Pennine Way: Once Brewed to Bellingham

Tuesday 23rd April 2019

To continue my progress north along the Pennine Way I set off from the youth hostel at Once Brewed and took the route of the Roman Military Way that runs just to the south of Hadrian’s Wall rather on the Pennine Way, which follows the wall, as I had taken that route the day before and I was trying to minimise the undulations before leaving the wall behind. Eventually I returned to the Pennine Way, but not for long as when I reached Hotbank Farm I turned off to take a shortcut around Hotbank Crags and back onto the Pennine Way. This was as far as I had come along the Pennine Way the previous day and now I resumed my trek north heading into bleak, open moorland. The hills that form the Pennine range ends at Hadrian’s Wall and ahead of me now were low moorland hills largely covered in trees as part of the Wark Forest. There would be little variation in height and little to maintain my interest until I reached the Cheviot Hills two days away. The Pennine Way continues north through Northumberland National Park and initially I found the going rather boggy underfoot across Ridley Common and past the National Nature Reserve of Greenlee Lough.

The skies were overcast and added to my dreary feeling for the walk, although I appreciated the cooler temperatures especially compared with the heat over the weekend. Eventually I reached a conifer plantation, part of the Wark Forest, which merges with Kielder Forest further north to form the largest man-made woodland in England. The Pennine Way skirts the south-eastern corner of the conifer plantation on good, wide tracks that were easy to walk on, though lacking in interest, before branching off onto a boggy path that took me to the edge of the wood. There I saw a sign pointing towards a viewpoint for Bellcrag Moss, which was too intriguing to ignore so I took the diversion to the boggy, border flow country where an “internationally important” bog has been preserved for its conservation value, but wasn’t worth the look. Back onto the Pennine Way I headed out onto Haughton Common, which was mainly grass and thanks to the lack of rain over the previous twelve months was reasonably dry.

On the far side I entered woodland again with an excellent path underfoot that took me onto a road near Willowbog Farm and after a short walk along the road, and a stop for lunch, I headed back into conifer plantation until finally I left the woodland behind. A pretty clear path directed me north to the edge of the deep valley of the Warks Burn, which Wainwright described as “the best thing met on the walk from the Wall to Bellingham”. A steep descent brought me down to a delightful place with a slender river trickling over rocks through a deep cut ravine that was simple divine, and contrasted sharply with the man-made conifer plantations. The north bank was decorated with celandines, primroses and stitchworts as I now left behind the rougher part of the walk to head through the farmland of Horneystead, The Ash, Leadgate, and Lowstead eventually descending into another pretty valley, that of the Houxty Burn and up to the unfortunately named Shitlington Hall. A gentle rise brought me up to the similarly afflicted Shitlington Crags, which despite the name was a welcome assemblage of rock after the grass and bog of earlier in the day.

At the top of Ealingham Rigg I turned right past a big mast and down off Ealinghamrigg Common onto a road that led me all the way into the village of Bellingham. The weather had tried to improve throughout the day with the temperatures slowly climbing as the sun began to peak through the clouds mid-afternoon. After the dull start to the day I was astonished to realise that eventually I was beginning to enjoy it, even though there was nothing special about the walk itself as I just enjoyed the feeling of heading out across the countryside on foot, in cooler weather than the previous couple of days. After buying supplies for the next couple of days and checking in at the Youth Hostel the weather had improved so much I rushed back out to take advantage of it and head up Hareshaw Burn on a detour recommended by Wainwright. A path almost opposite the hostel heads uphill beside the stream into a fabulous wooded ravine that was brimming with life including wood anemones and wild garlic. I was absolutely in awe of the surroundings and entranced by everything I saw. The sun was now pouring down illuminating this delightful place though in many places the bottom of the ravine was in shadow.

The wonderful walk kept going through many fabulous scenes and past several small waterfalls until eventually I came to the end of the ravine at Hareshaw Linn, which is a spectacular waterfall into a damp, moss-covered bowl of rock. The lack of sunlight in the enclosed surroundings was slightly disappointing, but it had still left me thoroughly satisfied with the result and delighted to have to walk back through the valley to return to Bellingham. This was a day that just got better and better from the dull and overcast start in Wark Forest it culminated in this fabulous walk to Hareshaw Linn that was tremendously enthralling in good weather. I love wooded ravines such as these and this is a wonderful example.