New Walks in Central Nottinghamshire ... and Beyond

In the days after we returned home there was some interest from the local media in our walk because my sister and I were so young. I don't know who had contacted them but we did an interview with BBC Radio Nottingham and local newspapers the Newark Advertiser and Mansfield CHAD. We also had our photos taken by the papers with the one below being my favourite. We joined the Pennine Way Club, which we had found out about at the Pen-y-Ghent cafe, and received this cloth badge. However, the Club folded a few years ago. The walk was the first long-distance trail of many that I have done since. As a family we attempted but didn't complete Offa's Dyke Path two years later. On my own, in 1989 I started walking from Land's End to John o'Groats but soon stopped after getting bad blisters. However, I managed to do it in short stages between 2004 and 2010 taking in the South West Coast Path, Cotswold Way, West Highland Way and Great Glen Way. I have also done par...

Start: Cheviot Camp Finish: Kirk Yetholm Distance Walked: 23 miles Total Distance Walked: 263 miles We were up at dawn to begin the long trek through the Cheviot hills and complete the Pennine Way. Much of the early part of the day was very close to the Border Fence between England and Scotland with views of the hills and valleys. We saw a mountain shelter hut in the distance. The path was decent, on grass and with the lack of rain wasn't too boggy. We saw very few people although as we neared the Cheviot later in the morning we weren't completely alone. The Cheviot is the highest point in the eponymous range of hills and lies a mile off the main Pennine Way route. The area around it is featureless and quite uninspiring with the summit rumoured to be wet and peaty. We weren't tempted to make the detour to the top and back. We climbed the last hill in England, Windy Gyle, before crossing the border for the last time and entering Scotland for good. ...

Start: Bellingham Finish: Cheviot Camp Distance: 20 miles . Total Distance Walked: 240 miles The first part of this stage I recall little of. It was through fields, moorland and another section of quite dull walking through conifer forests. The last bit of forest ended at the small village of Byrness, the last settlement before the end of the Pennine Way. We reached Byrness in the late afternoon and had a meal at the cafe there. Many walkers spend the night at Byrness and have a marathon slog of miles to finish the Way. My father had decided that this would be too much for us to do in one day so after eating we set off up out of Byrness into the Cheviot Hills. The first mile or two took us up through the last bit of woodland before we came out into the bare hills. We did another two miles and set up camp, as we had done on the first night of our walk, in wild hill country. Our camp was just next to a fence by a sign indicating MoD land. We listened to the radio and ...

Start: Once Brewed Finish: Bellingham Distance: 17 miles Total Distance Walked: 220 miles We left the busy campsite at Once Brewed, but as we did so said a final farewell to "Skinless" who we had met regularly since Day 6 of the walk. He had sustained an injury and had decided to rest for a day. We were soon at Hadrian's Wall and followed it on an undulating course for two miles. We had managed to stay on course nearly all the way but for a short distance here we took the wrong route. We found ourselves reaching a marshy area with tall reeds next to a small lake, Crag Lough, under a steep cliff close to the wall and realised we needed to retrace our steps to get up to the top of the hill. We left the Wall without making the short diversion to Housesteads fort as we needed to push on. I had started to feel a bit of pain in my hamstring and when I mentioned it my Dad said if it got worse we would stop the walk. As we had now done more than 200 miles I was ...

Start: Slaggyford Finish: Once Brewed Distance: 19 miles Total Distance Walked: 203 miles This was another of the less memorable stages of the walk. Most of it was through fields and moorland with little of note until the last few miles when we reached Hadrian's Wall. My main memories of this stage come from our overnight stopover. We were staying at a campsite at Once Brewed, about half a mile from the Wall. As it was again the weekend the campsite was busy. We went to the pub for our evening meal. While we were there a posh gentleman was trying to keep his unruly children, Charles and Henry, under control. These boys were a little younger than my sister and I, possibly nine and seven years old, and were behaving as boys of that age sometimes do. They were messing about and being a bit noisy which caused the pub's landlord to tell them off saying that by rights they shouldn't be in the pub. They calmed down a bit before leaving a little later. The camp...

Stage Eleven Start: Tan Hill Finish:  Middleton-in-Teesdale Distance: 17 miles Total Distance Walked: 137 miles It says something about the relatively mundane nature of the walking on this stage that I can recall very little about it without the aid of a diary, which I had by this time neglected to keep.  Therefore this post is quite short. The first part of the day was walking across the heather of Sleightholme Moor.  It was fairly flat and uninteresting but fortunately the weather was as obliging as it had been on the rest of the Way and there were few difficulties.  Apparently this part of the walk can be unpleasant in wet conditions but having coped with the moors at the start of the Pennine Way when we hadn't been "walk-fit" these seemed easy enough on springy turf. The afternoon was a little more interesting in fields but I can't remember much about it.  We stayed in Middleton-in-Teesdale at a B & B following four nights under canvass....

Start: Horton-in-Ribblesdale Finish:  Hawes Distance: 15 miles Total Distance Walked: 103 miles After a breakfast of raspberry yoghurt we decamped and set off at 9.10.  The first few miles were easy walking on a well-surfaced, quite straight road with Pen-y-Ghent's distinct stepped profile on our right and Ingleborough's flat table-top summit to the left.  The route climbed steadily but took a course between the really high country on either side. After three miles the Way went into more open paths and we entered wilder terrain and saw a baby sparrowhawk.  We walked alongside Cam Beck and idled away some minutes watching a piece of foil drift along the Beck.  The ground became wetter underfoot on Cam Fell and at 12 we stopped at Cam End for lunch. The next notable climb was of Dodd Fell.  Although there were many of these hills on the Pennine Way I don't recall any of them being very arduous.  My father set a sensible pace and along the wa...

Start:  Malham Finish: Horton-in-Ribblesdale Distance: 12 miles Total Distance Walked:  88 miles We left our campsite just after 9 o'clock and were soon alongside a pleasant stream heading towards one of the most spectacular features of the whole route, Malham Cove.  This high limestone cliff, shining bright white, was once a waterfall higher than Niagara Falls. We climbed the path by the cove to reach the top and another page of our geography text books where we reached a limestone pavement.  This landscape of blocks of rock and fissures between them may have been interesting geologically but was awkward to walk on.  It was only a short section and we were then into attractive fields before reaching Malham Tarn. On this section of the Pennine way we had seen more people than on any so far and by the Tarn we mingled with a large group walking by the lake which is also a nature reserve.  Leaving the crowds behind we walked through m...

Start:  Thornton in Craven Finish:  Malham   Distance: 12 miles Total Distance Covered: 76 miles We had breakfast at the Post Office B & B .  I had Alpen, a poached egg on toast and bacon.  Before we left at 9.30 "Skinless", who we met the day before and had been camping in a field by the post office, told us that in the night a cow had put its foot through his tent.  We stocked up on supplies including for me a very exotic Yorkie Raisin and Biscuit chocolate bar, a new flavour. The route was much less remote than the early days of the walk.  Part of the route was easy and pleasant along the Leeds and Liverpool canal towpath.  At 12.15 we crossed stepping stones across the River Aire into the village of Gargrave where we had lunch.  While we were there we met the Family Party of walkers whom we had encountered a few days earlier. There was a bit of road walking after we left Gargrave which aggravated my blisters a little....

Start:  Crowden Finish:  Marsden Distance: 12 miles Total Distance Covered: 27 miles I was up at 7.45am the next morning for a breakfast of a vanilla drink concoction made from powder.  We left the campsite at 9.20 and set off along the main path out of the valley.  At some point we managed to drift off the official path and down to Crowden Great Brook.  We walked up the brook itself which although not very fast-flowing was still awkward as we stepped over rocks. Eventually we found a way uphill away from the brook onto some marshy ground and then a further steady climb to the top of Black Hill.  This is a barren wasteland of peat which is the highest point in Cheshire.  Except for the trig point on top it's pretty featureless, although there isn't much "pretty" about it.  There was low cloud by the time we approached the summit and visiblity was severely restricted.  We were able to see a group of two adults and children a little...