Introduction and Travel
I completed the Pennine Way in 16 days in 1974 so we were starting on the 50th anniversary of this!
Last time I backpacked the whole way with 2 friends but this time I was hiking with good friend Al from Gloucester who hasn’t walked the Pennine Way before. We were also using Brigantes luggage transfer so we just needed light day sacks. We've used Brigantes many times before as they are very reliable. We were staying in pubs and hotels, so luxury compared to last time.
2024 is the first of 3 parts over a total of 21 days, so a bit more leisurely than last time:
2024: Kirk Yetholm to Alston 6 days
2025: Alston to Horton-in-Ribblesdale 8 days
2026: Horton-in-Ribblesdale to Edale, just a few miles from where I live, 7 days
I made a note of some places of mileages and times through each day but this was weather dependent to a certain extent; rain stopped me doing this at times. Our usual walking pace is around 2.5 mph on hills, maybe around 3 mph on roads and 2 mph or so on steeper uphill slopes. Stops for photos and note taking are not included in these speeds.
We drove up on Monday 3rd June. Al followed my wife Jan and I in his car and dropped it off in Alston at the Alston House Hotel car park, as pre-arranged.
We had a stroll to stretch our legs after nearly 3 hours in the car and found a cafe in the square for a tea break. My wife Jan then drove all 3 of us the last 2 hours to Kirk Yetholm where we stayed in the Border Hotel. It was about 220 miles from home in Tunstead Milton.
The Border Hotel is usually the end of the Pennine Way for most people but for us it was going to be the start as we made our way from north to south. It’s about an 8 mile walk from home to Edale so I know the southern end quite well but haven’t walked the northern stretch since completing the Pennine Way 50 years ago. I managed to persuade Al to start in the north so that I could be in unfamiliar territory to see how much I remembered after 50 years.
Most of the days we will walk from north to south but for logistical reasons a few will be walked from the south going north. The first day is an example of this so that we are dropped off in the wilds of Cocklawfoot rather than finishing there and expecting my wife to wait until we turn up. Walking into the bar at the Border Hotel seemed a much better end to the day!
Tuesday 4th June 2024 Cocklawfoot to Kirk Yetholm
Day 1 14.6 miles 7 hours
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| We left the Border Hotel at 9.15am |
Jan drove us to the start of today's walk at Sourhope, near Cocklawfoot.
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| Sourhope Drop-off for a 9.45am start, it was cloudy and cold but dry |
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| Cocklawfoot Farm Bridge |
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| Cocklawfoot Farm 10.05am |
14.6 miles in 7 hours, 2910ft (890m) ascent. Max height 2457ft (750m).
Wednesday 5th June 2024 Cocklawfoot to Byrness
Day 2 17.2 miles 8 hours
Jan drove us round all the way to Cocklawfoot Farm so it was just an hour to do the 2 miles along Clennell Street to the ridge. There’s lots of room to park cars and turn around before the bridge near the farm entrance. We started at 9.25am.
It was bright, sunny and a bit breezy but we soon warmed up as we climbed the hill track to the ridge.
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| Cocklawfoot Farm 9.25am start
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Windy Gyle from Cock Law on Clennell Street 9.55am |
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Clennell Street above Cocklawfoot 9.55am  | | View NW along Clennell Street from Outer Cock Law, below main ridge 10.15am |
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| Clennell Street sign at the ridge junction with Pennine Way 10.35am |
The ridge going south was similarly well slabbed like yesterday to the north so we covered the ground quite quickly. We reached Windy Gyle at 11am 3.5 miles in the rain and wind. We didn't stop long! The sun briefly came out soon after.
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| View back between Windy Gyle and Mozie Law 11.30am |
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| View ahead between Windy Gyle and Mozie Law 11.30am |
Mozie Law 552m was reached at 12pm 5.5 miles. The rain had stopped but it was still windy.
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| Al posing with Mozie Law hills behind 12.05pm |
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Mozie Law view ahead 12.05pm  | | The view a few minutes before Lamb Hill 2.45pm |
 | Last short stretch to Lamb Hill, slabbed path with duck board bridges 2.45pm |
Lamb Hill was just a few minutes further on at 7.2 miles from Cocklawfoot, and the sun came out! |
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Lamb Hill Trig Point 511m view 2.50pm |
Another 10 minutes and half a mile saw us at Yearning Saddle Lamb Hill Refuge. We sat outside having a 15 minute break for a chat with other Pennine Wayfarers who were heading north. The refuge was a similar large garden shed type design, similar to the Auchope Refuge closer to Kirk Yetholm.
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| View south near Black Halls 2.10pm |
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| Brownhart Law signpost 2.30pm |
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| Approaching Chew Green 2.50pm |
At 3pm 11.5 miles we reached Chew Green Roman Fort. We wandered around here to try and gauge the size of it - it's huge and photographs don’t seem to do it justice. The defensive ditches around the outside are still quite deep in places too.
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| Chew Green Roman Fort ditch 3pm |
The route follows the edge of a military firing range and red flags were flying so we pressed on.
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| Chew Green Military Firing Range signs 3.10pm |
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| Coquet Head Military Firing Range sign 3.35pm |
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| Slabbed path with tree plantation on right near Ravens Knowe 3.50pm |
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| Ravens Knowe 527m view 4pm |
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| Archaeological Area on Ravens Knowe 4pm |
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| Ravens Knowe summit cairn and signs 4pm |
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| Byrness Hill 414m view west over Catcleugh Reservoir 4.50pm |
We followed the tops, like a high plateau, before descending steeply from Byrness Hill through freshly cleared forestry to Byrness.
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| Pennine Way sign just below Byrness Hill 4.50pm |
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| Cleared forest area above Byrness 4.55pm |
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| Path through forest near Byrness 5.05pm |
Just before reaching civilisation Al decided to head butt a tree after tripping over a rock on the path. Luckily the tree was unharmed. It was difficult to tell if Al was affected as he still kept coming out with his usual gibberish! I was sure he'd be fine after a pint or so and this proved to be the case.
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| Woodland path just before civilisation of Byrness, where Al head-butted a tree 5.05pm |
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| Byrness A68 Pennine Way path for a short distance 5.15pm |
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| Path beside A68 to Forest View 5.25pm |
We arrived at Forest View Inn at 5.30pm, our abode for the night. I tried to stay here in 1974 when it was a YHA hostel. I was backpacking with good friend Chris but the YHA was closed and in quarantine because someone had an illness that the local GP couldn’t identify and thought it could be something serious. We camped on the campsite down the road instead.
Forest View was a very friendly place full of other Pennine Wayfarers from far and wide. There were 14 people walking north but only Al and I were walking south.
Dinner was Spanish Chicken with Chorizo Sausage and beers from the First and Last Brewery in Bellingham.
During the evening I received a message from Jan to say our accommodation for tomorrow night at the Cheviot Hotel in Bellingham wasn't available. Our booking was lost during the change in ownership!
Fortunately, Jan managed to book us into the Riverdale Hall Hotel on the edge of Bellingham instead.
17.2 miles in 8 hours, 2.7mph average moving speed, 2752 ft (840m) ascent.
Thursday 6th June 2024 Byrness to Bellingham
Day 3 16.6 miles 7.8 hours
The only downside of Byrness Forest View was that our room was too small for me to do my normal morning stretches for my bad back. Luckily I managed to find a small bit of floor to do a few to get me going.
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| Our twin room at Forest View - packing bags for luggage transfer pickup 8.50am |
We had a good cooked breakfast, had our photographs taken outside for posterity by Oli (he photographs most people that stay with them and posts the pics on Facebook), and left at 9.15am. It was sunny with a cold breeze.
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| Leaving Byrness Forest View 9.15am |
It was easy walking on good tracks to start while I warmed up so I was fine.
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| Byrness Redesdale Forest track 10.50am |
We walked along forestry roads for quite a way. There were lots of huge log stacks beside the tracks.
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| Byrness Redesdale Forest log stack 11.15am |
Eventually, at 11.20am we turned off the forestry tracks onto footpaths through forest to open country.
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| Redesdale Forest footpath junction near Black Hill 11.20am |
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| Wind blown trees demolished on Black Hill 11.35am |
There were quite a few birds in the area around Black Hill and Brownrigg Head including Stonechats and Sky Larks.
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| Brownrigg Head tea break 11.55am |
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| Gunstone Minor Road crossing view south along Pennine Way 1.05pm |
We stopped for our lunch break by a stream at 2pm. By this stage we had seen 20 people walking north.
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| Al complaining that all he had for lunch was 1 dry biscuit 2pm. I think he was after one of my homemade Eccles Cakes! |
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| View south from Lough Shaw north of B6320 2.05pm |
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| View south from north of Blacklaw Farm 3.15pm |
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| Bellingham from northeast 3.35pm |
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| Bellingham Old Station 3.45pm |
At 3.45pm we walked into Bellingham and spotted an A-board near the old station directing us to the First and Last Brewery. We didn't want to appear churlish so we immediately diverted and as luck would have it their tap room, adjacent to the brewery, was open. I can highly recommend the Eclipse Milk Stout.
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| Bellingham First and Last Brewery Tap Room - my Eclipse pint on right 3.55pm |
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| Bellingham First and Last Brewery Tap Room bar 4pm |
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| Leaving the brewery at 5.15pm |
From the brewery it was just 15 minutes to walk the ¾ mile to the Riverdale Hall Hotel.
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| Bellingham Hareshaw Burn 5.20pm |
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| Bellingham Black Bull Hotel 5.25pm |
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| Bellingham just past the Black Bull, near the church |
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| Hadrian’s Wall Turret 45a view west 12.15pm |
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| Thirlwall Castle Ruins near Greenhead 12.50pm |
We reached the Greenhead Hotel soon after Thirlwall Castle ruins, after a very short detour. It was just a half mile detour from the main route.
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| Greenhead Hotel 1pm |
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| Greenhead Hotel bar 1pm |
I had a Blackhall English Stout, another very nice beer.
When I backpacked the Pennine Way in 1974 I tried to stay here with my 2 friends. We were soaked through and just wanted somewhere to dry off. The receptionist was just finding us a room when the hotel manager came along. He asked what was going on, the receptionist told him, and he instantly said they didn't have a room. He left us in no doubt that he didn't like the bedraggled look of us. Unfortunately, that also meant that we had to walk another 2 miles to Gilsland to find a bed and breakfast to stay, making it a 21.5 mile day.
Luckily, times have changed and Al and I weren't bedraggled so they let us in.
We stayed at the Greenhead Hotel in a very comfortable room to the rear of the hotel. The restaurant was busy in the evening but they managed to fit us in and we had a tasty meal.
7.8 miles in 3¾h with 630ft (195m) ascent at 2.6mph average moving speed.
Sunday 9th June 2024 Greenhead to Alston
Day 6 17.5 miles 8 hours
The cooked breakfast was good and set me up for the day. Then we packed our bags and Al took them down to reception ready for Brigantes to pick them up and take them to Alston.
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| Greenhead Hotel room 8.30am |
We left the hotel at 8.50am in the sunshine, but it was cold. It stayed dry all day.
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| Greenhead Hotel exterior 8.50am |
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| Blenkinsopp Common near Greenhead 9.30am |
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| Hartleyburn Common and footbridge 10.20am |
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| Batey Shield farmyard 10.45am |
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| Foxhole Cleugh - Hartley Burn 11.15am |
At 11.20am we stopped for a short break at a ruined barn after Hartley Burn. It was cold, dry and windy.
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| Moving off from the old barn ruins south of Hartley Burn 11.30am |
We soon crossed the A689 and were walking over moorland with few good features to pick out.
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| A689 Holly Rigg marker stone 11.45am |
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| Lambley Common Pennine Way marker stone 12.05pm |
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| Burnstones Knarsdale Estate notice board 1.15pm |
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Burnstones Knarsdale Hall gardens 1.20pm
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| Burnstones Viaduct 1.20pm |
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| Burnstones old railway track now part of the South Tyne Trail 1.25am |
We could see a path through the vegetation beside the road up to the old railway track above and at 1.25pm we were on top of the Burnstones viaduct near Knarsdale Hall. Al went down to the road below to find out from a passerby where the nearest pub was. With her directions we diverted to the Kirkstyle Inn just up the road. It was marked on the map but we didn’t know if it opened at lunchtime. It was just a few hundred yards off route so we were soon there.
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| Burnstones Viaduct from minor road |
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| Burnstones Church from minor road |
By 1.35pm we were sitting down in the Kirkstyle Inn for a mostly liquid lunch of Corby Ale and a bag of crisps.
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| Kirkstyle Inn bar 1.35pm |
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| Kirkstyle Inn 1.55pm |
The break didn’t last long as we were on our way at 1.55pm in the sunshine heading back to Burnstones Viaduct to pick up the trail again.
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| Slaggyford Station, Signal Box and Level Crossing 2.35pm |
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| Slaggyford South Tyne Trail Information board 2.35pm |
Al had painful feet from blisters on blisters, a common occurrence for him on our long treks. The path from Slaggyford officially crosses several fields to reach Alston but there's a footpath beside the railway tracks all the way to Alston. This was much easier underfoot such that Al limped into Alston station at 4.25pm.
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| South Tynedale Railway Information board - left hand half 3.05pm |
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| South Tynedale Railway Information board - right hand half 3.05pm |
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| Lintley South Tyne Trail Information board 3.05pm |
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| A train coming from Alston and trainspotter 3.25pm |
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| South Tynedale Railway signal box 3.30pm |
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| South Tynedale Railway old County border 3.45pm |
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| Approaching Alston Station 4.20pm |
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| Looking back at Alston Station 4.25pm |
We headed into the main town square and went to the Turks Head for a pint of Black Sheep bitter. Beer is a well known remedy for sore feet and the good thing is you don't have to rub it in, you just swallow it!
We left the pub and arrived at the Alston House Hotel at 4.50pm. Al had left his car in their car park on Monday - and it was still there!
17.5 miles in 8 hours with 1900 feet ascent 2.7mph average moving speed.
Monday 10th June 2024 Travel Home from Alston
We had a family room with 3 single beds so there was lots of room for the 2 of us. Al had 2 beds - one to sleep in and one to put his bag on. I only needed one, my bag was on the luggage stand! Having a bad back it really helps when I don’t have my bag on the floor.
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| Alston House Hotel room 7.47am |
After a good cooked breakfast we packed up and loaded our bags into Al’s car which was still parked in the hotel car park. Al then drove us back to Tunstead Milton to drop me off. After a bit of a break Al drove back to Gloucester.Summary
In total we walked 89.4 miles in 6 days from Kirk Yetholm to Alston, including pub and brewery diversions.
In 2025 we return to the Alston House Hotel to walk to Horton-in-Ribblesdale.
Equipment
Camera
Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ100, a good travel camera as long as you can keep it dry. Al once poured his pint over a previous one and it couldn’t be repaired so I had to replace it. Quite why he wasted perfectly good beer doing that I’ll never know.
On wet days I used my Motorola Edge 20 mobile phone in an Aquapac waterproof case to take a few pictures. All the mobile phones I’ve had take acceptable pictures until you try and zoom in to the subject - then they’re rubbish! That’s why I use the little compact camera rather than just relying on the phone. Being a professional photographer makes me more critical of picture quality than most people I guess?
There are over 150 images in this blog post and every one of them has been edited in Photoshop. They were all cropped, often just top and bottom to remove parts of the image that were distracting or didn’t add anything to the scene. I also set the black and white points and then often adjusted the brightness and contrast. That was pretty much the extent of the picture editing. The colour balance has not been touched and everything that you see was on the original file so they are effectively the views that I saw, nothing has been added. So if you go to the same place these are views that you will see, the lighting and weather may be different but the view will be very similar if not the same.
Maps, Guidebooks, Etc
Satmap Active 20 with Ordnance Survey 25k and 50k detailed maps. I programmed the route and uploaded it onto the GPS so route finding was very easy. I used it exclusively in the OS 25k map view for the extra detail of field boundaries and similar helpful features. 50 years ago I had to carry all 10 of the OS 1 inch to 1 mile maps (63.36k) for the entire route in my rucksack. It’s so much easier these days with GPS and luggage transfer so I only carry maps for 1 day!
Harveys Pennine Way North 40k waterproof map. I used this daily to see a larger view than that shown on the GPS screen to pick out the names of the neighbouring hills, etc.
Ordnance Survey 25k maps covering the daily route, just in case we wanted to divert off the narrow area shown on the Harveys map or something happened to the Satmap GPS. I didn’t use these at all but I still always carried them - you never know when you might need them.
Cicerone Guide ‘The Pennine Way’ and OS 1:25k map booklet. The guidebook wasn’t carried but was referred to each evening ready for the next day. 50 years ago we all carried a copy of the Wainwright ‘Pennine Way Companion’ guidebook - the one that pretty much everyone used at that time. I bought mine in 1973 which was 5 years after it was first published and it had already been reprinted 18 times! It was essential as the OS maps didn’t clearly show the route of the Pennine Way. In places the OS maps didn’t show the route at all! The main advantage of the Wainwright guide over the Cicerone guide was that every mile was marked on the hand-drawn maps in the guidebook - this was really helpful, as well as the detailed sketches of features to look out for.
The Cicerone map booklet was used every day to see the way ahead and around us, except when it was raining! The GPS screen is quite small (3x2 inches/7.5x5cm) so having a map for the wider view is useful.
I always carry a compass or two but I didn’t need to use either. It’s very different now with GPS technology compared to 20 years ago. For example, when I did the Munro’s from 1984 to 1996 I had to carry a map and compass in my hand all the time and refer to them almost continuously in bad weather or on untracked mountainside. Now I just glance at the GPS hanging from my rucksack strap which clearly shows the planned route superimposed on an OS 25k map and my exact position. The GPS is also completely weatherproof and has an excellent battery life of well over 20 hours.
Anemometer
Kestrel 2000 pocket anemometer. It gives wind speed, temperature and wind chill. Always useful to carry if expecting windy or very cold weather.
