St Cuthbert's Way Part V

 Well, that's the hardest bit past.    Kirk Yetholm to Wooler, across the moors, across the Cheviots, across the Border, across a landscape marked by the stones of ancient sites, by paths taken through the hills for thousands of years by countless feet...and mine.

The climb to the Border fence was not as steep as anticipated and the legs were still fresh. As the day wore on the uppy and downy bits became a bit more trying on the knee joints.

The Border

This part of the walk is the end of the Pennine way, little do the weary walkers know the last mile or so is a steep hill into Kirk Yetholm.

 Pressing on in the other direction, I dropped down to the Elsdon burn then through a wood giving thanks to the helpful soul(s) who had tied red marker tapes to the trees as the path wasn't that easy to find.    Elsdonburn farm led on to a bit of road walking past low slopes that still showed the marks of cultivation terraces used from prehistoric times.

Cultivation terraces on White Hill

 Every hill top seemed to have the ruins of its own Iron Age fort or Bronze Age burial cairn.

 The road led down the valley and to the beautiful College Burn at Hethpool. 

College Burn

A restful moment leaning on the bridge was rewarded by a dipper bobbing on a stone before plunging into the stream

Another climb from the valley was broken by a diversion to the get a recharge of negative ions from the cascade of Hethpool Linn, a great addition to my collection of wee waterfalls.

- and to see the marsh orchids blooming on the path to the burn.

Another break - I was beginning to take more of these - gave me a chance to explore the remains of a Neolithic settlement whose stones had been pillaged in the past to build a sheepfold.

Onwards, towards Yeavering Bell, with its huge hill-fort and then another climb up on to the moors and a long slog past the prominence of Tom Tallon's Crag.

Tom Tallon's Crag

A missed marker resulted in a deviation from the Way and an annoying detour to pick it up again as it came off Coldberry Hill. Still, nothing lost, except a few views.

I had noticed the occurrence of large boulders at intervals all the way along the route and wondered if they were way-marks from earlier times when these hills were more populous and travellers tended to keep to the higher, drier ground away from the marshy valley bottoms.

Marker stone

A bridle way and a woodland walk, clearly marked this time, took me past yet another hill-fort, Kettles Fort, and down from Wooler Common into the town itself. 

Kettles hill-fort

A seat on the Terrace and a pot of tea were the perfect antidote to weary limbs and sore feet.