A photo blog of hiking St. Cuthbert's Way in June 2016.
Most of the photos on this site were taken by me (Nick Appleby, in case you weren’t in the know). But there were many excellent photos taken during the course of the hike by others in our little group, mostly by Bethany and Phil. Here is a selection of those photos, in no particular order.
The final day! And 4 miles shorter than it normally would be, since we could skip the stretch between Wooler and East Horton that we walked on Monday. Just as well, since the weather forecast was pretty unambiguous: increasing chance of rain all through the morning, 100% probability of heavy rain by about 2pm. So we got as early a start as we could. The logistics with the cars were particularly complicated for this day – first we had to leave a car at the end of the first leg, which was Fenwick. Then Gilli would drop us off at East Horton, and would park her car near St. Cuthbert’s Cave, since she wanted to walk the stretch between the cave and Fenwick. After that we’d have to take the car from Fenwick back to the cave to get Gilli’s car. Both cars would then go to Beal, just before the causeway to Holy Island – the tide would still be in at that point so we wouldn’t be able to bring the cars the whole way. Gilli would bring us back to Fenwick to walk the stretch to Beal; we’d then do one more two-car shuffle and leave a car in the parking lot on Holy Island, and then we could walk the final stretch across the causeway. Phew!
Gilli and I did the initial setup of cars before breakfast, then after checking out of the hotel in Wooler, Allan, Phil, Bethany and I set out from the dropoff point in East Horton. The day was overcast from the start, and we found ourselves having to don rain gear far sooner than we had hoped to protect against a light drizzle. The walk to St. Cuthbert’s cave proved to be longer than we had thought so we took more than an hour and a half to get there – we had hoped it would be less than an hour. As planned, Gilli joined us at the cave, which was quite a bit more substantial than expected – in the guide book, it had looked quite small. In fact it was very large, though not deep. The cave is named for St. Cuthbert because after his death, monks of Lindisfarne hid his body here for some time to protect it from Viking raids.
Right after the cave, the path climbed up to top a small ridge, which gave us our first view of Lindisfarne in the distance. We continued on to Fenwick; a lovely walk, though definitely rather damp and very muddy in places, which slowed down our progress. One section, named “Dolly Gibson’s Lonnen”, follows the path of an ancient greenway along the edge of a wood – the guide book warned that this section could be “muddy after rain” and it did not disappoint. However, we made it to Fenwick without major damage. The moving of cars to end up at Beal took quite a while because the place where Gilli had to park to get to the cave was accessible only by very small and circuitous roads. So by the time we got to Beal, the tide was already out far enough to use the causeway. We had a very nice lunch at the Barn at Beal, and then took one of the cars out to the Island. Then it was time to drive back to Fenwick to walk the final stretch.
By this time the rain was coming down steadily. Gilli had decided to wait at the causeway with the intention of walking across to the Island with us. So the rest of us headed east from Fenwick, across the A1 motorway and down to the line of the main railway running north-south, from Aberdeen down to London. As it is understandably a very busy line, walkers are required to call the signalman from a phone by the line before they cross. As it turned out, we were instructed to wait for the next train to pass before crossing – which we did as quickly as we could! After crossing the railway, it was a relatively short hike down to the beach at Beal, where we walked the remaining distance to the causeway between lines of old concrete blocks – “tank traps” that used to be spread along beaches to block invaders during WWII.
There are two ways to complete the final stretch to Holy Island – either by the causeway road, or by foot over the sands. We had always thought that we would go via the sands, as it is a little more romantic and closer to the way St. Cuthbert would have crossed. However, the sand crossing is slow – an hour longer than by the road – and must be completed in bare feet, and given the weather, we decided to go via the road. Gilli decided she would prefer not to walk after all, which was a very wise decision – though it was satisfying to complete the final leg of the hike, it was a pretty miserable walk – three miles in pouring rain, with no footpath, and having to step aside constantly onto either wet sand or marshy grass to let cars past. But even though we were soaked and footsore, it was a wonderful feeling when we finally arrived at the “Welcome to Lindisfarne” sign. A final few hundred yards completed the 62-mile hike, which ends at the ruins of Lindisfarne Priory, of which St. Cuthbert himself was Prior for many years.
Another very full day, and an exhausting but satisfying one. Since the day was going to end at our hotel in Wooler, for once we didn’t have to move a car to the destination. And since Gilli decided she would sit this day out and instead spend time visiting with Steve, we didn’t need to worry about lunch – they took sandwich orders at breakfast, and met us later at the halfway point with food for all.
So we started the day by driving to the Border Hotel in Kirk Yetholm, which is where we ended the day on Sunday. The day ahead of us would be the shortest but also the most strenuous (according to the guidebook) of all the sections of St. Cuthbert’s Way, so we weren’t surprised when we quite quickly found ourselves ascending a very steep hill. After what seemed like a very long climb, we reached a meandering and tumble-down wall – the Scottish/English border.
At this point I can admit that the photo on the home page of this blog, a very appropriate picture of the border sign, was up to now, a bit of a cheat – we hadn’t actually reached that point of the hike until today, so that photo was just one that I had grabbed from Google. Now it’s been replaced by an actual photo of myself, Bethany, Phil and Allan at the same point – never mind that I have a ridiculously stupid grin on my face; it’s still a photo that really captures the spirit of the whole hike! (To be honest, I’ve probably had a ridiculously stupid grin on my face much of the time for the last few days…)
The path continued to climb for some time, then worked its way downward through a bizarrely creepy small wood – very dark, with apparently no living plants at all within it. I stepped a few yards off to the side at one point to “answer nature’s call” behind a tree, and could have sworn I heard Gandalf’s voice intoning “Do not stray from the path, young Frodo …” Soon enough though we were out of the wood and continuing down to Hethpool. Steve and Gilli drove up literally moments after we arrived there, and we enjoyed a lovely lunch together.
We kept lunch pretty short though; we had enjoyed beautiful weather all morning, but the word was that rain was approaching, and we had the longer stretch of the day’s hike still ahead of us – 8 miles, from Hethpool to Wooler. After a mile or so along relatively flat ground, we ascended very steeply up to the top of a hill, and then were out onto moors that ran most of the way to Wooler. This was a long and fairly exhausting section – though we didn’t climb dramatically after the first stage, the ground was fairly uneven and also quite marshy at times, so it was hard work. The scenery was beautiful as always, but the sun had disappeared behind clouds by now and the moor seemed to stretch on forever. However, the temperature was very comfortable, and the rain stayed away – after a while those of us who had donned rain gear took it off again, and we hiked in t-shirts. I had to change socks once after taking a bad step or two in a boggy section – those New Balance shoes are very comfortable but far from waterproof. But by the time Wooler appeared in the valley below us, there still hadn’t been a drop of rain – we had been lucky again.
We descended through beautiful woods spotted with foxgloves, and arrived in Wooler from the north – just as we covered the last couple of hundred yards, we felt the first drops of rain, so we were just in time! Drinks in the hotel bar were very welcome, as was the hot bath in the huge tub in our bedroom afterwards (that part was just for Bethany and me; we selfishly didn’t invite the others to join us .. ;). After we had all drunk up, warmed up and rested, we crossed the road to the Black Bull pub – right next door to the Milan restaurant we ate at yesterday. The food this time was very different – classic English fare like beef and Yorkshire pudding with gravy – but really excellent. And very filling – we were once again very glad we only had to roll back across the road to get to bed! One more day to go – a complex one in terms of logistics, but one that we think should be very fulfilling!
First, a word (or two) of explanation. Officially, this was our rest day – we had decided it would be good to have two full hiking days, then a day to recover before the final two days. However, in discussing the schedule for the remaining days, we realized that the final day (Wooler to Lindisfarne) was going to be tricky – it’s a long hike, 18 miles, and has to be timed just right because Lindisfarne (a.k.a. Holy Island) is only accessible at certain times of day when the tide is out and the causeway is exposed. So we decided that it would be good to use the morning of our rest day to “pre-hike” part of what we would otherwise cover on the final day. This means that this part of the hike would be out of order – we’ll be backtracking tomorrow to hike the section that normally comes before this part – but everyone is okay with that!
After our customary Scottish breakfast in Jedburgh, we settled up with our host and drove to Wooler. We did our usual “car shuffle” to leave our little blue rental car in East Horton, a tiny village (really just a farm and a few houses) 4 miles east of Wooler. Then we parked Gilli’s car in the bus station car park in Wooler and set off. This part of the hike felt very familiar for Gilli, Phil and me as we grew up in Wooler – we’d been along these roads many times, though some of us not for many years. From the High Street, we went down Church Street and then along the Wooler Water (part of the Till River, and familiar to me from many summer days racing stick boats down the weir etc.). Then we headed east out of town and up Weetwood Bank – a bit of a steep climb at first, but nothing like what we hiked on Sunday! – with gorgeous views back over the valley to Wooler, with the Cheviot hills in the background. Then we came out on the moor at the top. I should mention that this was by far the best weather we had had so far, with plentiful bright sun – so it was a really lovely walk across the moor. We then descended down from the moor to the very old and very narrow Weetwood Bridge – it has a weight limit of two tons, and to avoid heavier traffic, there are posts on each side that only arrow narrow vehicles through (driving back across the bridge later set off all the proximity alarms on my very sensitive little car!). Then a 1 1/2 mile walk along the road to East Horton.
After driving back to Wooler, Bethany and I headed up to Berwick to pick up brother Steve who was coming up from London for just a couple of days. We then returned to Wooler, stopping on the way to visit the 11th century church in Ancroft (fortified to protect the villagers in the case of raids from the Scots) and checked in at the very lovely new No. 1 hotel on the High Street – this will be our “home base” for the next couple of nights. Dinner was at the Milan Italian restaurant directly across the road, and it was delicious. Then back to the hotel for an early night, in preparation for another long walking day tomorrow, from Kirk Yetholm to Wooler.
This is the longest stretch on the whole of St. Cuthbert’s Way, and it also includes the steepest climb – it was a very tough day. Before lunch we walked from Harestanes Vistor Center to Morebattle, which according to the guide book is 10 miles – but with three different mileage calculators running, none of us came up with a distance of less than 11 miles. However, for the most part this was very far from a hardship. This walk included some of the most beautiful scenery and walks we have seen so far, and the weather was glorious.
We had one interesting interruption, when we found that part of the Way had been taken over by a very large bull, along with a bunch of cows and calves. After much discussion, we slipped through a gate into the field alongside the lane with the bull, and crept by – very, very quietly! Everything went fine – the bull was impressively large and grumpy-looking, but also appeared to be fairly lazy – and soon we were back on track and onto the next stage of the hike. Unfortunately Gilli again started having foot pain after about 7 miles, so she ended up stopping in Cessford while the rest of us went ahead to get the car from Morebattle to pick her up. The stretch from Cessford to Morebattle is all along paved roads, for close to three miles – that was very hard going, after a long walk already.
We finally arrived at the pub in Morebattle at 2:30pm, to discover that they had stopped serving lunch at 2. No worries – we lunched on beer and/or cider, crisps and lemon cake – plus whatever we happened to have in our backpacks, in the way of cereal bars, candy etc. Fully replenished, we set off on the next stretch, to Kirk Yetholm – however Gilli (very wisely) sat this part out. The climb from Morebattle to the tops of the hills to the southeast was pretty brutal – steep and long. As we neared the top of the first hill, the rain that had been forecast for the late afternoon finally reached us, somewhat spoiling the gorgeous views from the tops of Grubbit Law and then Wideopen Hill, the highest point on the hike (and also the halfway point of St. Cuthbert’s Way!), but it didn’t dampen our spirits. That didn’t happen until we had made our way almost all the way down to the valley on the far side of the hills, at which point we had to walk along a disused lane overgrown with tall, very wet grass. By the time we reached the bottom, boots and pants were soaked, despite our rain gear, and we had to squelch the last 2 1/2 miles or so along the road into Kirk Yetholm. Gilli was waiting there for us, and drove us back to Jedburgh for a nice warm shower, followed by dinner, and as soon as possible, bed. 🙂
After a fine Scottish breakfast (of sausage, bacon, eggs, black pudding, tomato, toast and a few other things), we made our way to Melrose for the start of the hike. A very steep climb out of the village got us to a saddle between two of the Eildon Hills, after which we walked down a gentle slope through woods to Bowdon village. During this time we had just a little rain at the start, despite fairly dire predictions of some kind of downpour or other on and off for much of the day. After Bowdon, we made our way down another beautiful wooded path to the River Tweed, along which the path ran for some distance. We tried making the “brief detour” to see Dryborough Abbey, but it was not accessible without paying an entry fee (and also, to be honest, it was also not within what we would define as “brief detour” distance). We had a brief downpour shortly after that, and wrapped ourselves back up in the rain gear we had stripped off since the beginning of the day – but once that cleared up, we had decent weather for the rest of the day.
After lunch in St. Boswells, we got a little confused when the marked path took an entirely different route from the one described in our guide books – we later learned that part of the path along the Tweed was closed because of bank erosion. The good news was that the new route was about a mile shorter (though it bypassed what was probably a beautiful walk along the river). After the detour, a lovely path parallel to the Tweed climbed up to Maxton village, after which we headed west to join the path of the old Roman road, Dere Street. Not much left of the road; just a path through fields. Along the way we took a short side path to see Lady Lilliard’s Stone. Lilliard was a female fighter of Scottish history, and on her memorial is written “Fair Maiden Lilliard lies under this stane, Little was her stature but muckle was her fame. Upon the English loons she laid many thumps, And when her legs were cuttit off, she fought upon her stumps.”
Around this time Gilli started having some foot pain, so when we reached a small lane, she rested while the rest of us went on ahead. After another lovely wooded walk we reached Harestanes Visitor Center, which is where we had left our car earlier. After picking up Gilli, we returned to Jedburgh and went out for another delicious dinner at the Carter’s Rest. Bethany and I took a brief detour after dinner to look at Jedburgh Castle, a couple of hundred yards up the hill past our B&B. Then back to “home base” to relax and get a (relatively) early night before the next trek tomorrow …
On Friday, we arrived at Edinburgh airport, in the midst of much wailing and gnashing of teeth in regards to the Brexit vote, which had taken place the previous day and had just reached a final tally: the U.K. is OUT of the EU. After picking up Phil, whose flight came in a little after ours, we headed down to Edington House in Coldingham, just north of the Scottish border, for an excellent lunch of spanish omelette and chips with Gilli and Allan. Later, Bethany and I headed in our little rental Vauxhall Corsa over to the Meadhon House B&B in Jedburgh, our first “home base” for the hike. After a short walk around the center of Jedburgh and a brief visit to the ruins of Jedburgh Abbey, we dined on cheese and onion toastie with chips, and chicken curry, with a side of Strongbow cider and Tennents lager. Then off to bed.
St. Cuthbert's Way 2016 