15th May 2024: Twice Brewed to Hartleyburn – 12.5 miles

I had another good night’s sleep, only waking once, about 5.30 and then dozing until 6.30 when nature forced me into activity. I was very aware of a painful left knee all night and it’s no better this morning. I’m sure it will be fine once I get going properly, and I’ll take my usual painkiller cocktail, which will also help with the sore spots on the outside of both big toes.

I have a really lazy morning ahead, so went back to bed, put some music on and browsed the news sites. City had a good night, beating Spurs 2-0 after a tentative first half, but setting up a final day which could see a fourth successive Premier League title coming home!

I’m going to wander across the road about 8ish and try and get a bacon roll for breakfast, from the cafe I can see from my bedroom window. I’m then going to assess my supplies and see if I need to buy anything else before I need to catch the bus at 10am, back to the Wall. I need lunch for today and tomorrow and I also need something for my room this evening, as there are no pubs and no evening meal options at Kellah Farm where I’m staying. I’m hoping the cafe sells flapjacks or some other sort of tray bake.

I only have 12.5 miles to do today, which sounds like short walk after the four 16 mile days I’ve done so far. A 10.20 start should see me done for about 3pm I guess, which is the earliest I can get into the B&B. The forecast is for showers until about 11 and then an overcast afternoon.

My breakfast was simple but great, bacon roll and mug of tea, consumed while chatting with the lovely cafe owner. I praised her for opening a cafe early enough for normal people to have breakfast. Most places I see don’t open until 9 or even 10, which is almost lunch time. I got a thick homemade flapjack and a Twix, and then popped into the greengrocer over the road and got a couple of bananas. I’m probably carrying too much food now, but even though I don’t need the extra weight, I’d rather have too much than too little. I’ll maybe carry a little less water to partially compensate.

I’m on my bed in my room in Kellah Farm B&B and I know I’ve done a walk. Not sure how, but that 12.5 miles felt harder than any day other than the first. I feel done in, my feet are sore and my fingers are buzzing from nettle stings (more of that later). I’ve just necked four straight mugs of tea and polished off half a pack of chocolate hobnobs and as much as I needed and enjoyed them, I feel a bit bloated now. Anyway, back to the walk.

I was waiting for the bus at 9.50, in a light drizzle, that got steadily heavier as the minutes went past. I took shelter in a shop doorway and when the bus still hadn’t arrived by 10.05 I began to think the worst. Of course it arrived a minute or two later, just delayed slightly because of the number of passengers on board I guess. It was very busy, and I heard several different languages being spoken by the various couples on the bus. I was dropped back at the Sill visitors centre at 10.30 and needed a few minutes to faff about. I wrapped my pack in its waterproof cover and set in baselayer and hard shell, with only light rain, but the promise of heavier to come in the very near future. It didn’t seem worth taking the coat off and then putting it back on in a few minutes. So it was that I sweated profusely on the climb back up to the Wall. The sky remained threatening however, and I was reluctant to shed the coat, so I opened the zip and tried to keep cool that way. It didn’t really work though.

The Wall undulates. The bloody Romans could have built it further back from the ridge – obviously it wouldn’t have been as effective as a defensive barrier, but it would have been easier for us Pennine Way walkers. I stuck to the Wall today however, no shilly shallying like yesterday; up and down I went, up and bloody down, for mile after bloody mile (at least that’s what it felt like). The descents were hard on my knees and I had to slow right down, taking great care on a couple of very steep sections.

Not only am I going against the flow of Pennine Way walkers, I’m also walking towards the vast majority of Hadrian’s Wall walkers too. This meant at least a hundred ‘mornings’ or ‘hellos’ over the course of the first few miles. Groups of walkers had to share a greeting between them and after a while, most just got a nod and a grunt. I know the Pennine Way isn’t a busy path, but the culture shock of so many people on the Wall has been disconcerting.

I have a bit of an issue with the Wall too. It’s obvious that huge sections of the wall are just dry stone walls, built on the line of what would have probably been the old Roman wall. I have no idea how old these sections are, but probably no older than other dry stone walls in the area. It’s almost as though someone has decided that the tourists need to see a continuous wall, even if it means cheating for long stretches. Then you’ll come to a section that is quite clearly Roman. It’s wider, much wider, and the stones are larger, more uniform, and typically cemented together. These are usually either side of a milecastle or turret, the foundations of which are still clearly visible.

I passed the trig point on Winshiel Crag and tried to let my mind enjoy the views ahead, rather than focus on the pain in my knees at each descent and the irrational annoyance at the number of ladder stiles that still exist on this section of the walk.

The temperature had dropped and I had to zip up the coat, but it didn’t rain, so I had to unzip it to cool off, and repeat.

About 3 miles in I came to Cawfield Quarry, where there are benches and toilets and a small car park, but most of the benches were taken and I didn’t think I’d walked far enough to stop just yet. A half mile later though, I realised it was already noon, and my stomach was grumbling. I found a nice sheltered kink in the wall, (at Turret 42b) and decided to stop for a bite. It was noon and I’d only just managed 3.5 miles. I also felt ridiculously happy to sit down and take a breather.

The scenery stopped going up and down as much, and the flow of humanity slowed down a bit from here on. The route passes through some woodland and uses more fields and pastures and the wall (even the faux wall sections) has mostly disappeared. In fact it had probably been stolen to build many of the boundary walls and buildings in the area.

At about 1ish, I dropped down towards a lake, which I knew was Walltown Quarry, from my previous visits. I also knew there was a cafe and shop there and I’d decided a nice cold drink and an ice cream were probably justified. I was just a bit annoyed therefore, to find the bloody place shut. A sign on the door said they were shut for lunch and would be back at 1.30. Walltown visitor centre is obviously running on 1950’s time, because nowhere shuts for lunch anymore!

I used one of their benches, now in the sun, and ate some of my supplies and drank some of my warm juice. Before I resumed, I decided to ditch the coat and just walk in baselayer for a while. It felt great to be out of the coat, but I wasn’t quite confident enough of the weather to pack it away completely, so it went under the pack lid.

The path now drops down beside a very impressive earthwork, which I think may be the old line of the vallum, which is part of the series of ditch and embankment defences beside the wall. I crossed the railway line, which is always fun, and then Haltwhistle golf course, which always makes me think of Michael Douglas in Falling Down. There was just a lone golfist, hacking his way down the fairway and he waved in a friendly enough manner, so I didn’t need to use the shotgun.

I took another break just beyond the golf course, sitting on the top of another bloody ladder stile. I mopped my face and in doing so I popped my ear bud out of my ear and directly down between the steps of the ladder stile. I saw it drop down into the deep grass and even deeper nettles and let out a loud curse! You’ll remember my other ear bud now has no rubber end on it, so I’ve been using just one and now that was lost in the worst possible spot. I could have dropped it pretty much anywhere else and found it without any problems, but oh no, I had to drop it here! The ear bud app on my phone has a ‘find your ear buds’ option, which as well as showing you where they are on a map (not especially useful in this case), it also allows you to have the ear buds emit a high pitched sound so you can find them. It turns out the sound is remarkably similar to a bird call and I had some initial difficulty separating the sound from the local bird life. I could hear it eventually though, but not see it, so I had to remove the shrubbery beneath the stile. So, that’s why my fingers are still buzzing, I had to pull up several handfuls of stinging nettles, before I finally found the perishing thing!

After 9 miles of heading west, the Pennine Way now returns to its more usual (for me at least) southerly direction. I crossed the busy A69 without having to break my stride and then waded my way through a couple of miles of almost continuous sheep shit as the way climbs up through fields to meet the edge of Black Hill.

The sun was quite hot now, and I didn’t fancy burnt arms to go with my burnt hands, so I packed away the coat and broke out my long sleeved shirt. This is the only item of clothing I’m not completely convinced about. It’s a high cotton mix and it’s light and UV protective, but it doesn’t handle sweat very well. I sweat A LOT and the shirt has four days of sweat in it. It hadn’t really dried out properly last night – I’d even had a fan blowing air across it for a couple of hours, to no great avail. It was damp and it felt greasy and nasty. Ideally I’d like a Merino version of it – my baselayer has absorbed just as much sweat, but because it’s Merino it doesn’t smell and it still feels almost fresh. I need the long sleeves though and the alternative is my fleece or my coat, neither of which are designed for warm weather. So it was the shirt or sunburn!

I passed, without diverting to, the trig point on Black Hill (which is called Gapshiels) and headed across Wain Rigg, relieved to find it not as boggy as I’d feared. I saw a figure a long way ahead, coming towards me, and after a few minutes was warmly greeted by his dog and them the man himself. He was pleased to see me, the first person he’d seen all day apparently. He was walking the Pennine Way of course, and backpacking it. If he wanted to see people I said, he’d get his wish in a mile or so, when he hit the wall. And by the time he left it at Rapishaw Gap he’d be glad of the solitude again!

My memories of the path across Hartleyburn Common are not fond ones. Even in 2010 when every other step of the route was dry, the Common was a boggy horror. It seems to have been tamed though, there are a few duck boards and my feet only got a bit wet. I lost the path shortly after it left the fence line though, and wandered around for a while, and needed to use the GPS to hit the exit point beside Highside. I left the Pennine Way at the building at Greenriggs and headed for my B&B at Kellah Farm. As I approached the farm, at the end of a difficult and tiring 12.5 mile walk, I passed a signpost that said ‘Haltwhistle 3.5 miles’ – I didn’t think anything could symbolise the futility of long distance walking as much as that. We walk to walk, the destination is not the goal, it’s just a destination.

I arrived at the farm and was met by two cheerful young lads who’d just been dropped home from school by a taxi. The elder of the two was probably 8 and he shouted across and asked if I’d had a good walk. I said it had been great and I asked him how school had been. Their mum was there to meet the taxi, and she rang her mum, who came and asked me to follow her. On the way to my room, and at her insistence, I dropped my mildly moist boots in her boiler room and followed her upstairs. I’m now showered, full of tea and hobnobs, and I’ve now written up day 5’s journal. Other than the last day, into Bowes, today was my easiest day (on paper) but it certainly didn’t feel like it now that I’ve finished.

Tomorrow is another 15 mile day and has more height gain than today, but I’m willing to bet it won’t feel as tough as today has, at least I hope so!

Video Summary

Map

Download file for GPS

1 thought on “Pennine Way (North to South) 2024 – Day 5”

  1. I’m enjoying your daily write ups Stuart, bringing back many a happy memory of my north -south trip in 2009. I b&b’ed it the whole and made sure there was a pub or at least somewhere that sold a pint every night as you certainly earn it. Looks like accommodation prices make that a little more prohibitive in 2024 though. Hope you get a good day over Cross Fell!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.