Six of the Cheviot Hills exceed the magical two thousand feet mark, the height at which a mere hill is reclassified as a mountain. This transition is akin to a football team being promoted to the Premier League, and when these tops are linked together in a single circuit you have a classic walk of just over 23 miles, with a height gain in excess of five thousand feet.

The forecast was for a settled day so I was up with the worms and heading for my first top of the day, the mighty Cheviot. With clear views across the Harthope Valley the time rushed by, and within the hour I was passing the monstrous triangulation pillar marking the summit of Northumberland’s highest hill. I continued across the vast, lonely plateau heading towards top number two some five miles away, the iconic summit of Windy Gyle, where an early lunch was disturbed by the arrival of a procession of annoying wasps. No matter, the sun had slipped behind a cloud and, with the air noticeably cooler, I was keen to maintain momentum.

So, down I went, crossing the minor top of Little Ward Law and then striding out along the gravel track to the isolated farm of Uswayford, cut off for 17 consecutive weeks back in the winter of 1940/41. Once over the Usway Burn it was uphill again, tracking Bill’s Sike to the saddle between my next objective, Bloodybush Edge and neighbouring Yarnspath Law. There, high above the vast green swathe of the Kidland Forest, I encountered the only other walker on my long journey, followed by a two mile high-level slog to Cushat Law, number four on my list. With still two more tops to go I paused only to take a compass bearing over rough and pathless terrain to the Upper Breamish Valley.

Once there, a gentle stroll alongside the river, with two oystercatchers announcing their presence, and then I was climbing steeply to nondescript Shielcleugh Edge. This is a huge, generally flat area where drainage is poor, so the going, over bog-ridden peat and cloying heather to the next prominence was seriously hard going. I caught my breath on the rocky lookout post of Coldlaw Cairn, close to the watershed of both the River Breamish and the Harthope Burn whilst enjoying expansive views.

Refreshed, I squelched over uninspiring Comb Fell, my fifth top of the day, and on towards conical Hedgehope Hill, imposing in the distance and definitely the sting in the tail of this epic walk. A jumble of fences, a stone shelter and a looming triangulation pillar greeted my arrival on the summit of this the second highest hill in the range. The views stretched as far as the distant North Sea. A quick energy drink and it was downhill virtually all the way to the Harthope Valley, crossing en route Kelpie Strand and Long Crags and passing beneath the cold, grey stone of Housey Crags.

Back in the valley a small wooden footbridge carried me over the tree-enclosed Harthope Burn and, a few minutes later, I was dipping my toes in the blissfully cool Hawsen Burn, one toe nail short of a full set. It had been an arduous walk lasting just over eight hours but one that I will remember for many years to come.

by Geoff Holland © 2016

Geoff Holland is a regular contributor to a number of magazines and the author of four books of self-guided walks, ‘The Hills of Upper Coquetdale’, ‘The Cheviot Hills’, ‘Walks from Wooler’ and ‘Walks on the Wild Side: The Cheviot Hills’. All books can be purchased online from www.trailguides.co.uk. Geoff, who has lived in Monkseaton for over 40 years, also operates the award-winning website www.cheviotwalks.co.uk. His poems have appeared in a number of publications.

The poet Basil Bunting called it ‘a little river in Northumberland’ and, in the great scheme of such things, that is exactly what the River Coquet is. But the essence of a river cannot be defined by its length or breadth and what the river lacks in size it more than makes up for in personality. In that respect the River Coquet is a big river.

For the first ten miles of its forty mile journey to the North Sea, from lonely Coquet Head to the tiny settlement of Alwinton, the river wriggles between a multitude of sublime hills. It is a fabulous journey through some of Northumberland’s finest and most remote countryside, and for the most part the river is closely followed by a narrow, single track road.

A scattering of properties stand within sight of the road although some, such as Makendon, Carshope and the old farmhouse at Shillmoor, are no longer permanently occupied. These isolated properties are now used as troop shelters as part of the vast Otterburn Training Area, whilst others continue as sheep farms, much as they have done for generations.

One such farm is Barrowburn, which nestles beneath the imposing flanks of Shillhope Law close to a sharp and picturesque bend in the River Coquet. Run by Ian and Eunice Tait, the farm extends to some 353 hectares over the grass-covered curves of Lounges Knowe, Kyloe Shin and Barrow Law.

Ian is the fifth generation of his family to run the farm, which supports a flock of about 900 sheep. Lambing takes place from mid-April onwards and then, between September and October, the lambs are sold by auction to farmers with low lying land to be wintered on grass. They are sold for meat between February and April.

The four hay meadows on the farm provide winter feed for Ian’s sheep and these meadows are managed in a more traditional way, particularly regarding the sequence and timing of cutting. This method encourages a rich mixture of grasses and flowers, such as wood cranesbill, pignut, bitter vetch, rough and autumn hawkbit, cat’s ear, selfheal, common bird’s foot trefoil, yellow rattle and oxeye daisy. These, in turn attract a large number of insects and birds including meadow pipit, skylark, swallow, martin, wheatear and the little-seen ring ouzel. These rare and therefore internationally important meadows reach their very best during late June and early July.

Since 2008 Ian and Eunice have operated a tearoom from the farmhouse, in the long-established Coquetdale tradition of offering hospitality to passing travellers. They attract visitors from far and wide, including Australia and the USA, with one regular diner having been born in Outer Mongolia.

The tearoom has already acquired almost iconic status and is a welcome sight to weary walkers, mud-splattered mountain bikers and valley-hugging motorists alike. So, if you happen to be up that way this summer, close to where the twinkling Barrow Burn slips into the beautiful River Coquet, why not pop in to Barrowburn; you are sure to be given a warm Northumbrian welcome.

by Geoff Holland © 2016

Geoff Holland is a regular contributor to a number of magazines and the author of four books of self-guided walks, ‘The Hills of Upper Coquetdale’, ‘The Cheviot Hills’, ‘Walks from Wooler’ and ‘Walks on the Wild Side: The Cheviot Hills’. All books can be purchased online from www.trailguides.co.uk. Geoff, who has lived in Monkseaton for over 40 years, also operates the award-winning website www.cheviotwalks.co.uk. His poems have appeared in a number of publications.

I had for a wee while harboured a wish to create a website which showcased the beautiful Cheviot Hills and made available a selection of my own favourite walking routes to the world at large. I had no particular plan, just a vague idea of how I might develop something which would be a catalyst for fellow walkers to get out and about into the wide open spaces of Northumberland’s border country.

In 2005, with injury having forced me to finally give up fell running, I began to sketch out some initial ideas. I very quickly got into my stride as I headed out into the hills as often as I could, walking and photographing a handful of potential routes. I wanted to offer something a little bit out of the ordinary, routes that were not already in the public domain, a fresh perspective on the walking possibilities available in our quiet local hills. Why, I thought, reinvent the wheel when there was a whole new world of walking just waiting to be discovered?

So it was, on New Years Day 2006, that my fledgling website first appeared online with a modest nine unique walking routes available to the, as yet, unsuspecting public. These initial routes were all of the slightly longer variety, ranging from the lung-bursting 23 mile, The Big One, to the more manageable 10.5 mile long, High Above The Coquet. I was after all 10 years younger and on the rebound from 35 years of fairly intensive running with energy still to burn.

I now needed to use every tool available to publicise the existence of my website, a brand new resource for walking in the Cheviot Hills. Establishing a high profile on the available web browsers was a priority and, once this had been done, I set about arranging reciprocal links with other related websites, such as holiday cottage letting agencies, bed and breakfast providers and the Northumberland National Park Authority. Amazingly, ten years ago, the range of these websites was extremely limited but still all very useful in starting to attract an audience to my very young website.

A further seven routes were added in 2006 and by the time the website celebrated its ninth birthday a total of thirty-nine routes, along with a series of articles, poems and other information, were available to an audience which had grown beyond my wildest dreams. It has never ceased to amaze me, as I sit at my computer in a quiet street in Monkseaton, that the vast tentacles of the internet are stretching out to the four corners of the world, making my very modest website available to an unimaginable number of people.

In the final analysis, it has been a labour of love which has afforded me the opportunity to acquire an imitate knowledge of the Cheviot Hills. Yet, there is still more to discover. The rewards have been great, not in any monetary sense but in respect of the feedback I have received from a string of enthusiastic website users. Perhaps this can be best summed up by these few words I received in 2014: “Finding your website all those years ago was a major factor in giving me the enthusiasm to get out and explore. It led me onto a path that eventually took me to Nepal and Everest base camp last December and to competing in the Chevy Chase for the first time”. I shall leave it at that.

by Geoff Holland © 2016

Geoff Holland is a regular contributor to a number of magazines and the author of four books of self-guided walks, ‘The Hills of Upper Coquetdale’, ‘The Cheviot Hills’, ‘Walks from Wooler’ and ‘Walks on the Wild Side: The Cheviot Hills’. All books can be purchased online from www.trailguides.co.uk. Geoff, who has lived in Monkseaton for over 40 years, also operates the award-winning website www.cheviotwalks.co.uk. His poems have appeared in a number of publications.

In 1916 James Logan Mack, an Edinburgh lawyer, “decided to explore the whole region through which runs the line of demarcation between Scotland and England from sea to sea”, but it was to be another six years before he traced the full length of the English/Scottish border. The first edition of his classic book, ‘The Border Line’ was published in 1924, and until broadcaster Bob Langley wrote ‘Walking the Scottish Border’ in 1976 it was the only detailed account of such a journey. It is a fascinating read.

However, my main walking focus has always been on that stretch of the border in the Cheviot Hills between Redesdale and Kirk Yetholm, an undulating distance of nigh on 27 miles. For the most part this section of the border is closely shadowed by the Pennine Way as it passes through some of Northumberland’s most remote and lonely landscape. I have walked the majority of these leg-stretching miles, in bite size pieces over many years, yet I have never been able to decide which particular spot along, “Northumberland’s ragged edge” is my all-time favourite.

There are more than enough contenders. For instance, there is the border-hugging, rock-strewn Auchope Cairn, the view from which “must be one of the most extensive in Great Britain” thought James Logan Mack. It is without doubt an outstanding view and one which, it has been said, stretches as far as Lochnagar on the Royal Estate of Balmoral. Alas, I cannot substantiate this rather extravagant claim.

On the other hand, a mere 2½ miles further along the windswept border and definitely within sight of Auchope Cairn, stands The Schil, 601 metres high and with a giant foot in both countries. The summit of this splendid hill is, in the words of James Logan Mack, “surmounted by a huge, confused, irregular mass of stones” as well as being one of the finest grandstand viewpoints in the Cheviot Hills, taking in the huge mass of Northumberland’s highest hill, the Muckle Cheviot, and its many acolytes.

Further south lies a hill I have visited more times than any other, iconic Windy Gyle. Here, where there is a near 360 degree panorama from a Goliath of a summit-crowning cairn, the far-reaching view demands every weary walker’s full and undivided attention. However, James Logan Mack seemed less than impressed when he made his way to Windy Gyle on New Year’s Day 1922 complaining that, “the elements were unfavourable for venturing into so inhospitable a region”. The weather can undoubtedly be unfriendly, but catch this magnificent hill on a good day and it is difficult to find a better one in the area.

I could go on listing the contenders ad nauseam, recounting happy days spent on this fine line between England and Scotland, but space dictates that I list just these three outstanding possibilities. I must therefore leave it at that. However, as I continue to tramp along the roller-coaster watershed in the months and years ahead, cold wind sweeping across the vast expanse of wild border hills, it is just feasible that I may stumble upon that single glorious spot which I can, after all my aimless, wayfaring wanderings, finally call my absolute and ultimate all-time favourite.

by Geoff Holland © 2015

Geoff Holland is a regular contributor to a number of magazines and the author of four books of self-guided walks, ‘The Hills of Upper Coquetdale’, ‘The Cheviot Hills’, ‘Walks from Wooler’ and ‘Walks on the Wild Side: The Cheviot Hills’. All books can be purchased online from www.trailguides.co.uk. Geoff, who has lived in Monkseaton for over 40 years, also operates the award-winning website www.cheviotwalks.co.uk. His poems have appeared in a number of publications.

It is a striking feature of the dark north face of the mighty Cheviot, yet it is not named on the current Ordnance Survey map of the area. In his fine 1926 book ‘Walks from Wooler’, W. Ford Robertson said it was both “beautiful” and “worth exploring”, a recommendation worthy of serious consideration by any self-respecting walker. However, access is far from straightforward and consequently this Cheviot gem appears to be rarely-visited. For the uninitiated, this is the steep and narrow ravine of the Goldscleugh Burn, a watercourse which rises a stone’s throw from the boggy summit of Northumberland’s highest hill and then finally, after a downhill journey of three kilometres, flows into the larger Lambden Burn.

Despite viewing this exceedingly tempting ravine from numerous distant vantage points over the years, I had never ventured through its tight V-shaped corridor. It was high time for a visit, but with short winter days rapidly approaching I needed to restrict the length of my walk. I therefore opted to concentrate on investigating the various possibilities for a future full length exploration at a time of year when the lack of daylight hours would be less of a concern.

And so it was that I set out from a sleepy Harthope Valley on an unbelievably calm autumn day, first to nearby Blackseat Hill and then down into the quiet and isolated Lambden Valley. Now nearly six kilometres into my journey, and about to head upwards to a point where I could gaze into the shadowed depths of this secretive valley, I had no idea what to expect. I took a quick sip of my drink, turned to my left and, with the mid-morning sun directly in front of me, began the steady uphill climb.

Once through an old harvested plantation I left the track behind and started to pick my way through knee-deep heather. Then came the bracken, golden brown and head-high, a dense forest of fronds making forward movement increasingly difficult. Still I plodded on, keeping close to a thin fence as I gradually eased my way across the steep slope of the hill. Next a sharp downhill turn in the fence and I stopped to consider my options. To my left, the deep cleft of the Goldscleugh Burn caught between the near-vertical sides of Bellyside Hill and the northern spur of The Cheviot and, to my right, a seemingly impregnable valley heading towards the lonely farmstead of Goldscleugh.

I was standing a couple of hundred metres above the part-hidden burn and whilst the route downwards was fraught with obstacles, I was keen to see if I could locate a waterfall I knew was marked on the Ordnance Survey map. Painstakingly I edged downwards, conscious that a misplaced boot-step could land me in difficulties. In the end discretion got the better of me and I reluctantly decided to go no further. I was now hovering just above the burn, on a slope of some seventy odd degrees and close enough to see that there was no waterfall in the immediate vicinity. It was a beautifully remote spot and I stood awhile listening to the sound of running water. Then it was time to begin my laborious retreat to higher ground. The day had not yet run its course.

by Geoff Holland © 2015

Geoff Holland is a regular contributor to a number of magazines and the author of four books of self-guided walks, ‘The Hills of Upper Coquetdale’, ‘The Cheviot Hills’, ‘Walks from Wooler’ and ‘Walks on the Wild Side: The Cheviot Hills’. All books can be purchased online from www.trailguides.co.uk. Geoff, who has lived in Monkseaton for over 40 years, also operates the award-winning website www.cheviotwalks.co.uk. His poems have appeared in a number of publications.