Pennine Way Day Thirteen - Alston to Gilsland

Due to a technical problem with the Blogger App, the entire post that I'd written for today is stuck in publishing limbo and it doesn't appear to be possible (even for the Sheep Trods' Head of Technical Stuff) to recover it. So with the aid of maps and photos, here's what we remember.

Distance: 19 miles
Ascent: 600m
Weather: fair

The Pennine Way is joined by Isaac's Tea Trail out of Alston, northwards out of town and up on to the moors. Isaac Hardy was apparently an 'itinerant' tea trader and notable Victorian who came from these parts - whether he liked walking or not I am not sure but he now has a trail named after him.

Along the valley by the South Tyne River there is another footpath, the South Tyne Trail, which many people use instead as it goes along a disused railway line (now opened again for tourist steam trains, although we didn't see any engines running today) along the valley floor rather than wiggling around over the moors to end up at the same place. Over breakfast this was suggested to us as a good option "unless you are purists." We appear to be sticklers purists. We got to see Whitley Castle, a Roman Fort, which has extensive ditches and fortifications, cows and sheep.

Throughout the morning we saw a lot of other walkers, almost all of them from afar, on other paths or lanes, studiously avoiding the Pennine Way. Across one field, where the fingerpost clearly pointed the way diagonally across the field the grass meadow had clearly not been walked through in weeks and one of the stone step stiles had a big cobweb across it. At Merry Knowe you get to go through the backyards of a row of stone cottages, climbing over stone walls between each one, which was quite amusing.

A short detour at lunchtime took us to The Kirkstyle Inn where we had baguettes,chips and a pint each - which may not have been a good idea as I felt a bit bleary for the rest of the afternoon.

A straight path follows the Maiden Way Roman Road (course of) by a wall, and the going was good, mostly along a nice grassy path and into pretty valleys. Leaving the Roman road, we headed into Hartleyburn Common, where the Way leads between Round Hill and Cross Rig. We were following a nice track which lead us straight into the middle of a bog. Four wet feet later, we made it to higher, firmer ground on Blenkinsopp Common.

The Pennine Way leads to Greenhead to meet the Hadrian's Wall footpath, which is also a national trail. It is very popular so we'd booked accommodation in Gilsland, 1 mile west at Mile Castle 48. We left the PW at the Vallum (big ditch) at Haltwhistle Golf Club and followed a public footpath down to meet Hadrian's Wall. The footpath lead through a cow field and through a farm yard, muddying our shoes nicely just before we got to the pub. We stayed at the Samson Inn, named after the train - it is right next to the railway line. There are a lively mix of tourists, history buffs and dart players.