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WALK 5

Up and Down the Cheviot Hills

Start/Finish	Halterburn Valley, GR 840277, approximately 1 mile south-southeast from Kirk Yetholm
Distance	8 miles (12.9km)
Total Ascent	1821ft (555m)
Grade	2; 3 in winter conditions or poor visibility
Time	4–4½ hours
Maps	OS 1:25 000 Explorer OL16, The Cheviot Hills OS 1:50 000 Landranger sheet 74, Kelso & Coldstream Harvey 1:40 000 SuperWalker, Cheviot Hills
Parking	Below cattle-grid between road and Halter Burn
Accommodation	Kirk Yetholm and Town Yetholm – hotel, bed-and- breakfasts, caravan park, and youth hostel in Kirk Yetholm

In addition to a rich mix of upland and hill flora and fauna, one of the principal highlights of this walk is the view that meets the eye with every turn as height is gained. Few walks can match the constantly changing horizons; none can surpass them.

A walk that typifies the Cheviot Hills, with frequent ascents and descents, following as it does both the ‘high way’ and the ‘low way’ alternatives of the Pennine Way. The pathways, a mix of dirt or peat, stone and occasionally grass, are mainly sound and firm in summer, though wet spongy sections are met in winter.

Choose a fine, clear day, it matters not what time of year, as all seasons have their highlights.

Start from the off-road parking below the cattle-grid, heading south along the narrow road across the valley floor towards the few buildings of Halterburn. On our left the busy Halter Burn, although this is crossed several times as we progress into the valley, and above it the steep slopes of Green Humbleton, met at the end of our journey. Cross a cattle-grid and pass a stable and store before the steading of Burnhead. The Pennine Way leaves the farm lane left, as per the finger post, onto a narrow dirt-and-grass wallside path that bypasses the farm, and with stiles and a bridge rejoins the Pennine Way farm track running southeast. From this point, as we meet the silent, sad stones of what was Old Halterburnhead, surrounded by the evidence of ancient settlements and homesteads, the solitude of this curving, narrowing valley kicks in.

Kirk Yetholm Together with its twin, Town Yetholm, Kirk Yetholm was home to the royal line of Faa Gypsies – several houses around the village bear names such as Gypsy Row and Gypsy Palace. Knowledgeable travellers of yesteryear gave Kirk Yetholm a wide birth, for the sight of a stranger aroused the cry, ‘Oot aik sticks and bull pups.’ Nor was there any love lost between the two Yetholms, and even today ‘Yetholm cleeks’ still adorn the walls in Town Yetholm, very useful when it came to repelling intruders from that other place.

Above on our left is the high ridge that carries our return pathway from Black Hag via Steer Rig to White Law, one of the best viewpoints in the eastern Cheviots. Heading south and rising more steeply towards the nondescript lump that is the Curr 1849ft (564m), we meet and pass through a drystone wall that runs down from Latchly Hill en route to ascending Steerrig Knowe. Although our path, flanked by bracken, heather and white grass, tends to zizag and contour around the hill’s shoulders as it climbs by Birky Knowe, the direction is south to the col ahead, between the rounded summits of the Curr and Black Hag (not the most charismatic of summits). Once through the gate, however, it is a seat ‘in the gods’ from which to enjoy the unique display of the Cheviot Hills. Continue east then southeast with the slightly descending grass track to the triple finger post ahead, passing on the left the rocky outcrop of Corbie (crow) Craig below the well-named 1801ft (549m) summit of Black Hag. It’s a track that can be seen spearing south to the rock-crowned summit of that ‘nearly mountain’ the Schil 1985ft (605m); we go only as far as the triple Pennine Way finger post.

The Curr Flat topped and sombre, it stands at the head of the Halterburn and Bowmont valleys, its position rather than its form being the lure. The northern prospect from the Curr is particularly pleasing as the wide and graceful sweep of the Tweed Valley meets the eye.

Black Hag Appropriately named, ‘black’ refers to the heather cover, while ‘hag’ applies to the bunkers of peat. From its summit attractive views can be seen to the south, freestanding Schil crowned by its rocky tor and circlet of outcrops, and beyond the dour north face of Cheviot and the Border Ridge extending westwards for 9 miles (14.5km) to Lamb Hill 1677ft (511m).

White Law north of Steer Rig

Views of the Cheviots and beyond West and below the Schil there is Sourhope Burn Valley, its floor and flanks peppered with the remains of ancient settlements, homesteads, cultivation terraces, forts and cairns. The burn runs southwest towards Cocklawfoot and the Border Ridge from the Cheviot, then west to beyond Windy Gyle, Beefstand Hill and Lamb Hill (Walks 7–10). These names reflect that this was and still is a prime site for cattle and sheep farming. (There is of course a famous breed of sheep known as Cheviot.)

One finger points to the Schil, ‘Pennine Way’, the second finger points the way we have just walked and says ‘Low Level Alternative Route’, and the third finger ‘Pennine Way’, which is our pathway (also the Scottish–English border line) on a bearing of 345° over the flattened summit of Black Hag. The fence ahead is crossed by ladder-stile and marks a gradually descending fenceside walk north along Steer Rig that provides not only sightings of White Law, our next ascent, but also east over the V that is Trowup Burn Valley to the Northumberland coastline, and ahead to the Tweed Valley and the Lammermuir Hills beyond. Surrounded by a carpet of wind-bent white grass our twin track drops to the col above Old Halterburnhead. This is a place to rest and enjoy before the short sharp 262ft (80m) ascent north to the grandstand summit of White Law, with fine views over the College Valley to Newton Tors and Yeavering Bell (Walk 1), in addition to the Tweed Valley and beyond.

From the summit of White Law descend northwest alongside the fence to the stepped stile on the col below Whitelaw Nick, with its one-time fort. Cross the stile and with care descend north, alongside a stone wall, to the ancient border line crossing of White Swire. From here follow the winding, descending, now wide, dry and grassy track northwest (unless you wish to make a short detour west from White Swire to the Stob Stones – see Walk 4). A few yards beyond a prominent earthwork on the left of the path we are joined by St Cuthbert’s Way from the right, and with the joint long-distance paths continue descending, above Shielknowe Burn and below domed Green Humbleton, to cross Halter Burn, by bridge in winter, by ford in summer, to our starting point.

Old Halterburnhead below Bught Knowe

White Swire The first recorded mention of White Swyre (‘swyre’ is the old spelling) was in the Royal Command of 1222, when Henry III of England ordered the Bishop of Durham and the Sheriff of Northumberland, ‘to travel to White Swyre, and there settle the marches (boundary) between England and Scotland, restoring them to their status in the time of King John and his predecessors’.