the PW. After skirting around the end of the Black Hag ridge the PW forked - to the left was the low road dropping down to Burnhead Farm and a lane to Kirk Yetholm, to the right was the high road squeezing the last of the height from the hills. I followed the high road, firstly onto the good viewpoint of Steerrig Knowe and then following the rigg (Steer Rigg) to a last steep climb to White Law.
From White Law it was mostly downhill. A ladder-stile lead me northwards alongside a wall until I reached a track that went past the Stob Stones (almost hidden in the grass) and down to meet a minor road at the junction of Halter and Sheilknowe Burns. The lane lead through hawthorns and stone walls and over a small rise until Kirk Yetholm was before me!
The last thing to do was to truly finish the journey by crossing the threshold of the Border Hotel and claiming my 'Wainwright half' - a half pint offered by the publican to anyone who has done the PW in one go and has a copy of Wainwrights book. Kirk Yetholm also boasts a youth hostel (part of the Scottish Youth Hostel Association).
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