Pennine Moorland and Cauldron Snout

The last time me n Peter got out for a walk was in Norway. I've got a few days holiday over Christmas, the weather is glorious and we've done all the family visits n stuff so it's time to get out and enjoy the glorious sunshine. Except Peter has to work. My fault to be honest, if I hadn't had a brilliant idea about eBay.............

Anyway, finally I managed to persuade him out of his studio and we set off for somewhere I'd wanted to see since Mike Knipe posted a "Where is this?" photo on the WalkersForum

Cow Green Reservoir

After an hour plus drive (stuck behind a big pile of hay!) we reached Cow Green Reservoir. I never realised it was so big. It's surrounded by the Moor House-Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve and is known as an area of outstanding natural beauty. I'd certainly agree with that statement. The area really is stunningly gorgeous, especially in the winter sun we were lucky to have today. Apparently Cow Green Reservoir is full of brown trout...... interesting if your interested in fishing I suppose.

The wind was bitter though, so well wrapped up, we set off along towards Cow Green Dam and Cauldron Snout Waterfall.  I dunno what I was expecting, but the dam looked really modern and concrete. Impressive though.

Cow Green Dam

The River Tees just before it tumbles over Cauldron Snout

Still feeling the cold through the layers of clothes we started down the Pennine Way over the boulders and rocks that line the sides of the waterfall as it drops 200 ft. Certainly not an easy clamber, because everything was covered in slippery melting ice. I had to "not look" once or twice, as I carefully made my way down, avoiding the ice for grass, mud, the odd bare stone, or anything that looked remotely firm. All that effort had its rewards. We were toasty warm when we got to the bottom, and we got to see the waterfall at it's best. 

Cauldron Snout - at the top

Cauldron Snout on the way down

Cauldron Snout at the bottom - and a video to give you the whole scene. 

After that, we followed the Pennine Way and the River Tees past Falcon Clints, It's hard to put into words how truly lovely it was to walk along valley in the December sun. Almost dream like.

The River Tees with Falcon Clints on the left

We passed Widdy Bank and Raven Scar

Looking back, Falcon Clints on the right now

Raven Scar

and reached Widdy Bank Farm, At this point, a little niggly cold that I'd been fighting off took the advantage and suddenly drained me of all my energy. It didn't stop me appreciating the beauty of the white farm buildings in the winter light though.

Widdy Bank Farm.

But it did make the last few miles of the walk feel particularly hard, especially since we'd chosen to follow the road back to the car park. A nice easy (if you discount the climb down beside the waterfall) 7 1/2 miles in a beautiful area on a beautiful day.

What more could you ask for.

High Cup Nick with a twist

But not the kind of twist I'd recommend! This is a brilliant walk which we did in August, and it's not as hard as it looks. I have no idea why I didn't take many photos of the early part of the walk, or the end? But I did manage to get pictures of the best bits.

You can see from the map we parked in Dufton and set off along the Pennine Way from near Billysbeck Bridge. The track becomes an old drovers road and takes you up hill with Dufton Pike on your left. From the track Dufton Pike is a near perfect little dome, I really like it.

Dufton Pike

We continued on the track up to Peeping Hill (fantastic name), and then onto the well trodden path that follows the North side of High Cup Gill. 'Cept it became less trodden and more hidden. I thought this was odd, because it's a well used path and it shouldn't be hard to follow? I think we must have been up above High Pots before we realised the mistake. A sharp left and a steep climb and we were back on route. No harm done. (Peter was leading of course, so naturally it is his fault that we'd lost our way slightly).

We continued on Narrow Gate Path, happily pottering along and loving the views when it happened. The track is boulder covered and my right leg missed its footing and twisted slightly as I almost fell. My left leg stumbled to keep me upright but my foot got jammed behind a rock. The ligament twisting turn to my left ankle was excruciating.

Concerned walkers tried to help as my ankle screamed in pain. Luckily, a few minutes later the initial hurt had gone and I was left with a tender joint.   It was alright as long as I kept my foot level. I thought about the walk ahead and the one behind and I decided I could continue. I decided that the short sharp way down was preferable, thinking that all I had to do was keep the foot flat. Surely I could manage that?

So we walked on and I watched where I put me feet. It was a brilliant day, and the views up there are magnificent.

Hich Cup Nick from Narrow Gate Path

High Cup Nick - Nichol Chair

We reached High Cup Nick, and sat for a few moments enjoying the scenery.

High Cup Nick, the view from the top

There were loads of other walkers there, I could hear some of them talking.....

"Don't get too close to the edge!"
"I can't even look over"
"There's no way you could get down there!"

But really it's dead easy to get down to the valley bottom from this point. OK, it looks difficult, but on closer inspection, you'll see it's an easy scramble for the first bit and then a steep grassy slope.

The grassy slope concerned me at first, but I used my behind. That is, I went down a fair amount of the hill sitting on it, which also took the pressure off me ankle.

The next bit was the bit that we hadn't thought about properly. Remember I had to keep me foot level? Well! It was a bit difficult to do that whilst negotiating all these rocks, but not keeping it level was far too painful. I made it across slowly and with the help of sticks.

Looking back to High Cup Nick

Then it was the nice grassy bit across the bottom of the valley, the last time we walked here, it was really wet and boggy, but today was really nice.

Looking up at the rock formations from High Cup Gill

High Cup Nick from Middletongue Crag

Negotiating the route across from Harbour Flatt to Keisley Bridge wasn't easy, as it's not signposted, but we did manage to find our way out of the farmers' field and onto the road. By this time, my ankle was starting to ache, so we decided to take the flat road route all the way back to Dufton, rather than the ROW marked on the map below.

Once again a brilliant day, the route shown on the map is just under 9 miles with 1660ft of ascent.

We've done this walk before by the way - here's the previous blog post >> High Cup Nick August 2011

A walk in the North Pennine moorland from Stanhope

View from Wolsingham Park Moor

Shittlehope Burn and what looks like a sort of tunnel.

This was a test walk.  Neither I nor Yvonne (Cheviot Stroller) had been out this way before.  So I sort of cobbled together a route of what looked like interesting features and met Yvonne in the little town of Stanhope.  We parked at the Durham Dales Centre and quickly set off, aiming for the cave(s) on the wonderfully named Shittlehope Burn.  (Map at end as usual)

Looking down on Ravensfield

I was slightly disappointed in that we couldn’t really see any caves, just a hint of rocks where they might be.  There looked to be an interesting tunnel though, but because everywhere was wet, muddy and slippery we decided not to explore.

From there we muddled our way across the fields to the tumbledown farmhouse which would have been Ravensfield, and then up the steep side of Shittlehope Edge.  

Roundhill Quarry

The paths here are not marked or very clear, and it was basically guesswork that got us to the Pit House.  We did unintentionally visit Roundhill Quarry on the way, which had its own charm.

The Pit House and Pit Mine

We got to the Pit House from where we were supposed to follow the right of way south, down the hill and then come back up again on Intake Lane.  We decided to try and take a short cut straight across to the tantalisingly close satellite mast.  This meant walking across the disused mine workings, (curious ups, downs and gulleys in the field), and over a damaged stone wall to rejoin our path, but it did save us another uphill climb, (shortcut not recommended).

From the satellite mast, we walked north on a clearly defined and waterlogged track on the edge of Wolsingham Park Moor.  The moor is bleak with nothing but heather for miles, as well as loads of very noisy grouse. Apparently the gentry don’t shoot on Sundays, which is probably why we didn't see another soul up there.  Despite overcast skies, the views were fantastic and we could see right across Weardale to the west and to the wind farm on the other side of Tow Law to the east.  Awesome.

More views across the moors

We passed Fatherley Hill, which is charming, and the mast at Collier Law to reach The Sandpit.  An odd place.  Obviously a disused sandstone quarry, it has its own alien landscape.

From there we headed for Weatherhill Engine, an old railway station described here:  Disused Stations Stanhope,  but any evidence of it is long since gone.  We crossed the road here, and found the finger post pointing to the public footpath that would take us down the bank to a gully and then on to the disused drift mine.  Finger post…… Yes. Path…..  No.  So we headed in the right general direction across the heather until we met up with our next path.

Disused Drift Mine

Then it was down to the disused drift mine, which I think might have closed in 2002.  The buildings are relatively modern.  I liked it here, shades of Jurassic Park 3, and surrounded by autumn trees.  Lurrrrvvly.

Reahope Burn

Onwards to meet up with Reahope Burn.  We followed it until Stanhope Burn which we walked alongside until we got to Stanhope. The sun was out in full force now, showing up the glorious colours of the woods we were walking through. This was a really delightful stretch of the walk, thoroughly enjoyed by us both in the low afternoon sun.

The woods next to Stanhope Burn

Then we were back in Stanhope and at our cars.  We’d walked just under 10 miles and explored an area new to us both.  Definitely some highlights on the walk, not least the views and the bleakness on the edge of Wolsingham Park Moor, as well as walking along the burns back into Stanhope.  Wonderful.  Thank you to Yvonne for keeping me company and steering both me and my GPS right as we walked round.

Our planned route of 10.2 miles. Except we didn't follow it entirely. 

Low Force, High Force and Holwick Scars

After a fantastic day in Swaledale on Saturday, I was expecting Sunday’s weather to be as glorious, and I was determined not to waste it.   Yvonne, (AKA Cheviot Stroller) was bulldozed into finding a route, (not strictly true, she was as keen to get out as I),  and found one of about 8 miles, starting with Low Force on the River Tees  (map at the end).  So we met up at Bowlees car park, and took the path through the tiny village towards Low Force and  Winch Bridge,

Low Force is quiet stunning.  There are four separate falls all in, and each of them quite mesmerizing. The might of all that water!  I personally loved the surrounding rockscape, created because the water is cutting through a layer of “igneous rock “ which was created by a lava flow millions of years ago.  When it cooled, the lava settled into all sorts of interesting pillars and crystalline type shapes.

We crossed the disturbingly bouncy Winch Bridge to follow the Pennine way alongside the Tees towards High Force.  

The river itself has its own rugged appeal.  The rocks and boulders are rough and craggy, refusing to be smoothed out by the flow of the river. Quite beguiling.

High Force is compelling viewing.  You just have to watch the water as it forces and gouges its way through the rock. 

I tried to capture how perilous the falls were and the awesome power of the water in photos, but the pictures are a mere shadow of the real thing.

After spending some time at High Force, we carried on up river to a charming little waterfall, Bleabeck Force.

Very pretty.

We carried on upriver.  On our right, across the Tees is Dine Holm Scar, which is also made of the cooled lava or igneous rock, and which was being quarried.  Ahead and left are the steep Green Hill and Cronkley Scars.  Lovely.

Green Hill Scar and Cronkley Scar

We turned south (ish), and away from the river at the point it turns north(ish), across some damp and squidgy grassland until we reached the wall with Fell Dike Sike on the other side.  Only a little beck, but it did require careful placement of the feet to remain dry.  Or in Yvonne’s case, walking sticks.

We walked a little further before turning east to start the way back. The damp and squidgy turned into wet and boggy.  So we were careful and picky to stop wet and soggy, (boots and feet that is).  

However, half way across this short stretch of boggy moor was Blea Beck, with its little stepping stone ford.  I have distinct memories of a very wet behind from a beck a lot shallower than this one and with  bigger stepping stones ……..

For anyone undecided about walking sticks…….. Buy them!  If only for keeping  your balance across half flooded, uneven stepping stones.  Because Yvonne is better organised than I, we were able to cross the beck using her sticks.  Of course, we wouldn’t have fallen in but the sticks gave us the confidence to cross

After that little adventure we reached the dirt track which would take us the rest of the way, through an awesome stile.

And then on through a tiny but impressive little gorge past Holwick Scar.
The very last part of the walk turns north through fields and back to the Winch Bridge, Low Force and our cars.
The weather hadn’t been quite as bright as it had the previous day, but it was another wonderful day in pleasant company.  

Lurrrrvly