Friday 9 October 2015

The Cheviot from Langleeford - Northumberland 8 Oct 2015.

The Cheviot from Langleeford and return
Northumberland
Distance 17km Climb 672m
Thursday 8 October 2015


Ian my friend had picked a brilliant day for us to go for a walk, as the weather was perfect.  We left the car at the parking area near Langleeford (230m), crossed the bridge over New Burn and turned right up the footpath to The Cheviot. This briefly headed north before turning east


The path was churned up quite a bit, wet and slippery in places due to all the rain over the last few days.



As we moved up the path we could see a lot of work was being carried out on replacing a fence.


We turned across the side of Scald Hill before reached the fence line that turned south west, and the views were opening up all around.  This is apart from the area to our south east which was dominated by Scald Hill and The Cheviot.



Another short climb and we reached the top of Scald Hill (549m).


I knew from previous walks that the small dip between Scald Hill and The Cheviot is where the ground tends to be very boggy.  Today it was quite dry with a only a few patches of wet bog. A lot better than I expected especially with all the rain we have had recently.


We continued to climb south west and enjoyed the views as they opened out, such a perfect day.


Just before we reached the style we walked the big stone path that had been laid to prevent erosion, once across the style we headed along the path to the trig point.  I had never seen it so clear up here.


Within seconds of taking this photo of Ian, with the trig point in view, a thin layer of low cloud or mist came down to cover most of the views but not enough to make things difficult.  It soon lifted.


We reached the top (815m) and met a gentleman who had came up the route we had thought about taking back to the car, this was over Hedgehope. He told us he had been stuck in a bog on Comb Fell for 15 minutes, so this gave us some warning and we changed our plans for the route back. We had seen a lot of water on Comb Fell on our way up The Cheviot. This gentleman collects trig points and informed us that The Cheviot was a primary trig point. After he gave us some more information on trig points, all very interesting, we were joined by a couple who had came up across from the Hen Hole. What with a fell runner another walker and a group we saw on the side of Scald Hill, The Cheviot was a very busy place today, not like the last time I was here. 

We continued on the stone path to Cairn Hill (777m), where we had a short break in Scotsman's Cairn a small circular stone shelter.



It was so clear and it would have been a shame to miss the view so we walked along the Pennine Way, crossed the style to Auchope Cairn. This was all now stone path, the last time I was here this was wooden duck boards.


From Auchope Cairn we could see clear along part of The Pennine Way passed the Mountain Rescue Hut across to The Schil and beyond to Scotland. The Hen Hole was to our right. We met another gentleman who explained the stones for the paths had came from old Lancashire Mills.



After a few minutes enjoying the views we retraced our steps back to Cairn Hill, where we turned south and followed the steep path down to near Scotsman's Knowe. We then headed north east along the intermittent path by the Hartshope Burn.


In places we had to cross the burn a few times following the path down stream. Up and down a few gully's.


Harthope Linn, a waterfall looked a nice place to visit, although at that time it was in the shade.


Crossing the fence we continued down the path, passed Langleeford Hope.


Then Langleeford, passed the footpath we had taken up The Cheviot at the start of our walk, and over the bridge back to the car parking area.


It had been a good days walking. Clear blue sky's with the start of the autumn colours coming through, excellent. We had covered over 17km with approx 672m climb.

More to follow


Boz North
Details correct at time of walking.
If you have enjoyed reading my walk or found it useful you may also like to read other walks I have done in Northumberland or other areas. Please check out the links on the right hand side.

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