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WALK 3

Mountains, Crags and a Waterfall

Start/Finish	Upper Harthope Valley, GR 953225 (Linhope Spout)
Distance	10 miles (16.1km)
Total Ascent	1898ft (578.5m)
Grade	3, or 4 in adverse conditions
Time	6 hours
Maps	OS 1:25 000 Explorer OL16, The Cheviot Hills OS 1:50 000 Landranger sheets 74, Kelso & Coldstream, 80, Cheviot Hills & Kielder Water and 81, Alnwick & Morpeth Harvey 1:40 000 SuperWalker, Cheviot Hills
Parking	Off-road parking in Upper Harthope, GR 953225, fi mile (0.8km) before Langleeford
Accommodation	Wooler, Powburn and Glanton provide food and accommodation

Permissive paths along the route may, unlike designated rights of way, be changed from time to time. In the event of such changes within Northumberland National Park, up-to-date details of alterations will be displayed, together with strategically sited waymarks.

A challenging, rewarding linear walk of two varied halves. The first an ascending, steep in places, descending adventure on Hedgehope Hill, whose summit provides a splendid far-seeing grandstand and where the surrounding crags are of geological interest, while Linhope Spout supplies a spectacular, at times dramatic, journey’s end. Underfoot, waymarked public bridleways, footpaths and permissive paths. On the steep sections of Hedgehope dirt paths are thin and in places slippery. The second half traverses crag-scattered moorland, visits an ancient stone circle, strides through conifer forest rides and pathways leading to the wide Breamish Valley, before the final picturesque mile to Linhope Spout.

Five miles (8km) southwest of Wooler, deep in the Harthope Valley, stands the farm of Langleeford. Start the walk at the road bridge, where a signpost directs the walker 2½ miles (4km) southwest to the conical summit of Hedgehope Hill 2343ft (714m). Harthope Burn is crossed by footbridge, from where a waymarked path leads south over three stiles to the open fell and the distinct outcrops of Housey Crags and Long Crags. Leave Long Crags at its southwest corner via a stile and follow the distinct path for 1 mile (1.6km) southwest across the wetlands of Kelpie Strand.

Hedgehope Hill Meaning ‘head of the valleys’, this mountain is the second-highest peak in the Cheviot range. Because of its distinctive conical shape and its position on the southeast corner of the range, Hedgehope Hill is one of the most distinctive mountains in the Cheviots. From the summit on a crystal clear day, fine views unfold – of the Northumbrian coastal plain, the island of Lindisfarne, the northern Pennines to Cross Fell and perhaps the peaks of the northern Lakes.

A change in the vegetation underfoot clearly signals the imminent ascent of Hedgehope. Rushes, bright-green moss and cotton grass give way to bents, bilberries and mat grass as the faint waymarked path begins to climb steeply, initially south-southwest, then south for a relentless plod to the domed, cairn-and-trig-point-capped summit of Hedgehope Hill. At the time of writing two recent maps, OS Explorer OL16, The Cheviot Hills, and Harvey SuperWalker, Cheviot Hills, show the permissive path of our ascent forking right at GR 946206, initially on a southwesterly bearing of 240°. Do not take this uncertain right fork, as the way is unmarked, not visible and unstable underfoot.

Three fences meet on Hedgehope’s summit, leading the eye over endless heather and tussock with little company save moorland birds and hardy sheep. To the north over the Harthope Valley we see close-ups of Cheviot’s riven southern quarter, and on clear days the sandy coastline of Northumberland is visible. Our descent is via our outward route, providing insights into the Harthope Valley, Hawsen Crags and rounded Cold Law beyond. Inspect and enjoy Long Crags and Housey Crags before descending north beyond the crags to join the bridleway (initially a recent dirt-and-stone track) running southwest to Threestoneburn Wood.

Below and between Housey Crags to the west and the spectacular rock of Langlee Crags to the east the pathway splits. Our bridleway forks right, south-southwest, for 1½ stimulating miles (2.4km) to the regimented conifers of Threestoneburn Wood beyond Tathey Crags. Before the forest the grass-tracked way passes a metal shed and upright wooden poles, then enters the conifers via a narrow ride. A 15 minute walk reaches a stile and gate providing access to a clearing surrounding Threestoneburn Stone Circle, an enclosure and derelict stone circle north of the burn, some 400yds (366m) west of Threestoneburn House.

Long Crags, Housey Crags, Langlee Crags, Tathey Crags and Cunyan Crags Four-hundred million years ago a mass of molten rock welled up beneath the volcanoes of Cheviot and Hedgehope, eventually cooling to form granite. When this molten mass came into contact with volcanic larva, the intense heat changed it chemically into a somewhat different and harder rock. Today we have a circle of this changed rock, ‘the metamorphic aureole’, around Cheviot and Hedgehope. Natural weathering has worn away the softer rock, leaving the harder rocks exposed as visible outcrops. Later the ice age fashioned the crags by shearing and streamlining the rocks with the directional movement of the ice, in this case north and south.

Long Crags

Threestoneburn Stone Circle The stones in this circle were arranged elliptically, with 13 shafts, the tallest standing over 5ft (1.5m). Sadly, today only five standing stones remain. It has long puzzled me as to why the burn should be named so. With 13 stones originally in the circle, it would have been logical to name it ‘Thirteenstoneburn’. Could it be that ‘three’ has through time become a mispronunciation of ‘thirteen’?

Linhope Cottages

The waymarked route avoids the house by crossing the footbridge to re-enter the forest and continue south through silent shade, via marked pathways and forest tracks, for 1½ miles (2.4km), finally breaking cover at the southern-most tip below the rocks of Cunyan Crags above the isolated Breamish Valley. Continue south over open fell to join a westbound bridleway fringing the grassed-over remains of a medieval village (marked on the OS Map).

Swing right onto the distinct bridlepath, with a sheepfold and tin hut ahead, ignoring all crisscrossed paths and tracks, for a wide and handsome Cheviot hike southwest. Once through the gated stone wall, swing half-left, i.e. south-southwest, between coniferous plantations onto the gated cart track, descending to tiny, picturesque Linhope below the prehistoric village of Greaves Ash.

Continue with the lane, crossing Linhope Burn Bridge, to rise with the waymarked track northwest around Linhope House, then by permissive path to Linhope Spout, the Cheviot’s most spectacular waterfall.

Linhope Spout The most spectacular of all the Cheviot waterfalls, plunging 56ft (17m) into a deep rock pool 7ft (2m) across and 15ft (4.5m) deep. When Linhope Burn is in full spate the cascade is an awesome sight as it thunders into the pool below and hurries on between overhanging birches.