Cheviot Hills: Clennel Street and Usway Burn

I put LTD’s second cosiest coat on for this trundle because it was cold. No, I mean really cold. Nithering, in fact.

It was sunny at Dawn’s seaside changing hut but the A68 had lots of horizontal snowflakes being chucked at it.

As for me, I had my Lidl toasty baselayer (£4.99 and has a hood, although it’s hard to get it the right way round in the early mornings) – and a TGO fleece (The 2010 lime green one) and a down jacket topped with a very old but newly refurbished Paramo jacket.  Plus hat, gloves, spare gloves, Louise’s favourite type of trousers and long johns. So we weren’t too cold.

The object of our attentions today was the bagging of the obscure and slightly soggy Nettlehope Hill – about 480 metres of tussock grass. To get there involved walking along Clennel Street, the old cattle droving road from the Border to places like Hexham and Newcastle. This provides good, fast walking, if you’re into fast walking, which LTD is, but I’m not. Not really.

Dawn didn’t bother with the actual summit of Nettlehope Hill and to be honest, she didn’t miss much. The highest point is obscure and the hill is a rounded lump, so views aren’t spectacular. Dawn took a straighter route and we met again just before the descent to The Castles

We returned to Alwinton by dropping down to the Usway Burn at Batailshiel Haugh farm and followed the lovely valley back to the Coquet at Shillmoor.

There was just the thinnest dusting of snow to make it look a bit like winter, but, mainly, the sun shone and the wind blustered but didn’t manage to penetrate my multiple layers of cosiness.

The walk was also accompanied by the usual occasional crump of  artillery shells going off nearby. LTD hates fireworks and thunder but doesn’t seem to notice explosions care of the Royal Artillery. Odd that.

We did 10 of the Queen’s miles and 2100 of the Duke of Edinburgh’s feet. Not the actual feet. Obviously.