Thursday 18th February 2010 - Liam's Road Trip, Day 4 - Once Brewed to Kirk Yetholm, and then the A1

Thursday 18th February 2010, and Day 4 of the Pennine Way road trip. Liam and I left the youth hostel at Once Brewed and took the very short drive up the road to Steel Rigg. From here, we took the opportunity to explore a little along Hadrian's Wall on a glorious cold, clear and sunny morning.

   

Next stop was Bellingham, where we parked right by Bellingham bridge. We followed the Pennine Way along the riverside into the town centre, located the new youth hostel - now in a substantial stone building in the heart of the town, rather than the wooden shack at the top of the hill - but continued our walk into the visitor car park for Hareshaw Linn. Now we walked the wonderful path in the steep sided wooded valley, eventually criss-crossing the river on some wonderful wooden footbridges, until reaching the end and the spectacular viewing point for the Hareshaw Linn waterfall, claimed by some to be the most beautiful waterfall in England. It would have to go some to beat the raw power of Cauldron Snout for me, but the whole walk in and out of the Linn is truly stunning, and highly recommended. It was about a 5 mile round trip and took us a leisurely 75 minutes each way.

   

Now it was to the forestry village of Byrness on the A68. I pointed out the Byrness Hotel (where Jimmy and I had overnighted in 2006) to Liam but was more interested in locating the youth hostel, now run as a private enterprise but still in conjunction with the YHA. I had a pleasant chat with proprietor Colin before hitting the road again.

       

We would now add some serious mileage to the car. We had agreed to endeavour to get close to some nominal halfway point of the Cheviot ridge. Jimmy and I had stayed at Uswayford Farm in 2006, but the road to it was not a public access and the owners have now retired from the B&B business I understand. I tried to drive as far as possible up the military road to Chew Green, and made it most of the way until snow made progress impossible - and, not particularly sensible! After the priority business of reversing down the road and 11-point turning the car back into the descent direction, Liam and I had a short walk up the road to admire the views. The Cheviots are visually pleasing "egg box" hills anyway, and covered in snow they were delightful. Further down, they were green, with a beautiful river winding its way between them, and the return drive was slow as we savoured the aesthetics of our surroundings.

   

Despite having been within 20 miles of Kirk Yetholm via footpath, it was a considerably longer distance required to get there by road. We arrived there in early evening, and enjoyed a good meal at the Border Hotel. Finally, thinking that I would like to get a few SOTA activations in on the next day, I set off East for the A1 with the aim of getting a long distance south before checking in somewhere for the night.

       

That "long distance south" got me as far as a bit south of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and about 40 miles still North of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. But tired driving is never a good idea, and I was flagging by this point. As I pulled into a petrol station to stock up on the Red Bulls, I noticed that the service area also had a motel. I couldn't resist the idea of a quiet pint and a comfy bed, so I booked the two of us in!