Around Weardale

When you go over the 2,000ft (610m) watershed on the moors between Allendale and Weardale you cross into Durham, the land of the Prince Bishops. Like Allendale, upper Weardale earned its riches from mining, quarrying and farming. Both valleys have the scars to show for it, and attractive hillside pastures with crazed web-like patterns of dry-stone walls. However, while Allendale has few villages along its length, Weardale has many charming villages built out of local stone and delightful flower-filled fields that dip into the river.

Powerful churchmen

Westgate, where the walk starts, marked the western extremity of the Forest Quarter, also known as the Bishops’ Park. Here the Prince Bishops hunted for deer, supplying venison for their kitchens. It was said in the 16th century that they hunted with such enthusiasm that the deer population was almost wiped out. These powerful churchmen reigned from the early Norman times right through to the 1830s.

Green vistas

The River Wear is your guide as field paths head up the valley to St John’s Chapel. This is a larger village with a fine Georgian church and rows of well-to-do cottages. Now you climb the hillsides and turn eastwards along a country road. It may be tarmac, but this 2-mile (3.2km) quiet lane enjoys subtly changing views that are as good as any in the county. Now you can see how green Weardale is, a vivid green that contrasts with the stark high moors of Chapel Fell and Westerhope. The lane ends and an old cart track takes you up onto the moors, then down into a lonely side valley that once would have reverberated to the sounds of the Middlehope lead mine. The abutment of an old bridge is a relic from a former mine railway that connected Westgate with the mines of Rookhope. Here you follow the stream to the Slit Mines. The shaft, at 585ft (178m), is the one of the deepest in Weardale, while the Slit lead vein at 14 miles (22.5km), is the valley’s longest.

Ancient woodland

The valley, so far, has been a shaly one, but now it narrows and has harder limestone rock surfaces. The river gets playful and tumbles down in a series of waterfalls. You are entering Slit Woods, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The footpath weaves its way through this ancient woodland, a place filled with oaks and rowans, wild strawberries and ransoms. Like many old woods you’ll see dog’s mercury, wood anemone and wood sorrel, a low creeping perennial with pretty lilac-tinged white flowers. It’s a wonderful way into Westgate and a fitting finale for a memorable walk.

From the car park, turn right towards the village. Approaching the bridge, drop left to a riverside path and follow it upstream. Later emerging into a field, keep ahead through a couple of gates to a lane. Take the track opposite beside cottages to a kissing gate. Continue across grazing towards more cottages, leaving along a track past them. Where it bends left, bear right through a gate, crossing a small garden to a footbridge. Over a ladder stile, carry on beside the River Wear, eventually climbing steps to the A689 at Daddryshield Bridge.

The path continues opposite, returning to follow the river. Ultimately meeting a narrow lane beside a ford and footbridge, swing away from the river, keeping left at a fork to reach the main road in St John's Chapel. Turn right and walk through the village.

Approaching the far end of the village, bear  right at a footpath sign on a track, dropping beneath an old railway bridge to a ford and footbridge. On the far bank wind left then right up to a cottage. Turn left beside it and keep ahead over a small bridge. Go through a kissing gate and carry on along the edge of a couple of fields above the river. Beyond a squeeze stile in the corner, join a path arriving over a bridge. Continue beside the river for another 0.25 miles (400m) to emerge onto a lane next to Coronation Bridge.

Climb steeply right to New House, ignoring a junction and rounding a sharp right-hand bend to a fork.

Bear right along the lane and follow this for 2 miles (3.2km), keeping left at a later fork to its ultimate end.

Follow a walled track left uphill for 0.5 miles (800m) before turning right at a junction. Descend steeply to Middlehope Burn. (If the burn is impassable, retrace your steps back to the junction of paths at the end of the lane. Continue straight ahead, following a track that takes you down the fields past Low Crooked Well and to the A689 where you turn left back to Westgate and the car park.)

Unless there's been heavy rain, you should get across dry-shod to a grass track leading away right. Keep ahead where it swings sharply left to follow a signed footpath down the valley. Stay on the left bank past the Slit Mine site, although lower down the path briefly switches to the opposite bank.

Finally emerge past cottages onto a lane and turn right back to the village. Turn left and right, crossing the River Wear to the car park.