bright-green moss and cotton grass give way to bents, bilberries and mat grass as the faint waymarked path begins to climb steeply, initially south-southwest, then south for a relentless plod to the domed, cairn-and-trig-point-capped summit of Hedgehope Hill. At the time of writing two recent maps, OS Explorer OL16, The Cheviot Hills, and Harvey SuperWalker, Cheviot Hills, show the permissive path of our ascent forking right at GR 946206, initially on a southwesterly bearing of 240°. Do not take this uncertain right fork, as the way is unmarked, not visible and unstable underfoot.
Three fences meet on Hedgehope’s summit, leading the eye over endless heather and tussock with little company save moorland birds and hardy sheep. To the north over the Harthope Valley we see close-ups of Cheviot’s riven southern quarter, and on clear days the sandy coastline of Northumberland is visible. Our descent is via our outward route, providing insights into the Harthope Valley, Hawsen Crags and rounded Cold Law beyond. Inspect and enjoy Long Crags and Housey Crags before descending north beyond the crags to join the bridleway (initially a recent dirt-and-stone track) running southwest to Threestoneburn Wood.
Below and between Housey Crags to the west and the spectacular rock of Langlee Crags to the east the pathway splits. Our bridleway forks right, south-southwest, for 1½ stimulating miles (2.4km) to the regimented conifers of Threestoneburn Wood beyond Tathey Crags. Before the forest the grass-tracked way passes a metal shed and upright wooden poles, then enters the conifers via a narrow ride. A 15 minute walk reaches a stile and gate providing access to a clearing surrounding Threestoneburn Stone Circle, an enclosure and derelict stone circle north of the burn, some 400yds (366m) west of Threestoneburn House.
Long Crags, Housey Crags, Langlee Crags, Tathey Crags and Cunyan Crags Four-hundred million years ago a mass of molten rock welled up beneath the volcanoes of Cheviot and Hedgehope, eventually cooling to form granite. When this molten mass came into contact with volcanic larva, the intense heat changed it chemically into a somewhat different and harder rock. Today we have a circle of this changed rock, ‘the metamorphic aureole’, around Cheviot and Hedgehope. Natural weathering has worn away the softer rock, leaving the harder rocks exposed as visible outcrops. Later the ice age fashioned the crags by shearing and streamlining the rocks with the directional movement of the ice, in this case north and south.
Long Crags
Threestoneburn Stone Circle The stones in this circle were arranged elliptically, with 13 shafts, the tallest standing over 5ft (1.5m). Sadly, today only five standing stones remain. It has long puzzled me as to why the burn should be named so. With 13 stones originally in the circle, it would have been logical to name it ‘Thirteenstoneburn’. Could it be that ‘three’ has through time become a mispronunciation of ‘thirteen’?
Linhope Cottages
The waymarked route avoids the house by crossing the footbridge to re-enter the forest and continue south through silent shade, via marked pathways and forest tracks, for 1½ miles (2.4km), finally breaking cover at the southern-most tip below the rocks of Cunyan Crags above the isolated Breamish Valley. Continue south over open fell to join a westbound bridleway fringing the grassed-over remains of a medieval village (marked on the OS Map).
Swing right onto the distinct bridlepath, with a sheepfold and tin hut ahead, ignoring all crisscrossed paths and tracks, for a wide and handsome Cheviot hike southwest. Once through the gated stone wall, swing half-left, i.e. south-southwest, between coniferous plantations onto the gated cart track, descending to tiny, picturesque Linhope below the prehistoric village of Greaves Ash.
Continue with the lane, crossing Linhope Burn Bridge, to rise with the waymarked track northwest around Linhope House, then by permissive path to Linhope Spout, the Cheviot’s most spectacular waterfall.
Linhope Spout The most spectacular of all the Cheviot waterfalls, plunging 56ft (17m) into a deep rock pool 7ft (2m) across and 15ft (4.5m) deep. When Linhope Burn is in full spate the cascade is an awesome sight as it thunders into the pool below and hurries on between overhanging birches.
WALK 4
A Gentle Introduction to Cheviot’s Foothills
| Start/Finish | Halterburn Valley, GR 840277, or Kirk Yetholm (add 2 miles) |
| Distance | 5 miles (8km) |
| Total Ascent | 984ft (300m) |
| Grade | 2 |
| Time | 2½ hours |
| Maps | OS 1:25 000 Explorer OL16, The Cheviot Hills OS 1:50 000 Landranger sheet 74, Kelso & Coldstream Harvey 1:40 000 SuperWalker, Cheviot Hills |
| Parking | Limited parking between road and Halter Burn, GR 840277 |
| Accommodation | Yetholm – hotel, bed-and-breakfasts, youth hostel, caravan park |
A gentle introduction to the foothills of the Cheviots, this circular walk includes sections of the waymarked Pennine Way (with fine views of the high Cheviots, including the Cheviot, en route), coupled with a picturesque return in the Halterburn Valley. Good paths and an easy ascent of 984ft (300m) make this 2½ hour journey a pleasure.
At the northern end of the Halterburn Valley a cattle-grid signals the starting point (limited parking on the verges of the farm track on the left). From the start make for the stream (Halter Burn), easily forded in summer, or take the wooden bridge in winter. With a stone dyke on the left for 200 yards, follow the track and then the pathway east contouring the lower southern slopes of coned Green Humbleton as far as the sheep pens and Pennine Way marker post. Ascend east-southeast with the grassy track, passing a finger post indicating the relative routes of the Pennine Way and St Cuthbert’s Way, to the mound ahead and beyond that the Border fence. Before the gated border line, just over the mound turn right for 40 yards or so to inspect the Stob Stones and the extensive rippling hills beyond. Return to the gate, which marks the boundary between Scotland and England with a drystone dyke and wire-and-post fence, but do not pass through.
The Border fence The first written evidence of the actual position of the eastern border was in 1173, when reference was made to the Tweed as the border. In 1222 a joint boundary commission met to define the border, but the task proved too much, so only a small section was agreed upon. Further work between 1542 and 1604 achieved little. The border as we know it today seems to have been born between 1604 and 1648, after the Union of the Crowns in 1603. Today’s border fence remains an extremely useful navigational aid, and many have good reason to be grateful for its presence on these bleak and lonely hills (see Walks 5 and 14).
The Stob Stones To the west of these two prehistoric earth-fast boulders, in the hazy distance of the Tweed Valley, stand the three distinctive peaks of the Eildon Hills at Melrose, aligned precisely by the leading edge of the larger of the two Stob Stones.
Follow instead the directional Pennine Way finger post south, with wall and fence on the left, via a sharply descending and then ascending path, wet and boggy in places, leading to the col below the summit of White Law 1407ft (417m). This testing section of ½ mile (0.8km), parallel to the wall, rises to the visible T-junction of stone dykes and stile on the col between White Law and Whitelaw Nick. Once over the stile turn left, ascending for 150yds (137m) to the summit of White Law, the highest point of the walk and a fine vantage point.
White Law The name, one can only surmise, originates from the vegetation that covers the upper slopes. Much of the grass on White Law is mat grass (Nardus stricta), an unusual species that in June bears an unbranched spike and in late summer bleaches almost white, giving rise to the local description ‘white lands’, hence the name White Law (hill).
A few yards beyond the apex of White
