Bimbling Breezily Around The Breamish

It is with some trepidation that I start typing this blogpost since the recent wobbles between Livewriter and Google which started just as I wrote a huuuuge blogpost about the Coast to Coast walk and had to redo the whole thing again because Google said it didn’t recognise my password. If I have to do this again, I might just have to take refuge in our local Clinic For the Emotionally Distresses, cleverly, in my view, disguised under the name of The King’s Head.
Here goes anyway…

I collected Dawn from her seaside hideaway and we progressed to the car park just to the left of Ingram in the rather lovely Breamish valley on the edge of the Cheviot Hills. The day was sunny and bright and stupidly windy. I should have had a Plan B , really, but I didn’t.
However, we bashed off up the road to bag our first bag of the day – Hartside Hill – a 90 metre climb up a lovely, green hill with an ancient settlement on the top. Hartside Hill is a 285 metre Tump and today was tops for Tumps.
We headed off into the headwind to find a calm spot for lunch. Not too taxing so far.

According to the map, there’s a permissive path going alongside the river to a crossing quite near to Alnhammoor farm. Due to a hole in my map where the bridge should be, there was no bridge. (There was one a bit further on, though) (dhuhh) – and the line of the path was hard to decipher – so some scrambling was done and, indeed, some paddling. Some deep and very cold paddling. This didn’t seem to bother Lucky too much despite his apparent hate of getting his little paws wet. On the upside – it was good practise for river crossings and was also extremely refreshing for sweaty toes – in a refreshingly painful kind of way. Dawn did say that she thought there should be a bridge a bit further on. And she was right. She’s often right about stuff like this.


But never mind – a nice, green bridleway pressed on through a wood and up and over a hill and further past a little glen and on up to a hillfort where a brief diversion brought us to Cochrane Pike and back down again juyst for the tick. There’s a “hillfort trail” hereabouts which looks attractive and would bag some of the same hills but, according to the local signs, has a ban on dogs. In fact Lucky pointed out one or two of the signs indicating such a ban as we passed them. (whoops…. sorry..)
Cochrane Pike is a 335 metre Tump.


Next up was Ewe Hill – easily bagged from the fort and just 313 metres high, followed by a tramp (have you ever been followed by a tramp, by the way?) over a nice, green moor to Brough Law which isn’t a Tump but has a large and fairly well-preserved hillfort on the top with rings of drystone walls and a dominating position over the Breamish.
A short but steep descent brought us back to the knipemobile which was still where we left it.

About 9 miles and 1500 feet of friendly contours.  But the thing is, that the countryside around here is specially green and beautiful at the moment and the hills are small and friendly, particularly when, on such a windy day as this, the higher Cheviot tops would be a trial. In fact, they’re a good Plan B when Plan A looks uncomfortable.
Finally, a BIG knipetowers TA! goes to Jakki who, between this post and the previous one, bunged some hard-earned spondoolies into the virgin money-giving account. Thanks Jakki.

Click the logo!!!  Gwan!!