Dufton to Nenthead

4 July 2011 - Dufton to Nenthead

Distance - 17.8 miles

Weather - Hot

We stayed at - Miners Arms, Nenthead, Alston, Cumbria CA9 3PF    Cost - £70.00

After a mile of road walking, the start of today's walk went up, up, then some more up.

Once we got to a hamlet called Knock, we went along tracks which vanished the higher we got, not even suggestions left between stiles. A couple of miles later, having gained nearly 350 metres, we joined a tarmac road, which lead us up to the highest point of the fortnight.

The road wasn't put there for us, it was built for a huge white ball on the top of a nearby hill which can be seen for miles in all directions. It's supposed to be a weather station but, more likely it's a cunningly disguised, top secret spy base. Probably with missiles and machine guns. 'Yes, Mr. Bond you have discovered my plan, but it is too late for you! All I have to do is press this red button, pull this lever, enter a six digit coordinate, and press this other button. No, wait... I press this one first, then enter the coordinates, then the lever, and the red one comes last. No that's not right either. I wrote it down somewhere. Chi-Lee! Chi-Lee! Have you seen my notebook? The one that says 'Plan A' on the front?'

A trio of cyclists were labouring up the track as we approached it. By the time we were halfway up, they were hurtling down at scary speeds. If it had been me, my brakes would have been going, 'Eeeeeeeeeeeee' all the way down. And probably so would I.

Meeting up with Peninne Way

At the top we briefly crossed tracks with the Pennine Way. They were off to bigger and more pointy things, whilst we were going downhill for a while at least. However, their more famous trail looked decidedly second rate compared to our track, which was wide and roughly paved. Theirs was just a single track, grassy, the mud wasn't even showing through. Our track was there because the area had been used for mining lead and silver and the tracks were left behind.

We found out later there are around 4000 disused mineshafts over Alston Moor. When they were finished with, they covered the shafts with wood. Over time, the wood is overgrown with vegetation and eventually rots. A while back, a couple of students doing the Pennine Way left the track in the snow. One of them stood on one of these rotten lids and fell through. They were unable to recover his body and he's still there now. A programme was put in place to properly cap the mines with concrete. They managed to do 2000 of them before the scheme was shut down for economic reasons.

After a short while we were following a now narrow track through long grass and mud, clambering up the side of Trout Beck. Stalking us along this section were hordes of cleggs. They jumped out of the long grass and attempted to settle, unnoticed, on some skin. My knuckle had received a bite from one of their number a couple of days ago and the back of my hand had badly swollen up despite antihistamine tablets and cream. I really didn't want another bite from one of them - I could only just move my hand.

The Trout Beck - which did indeed appear to have trout in it - ran into the river Tees. We crossed  it using the supplied bridge, though we could have jumped the Tees at this point. This is the same river Tees which empties into the North sea at Stockon-on-Tees.

About a mile later, we came to an area called Tyne Head. Hmm, we thought, that's like the river Tyne that goes through Newcastle and Gateshead. Sure enough, this is the source of the River South Tyne, which eventually becomes the Tyne. Have a look at your map to see how far apart these great rivers end up.

The rest of the day was pretty straight-forward. We followed the South Tyne for a few miles before heading up, sometimes steeply, through what was once lead mining country. It's forest or open grassland now, but there are the remains of mines and smelting works left over.

Lead mining museum at Nenthead

We eventually headed steeply down to Nenthead, which is the highest village in England, with the highest chapel and the highest something else I can't remember. They also claim to be pioneers of the co-operative movement (though Alistair's sure the originators were in Fenwick). There's a museum where they've reconstructed a mine. You can do underground tours and they have life-size demonstrations of the different kinds of waterwheel.  It's impressive looking, but the word on the street is it's not doing well, thanks to bad management. Though the person who told us this may have had an axe to grind. Nuff sed.

The pub we stayed at was surprisingly good. The accommodation smartly done, and the food excellent. I particularly liked the 70's revival crayfish cocktail starter, steak main, and black forest gateaux dessert.