Slitt Vein and a new sub-Hewitt

This blog post is entirely about having a walk up  Slitt Wood in Weardale to have a look at the Slitt Vein (nothing suicidal, its a mineral vein wot you can ackcherly see cos all the ground around it has been quarried away ) – and the bagging of Black Fell a 604 metre top designated as a sub-Hewitt in http://www.hillbagging.co.uk/, and which I’ve only just noticed…. pause for breath….and nothing at all to do with the launch of http://www.ukhillwalking.com/, in which there’s a small article about hillbagging from yours truly. In fact I won’t mention http://www.ukhillwalking.com/ ever again.

Appropriate, though, I suppose.

So, being completely unaware of the launch of http://www.ukhillwalking.com/, me and superdawg parked neatly by the phone box in Westgate and wandered up through the ever lovely Slitt Wood, just as far as the mines.

Now these mineworkings have just had a lorra lorra money being excavated and restored, to some extent. For interest, there’s the bargain steads – big containers for each mining team’s production, the excavated smithy with it’s  rock drill holes in the floor – presumably to prove they worked – a deep, deep shaft, fenced off, a wheel pit with a water supply from a dam up the hill and the footings for an Armstrong hydraulic engine, which replaced the wheel in the wheelpit – used for pumping water out of the mine. Plus some interesting and wet culverts.

if you walk up the hill on the newly created permissive path (like wot me and the dog did), you follow the edge of Slitt Vein and, at the top of the hill, there is the vein, stripped bare of it’s surround of ironstone, and with it’s galena mined out from the middle – but big and proud and strong, a damn great lump of quartzy rock. So that’s what a vein looks like…

After this, we wandered up the road (the beck being too lively to cross today) – and lunched in some forest in a warm and bright spell. The forest has lots of old pits and heaps in it – still being on the line of a lead vein, but this stuff is full of purple flourspar. I borrowed a couple of pieces. I’ll put them back if requested… 

And then we wandered over the moor alongside a wall that’s shown on the map as derelict, but which, according to an inscribed stone at Black Hill summit, was restored by the Golden family in 2001/2. They seem to have done a cracking job.

As the sun came out, we retreated to the Dale and followed the river downstream to the start. Bruno had a paddle and a bark in a deep salmon pool. We had no idea about http://www.ukhillwalking.com/, obviously and I’m not going to mention it.

10 miles and 1500 feet and one sub-Hewitt bagged.

Bollihope Wet Dogs Club

Various circumstances lead to this short doggy walk at Bollihope in Weardale starring Molly, Pip, Superdawg and Rachel and Matt.

It was driech (one of the reasons). In fact it drizzled for pretty much all of the walk. We parked at the normally popular pickernicking spot at Bollihope, just left of Frosterley. In summer, there’s often an ice cream van stationed here. Just a tip there for anybody who is fond of a 99 planning a Weardale walk.

And we followed the line of an old tramway down by Bollihope Burn, through the old quarry with the cowboy pass, past White Kirkley and the limekilns and down to Harehope Quarry where the carved seat was and the lump of Frosterley Marble. The marble is exactly the stuff that can be seen in Durham cathedral. Its not really marble, but cooked limestone. Its very near the Slitt Vein which runs from here to Cowshill and goes through Slitt Wood at Westgate – a poplier place for this blog.

I had a brief poke into Harehope Gill Lead Mine and found the water too deep for the wellies. The apparently loose entrance arch stood up to a bit of violence to see if it would fall down on me, and it seems reasonably safe just now.

Apparently, the mine produced 1165 tons of lead ore from the Slitt vein between 1816 and 1888 and the miners’ privy is part of the archaeology. 72 years of miner poo, eh? Its probably just as well that they shovelled it away.  The there was another three years  of privy visits later on and then it the mine produced fluorspar for a while. How busy the privy was  is not recorded.

We returned whence we came. Just under 4 miles. Bruno did a few more as there were no sheep till we got to White Kirkley, so he had a bit of a bounce around.

Then I couldn’t get the wellies off as they were full of water. Its the suction, y’know. One day they’ll stick permanently.

This is an interesting and easy walk with lots of geology and industrial archaeology to gawp at.

We all got fairly damp, specially those with the extra legs.

Snow Melt Defeats Reccy – Shock Horror Probe

Some time ago, I agreed to lead a handful of guided walks for the Durham County Council summer programme and today’s plan was to take advantage of the thaw and go and reccy a route at Stanhope. This is Rangering. As I would be by myself, I would be The Lone Ranger.
The idea is that there’ll be a Durham CC guided walk which will take place on the same weekend as the Backpackers Club AGM. A good plan… maybe.


So me and Tonto, me and Superdawg set off from Stanhope and climbed up through the old quarries and the dripping snowdrifts to Crawleyside Edge. So far so good, a fine start with a bit of a high-level wander along a gritstone edge.
Sloppy slushfull fields followed which were quite hard work for a while, then, after a stride over an angry beck into what appears to have been a hidden pond (Bruno chuckled), we contoured along a high path overlooking Stanhope Burn.

The burn looked quite unpromising for a crossing, I have to say. And on closer inspection it seems that it was roughly just over knee-deep and running very fast. We followed it upstream, past a big stream junction to a braided flood. We probed. We were rejected. Further upstream looked no better. I had coffee and a cheese butty and some of my special flapjack wot I made….  

We probed a bit more. A crossing could be made, but it would be a  cold and deep paddle of about ten yards. There would be wet trousers and socks for quite a while afterwards – and there was more slushy snow ahead. We abandoned the idea and struggled up through the soft stuff to the CtoC cyclists route on the old railway track. This was underneath a large snowdrift.

At some point on the way back to Stanhope, I redesigned the guided walk route completely. There will be no paddling. We will enjoy Stanhope Dene in all it’s springtime glory, have a cup of tea at the Park Head cafe then float along Crawleyside Edge to Shittlehope where there will be rude schoolboy jokes involving incontinence, funny noises and smells.
Speaking of which, one of the walk stats is that Superdawg  had four craps. This was two more craps than I had crap bags for. Some craps were kicked into hidden spots. Sorry. I don’t know where he gets it all from.
The we’ll all go home for our tea and we’ll tell our mums all about what happened. Next time we might come across some smugglers or robbers or something.
I did 8 miles and 1100 feet. This was a bit less than intended.
Bruno ate 12kg of snow, thus advancing the thaw by 6 minutes by the way. Just another climate stat for you there. They might be interested in that in Mexico. As for me, I’m about to go and magically change 75 cl of vino collapso from Crook Boozerama into water….

Upper Weardale, Very Upper Weardale

The snow is still lying deep and crisp and so on all around Crook and the A66 is still closed and, whilst Co Durham seems to have managed to open minor roads, neighbouring County Councils have not, so, until the snow consolidates a bit, which needs a thaw, which in turn might well remove it altogether, walking about in it is a bit of a bugger at the moment.

And so, having watched superdawg chase his tail all around the living room I considered that a proper walk was in order, and what better than to go and gawp at the big snowdrifts up the top of Weardale where the main road to Alston is supposed to be closed by enormous waves of white stuff?
A frozen brake fluid sensor in the knipemobile said that I had no brake fluid, but, as the brakes seemed to be working, I pressed on up the Dale and arrived without much excitement at Cowshill.

There was a bit of traffic coming over Killhope, so I was too late for the closed road, but nevertheless we traipsed off up the road towards Cumbria. The road had been ploughed and salted and the drifts were disappointingly small.

But there was virtually, no traffic, so it was quite enjoyable. I considered going off-piste a bit and wandering along the path by the river. Bruno plunged into the deep snow by the roadside and came out limping within a couple of minutes. A bit more work on the salted road sorted out the limping, but he has a short memory and lives for the moment. So the moment his paws stopped hurting, he was back into the soft powder, and limping again. At one point he was on three legs. Going into the deep powder could well disable him altogether, and quite quickly too. So we didn’t. There’s a certain type and temperature of snow which gets into the “palm” of the paws and turns into a ball of ice, or in this case, just burns his paws.

We returned the way we came, after covering just a couple of miles. We might try something a bit more local till some consolidation takes place, or , at least, a change in conditions.
Quite pretty, though….. and for anybody interested, the road is perfectly good just now.

Wet Wandering in Weardale Without a Full Set of Gloves

At the last DVCRS** AGM, a couple of weeks ago, I volunteered to lead a few walks in the Durham County Council Guided walks programme for next summer.
Durham CC has a big programme of guided walks with at least two walks every week, and often many more than that. And they’re very popular.

So, I’ve planned out four walks altogether. The idea is that I’ll walk each of the routes over the next few dark and damp weeks and then present them to the volunteer co-ordinator with some dates and some background info, risk assessments and so on. I’ll need to walk the routes again just before they’re due to take  place, just to make sure that the Cross Fell Mer de Glace hasn’t covered them up with a fresh layer of glacial drift or anything like that.
Today was the turn of Walk #1, it being the first walk wot I did.

This took place in heavy rain and a bit of hill-clag. And I lost one of the seal skin gloves I bought in Alston the other week. Bugger. Anybody know a one –handed person who just needs a left handed glove? They can have it. Its a good glove.
Anyway – I started in Wolsingham, went up by the Elephant Trees, down to Bollihope and back along the riverside.

The Elephant Trees have appeared in this blog before – but for anybody unfamiliar with them, they’re a group of trees on the Weardale skyline which probably once looked a bit like a group of elephants. Weardalers are very fond of them. They contain lots of romantic graffiti.

And Bollihope has appeared on the blog, too. There’s a nice limestone quarry, with a pinnacle and some trial levels into the Slit Vein, a partially preserved lead mine complete with netty (toilet) and some extensive lime kilns and another quarry containing some Frosterly marble.
And then there’s the river, with kingfishers, herons and jumping salmon.


We both got wet and Bruno got to run around in the empty fields. And I lost me glove. Did I mention that?
Anyway, its a good walk that works quite well. 11 Miles and 1100 feet of upness with mainly very easy walking.
It’ll do.
I need a glove shop.
**DVCRS = Durham Voluntary Countryside Ranger Service

Pennine Journey Westgate to Blanchland

The heat of the sun got me out of bed and I was away by 9:00 ish (ok, I know its not early, but if you’d been to Darts practise at the Hare and Hounds….)  I called at Charlie’s and had coffee….
A bit later I slugged up the hill out of Westgate. various people stopped to chat. It took a while.
Eventually, at a strategic bend in the road, I headed off along a contour with a lane on it and this took me towards Heights Quarry. it was all very lovely so far.

The route follows the old railway line to Rookhope and its all very lovely with some smashing Weardale views until a deep gorge suddenly appears at the feet. There is a moment of doubt (cos its a big drop) – but by poking around, a path on the left is found which drops down gently to the beck and then appears on the other side of the gorge without much at all in the way of drama. For geologists, there’s a very nice mined-out mineral vein here.
For about a kilometre after this point, its best to keep your left eye closed. The path goes alongside heights Quarry, which is still working and is very busy. Its well waymarked and fenced off from any danger and eventually industry is passed and the intrepid Pennine Journier pops out on the other side into old railway cuttings with bits of woodland, lots of flowers and many buzzing insects. Its green and damp and beautiful.

After that, the Weardale Way goes easily along the railway line to Rookhope where it meets the cyclists’ Coast to Coast route and, of course, the Rookhope Inn where a short period of celebration is allowed.

After “lunch”, I climbed the Bolts law incline, a bit wearily and followed PJ instructions to go and bag Bolts Law, scene of recent solstice partying. There’s a lot of grouse living in the Bolts Law heather, and its very heavily managed, so if I had a worry about the PJ route, it would be here. I’m not sure the shooting estate will be too chuffed about this route going through here. There could well be conflict. True, its open access, but its not open all the time, and Journiers with doggies will have to find another route.

There is, in fact, a perfectly good footpath system from Rookhope running up by Stogel Clough and then over the North East slope of Bolts Law, crossing the summit and then down to Ramshaw. The path down to Ramshaw, though, is a mess. its difficult to follow, has what appears top be an old leat which is crossed on a rotten footbridge, and there’s electric fences. And lots of thistles. But its a right of way and can’t be closed. It just needs a bit of TLC, really. I followed this path down to Ramshaw, as best I could. I might report this to Durham County Council. I’m not sure its bad enough, though.

After Ramshaw, there’s some quiet lanes and some woodland footpaths to Baybridge, then a pleasant riverside path to Blanchland.
There’s no phone signal in Blanchland, so I used the phonebox to ring home. I got a minute for 60p. 60 PENCE for a minute.  Absolute robbery.  I allowed myself to be exploited to the sum of three pints of Black Sheep in the Lord Crewe Arms whilst waiting for Maggie to arrive.


And that, folks, is the sum of my Pennine Journey sampler.
It might not be exactly the route in the book. It won’t be far out though. Its not an official route anyway… 
Today’s was 11 miles and 1300 feet.

Pennine Journey Teesdale to Weardale

Y’see, I just couldn’t resist it.  I got Maggie to drop me off in Middleton in Teesdale and I wandered up the Pennine Way up past Low Force and High Force and as far as Hanging Shaw, just by Forest in Teesdale First School just as playtime ended.
The Pennine Way here is specially flowery at the moment. And the haymeadows are just starting to be cut, so if you go there after reading this, there won’t be much left in the meadows, but the hedgerows and bits of woodland are really good.


I walked along with a Dutch chap for a while and we parted just after Cronkley Farm.
I haven’t yet ordered the official guidebook, so the next part of my route was a bit of a guess. the idea is to get onto the path that runs over the flank of Fendrith Hill to the top of the pass at Swinhope Head. I avoided a couple of fields containing energetic beef and made my way through meadows to Ettersgill where it started raining and I joined the path.

The route over to Swinhope Head is might well be tricky in hill fog (which was starting to drop as I made my way) and I used my compass to get the right directions.

The first landmark is a “shooting hut”, which turns out to be just a ruin, but is easily found just below the 550 metre contour. A path leads off uphill but this turns out eventually to go too far uphill but a gently descending route across the moor brings the low profile of Grey Folds into view. I thought it was a good idea to go there. But first, there’s the small matter of the crossing of Longmere Sike, a deep shaley slot which was a bit slippery….  But anyway, after ejecting the sheep sheltering in the fold, so I could scoff a choccy bar in peace,  more hillfog and misty grey stuff brought a power line into view and it was then a simple matter of following these as they go very close to the cattle grid at the top of the pass. It was a bit of a relief to get on the road here.
My advice for anybody struggling with the navigation here is to fight your way North-east to the road. Another option would be to follow the power line uphill, though you’d eventually get so close to the road that it’d be too tempting…..

The rest of the walk to Westgate follows this road, although there’s a shortcut through deep and damp Juncus (rushes) to Weardale Ski Club’s parking area which cuts out the zig-zags. It gets a bit dull after that, although forward views into Weardale improve with the descent.
I camped on the little campsite by the ford.

A neo-air takes 28 manly puffs to inflate it properly. I was just inserting manly puff number eight when I heard my name called. I peeked out and there was Charlie, inviting me for tea. We had lamb chops (very nice, Charlie) and then visited the Hare and Hounds for the darts team practise night. I got back to the tent fairly late……..  It had stopped raining.
Its about 15 miles and 2000 feet.

More of this shortly…