I woke up to a beautiful sunny day, with bright puffy clouds and only the hint of a gentle breeze, much different than the last several blustery days. After another excellent Scottish breakfast, I headed up and away from town and I took this photo looking back just as the Sunday church bells were ringing.
The road climbed up a hill, with another morning gift of blackberries in the hedgerows, and then descended towards the start of the trail at the base of the hill ahead.
The trail rose quickly and gave a lovely view back to the way I had come.
The trail continued up on grassy paths, and I felt peaceful and happy and had good energy for climbing. I looked back to see that a group of hikers behind me on the Pennine Way, and there was a pair of walkers far ahead of me so I wasn’t completely alone today on the trails, which made sense on such a beautiful Sunday.
I climbed up and up, with great views back and all around. What a place!
Sooner than I wanted, the trail started to descend from the ridge down into a valley where it crossed a fence and then passed through a large logged off area. I had wondered about whether the conifer plantations were selectively logged, or cut all in one go, and now I had my answer.
The trail continued to descend through some fields into a valley, until it joined a pleasant farm road, with many curious sheep! At one gate I passed, I saw a Northumberland National Park sign, and was a little surprised and sad to realise that somehow I had missed the wooden marker that indicates the border between Scotland and England. Oh well, I was now in England!
After a peaceful meander down the road and alongside an adjacent stream, I could see landmarks for the start of the College Valley ahead, and my destination at Hethpool, a smattering of cottages on the College Valley Estate. The road descending south past the cottages is known as the quietest road in England as drivers must buy a permit to drive down the valley, and only ten permits are sold per day.
Here is my grand room at Hethpool House Bed and Breakfast, an Edwardian style, Grade II listed house built in 1919.
After meeting my hostess, who had kindly allowed me an early check-in, I put away my big bag and filled my small day pack with my lunch, water bottle, map, and my rain jacket. Just as I headed back out to climb one of the nearby hills, a heavy rain shower started so I decided to add my rain pants to my bag, and to wait for the downpour to stop as I knew it would be short lived. Sure enough, less than ten minutes later I headed out to bright sunshine to climb the Wester Tor hill. At 537 meters high, I was looking forward to amazing views of the College Valley and beyond.
I walked along Saint Cuthbert’s Way for a ways to connect to the trail up Easter Tor, and then from there travel along the ridge down to a saddle and then up to Wester Tor. As I started to climb, there were great views back towards Hethpool and the head of the College Valley.
And towards the east, was the large hill named Yeavering Bell, the top of which is the site of the remains of a large Iron Age hill fort. And, I had climbed high enough to see the sea! (Off to the left on the far horizon.) Also, I saw a small herd of wild Cheviot goats! The wild goats are regarded as a good example of a primitive goat that helped sustain people of the British Isles from the times of the earliest Neolithic farmers. They pre-date modern goat breeds and are hardy, living a totally wild existence.
As well as this small herd to the east, there was another group just above me and I followed them up hill, trying to get the perfect photo. I actually missed the perfect photo of three of them, quite close, all in a row and all looking at me, with their horns clearly visible, the sun shining on their coats, and their beards blowing in the breeze! Darn! But, this photo is not too bad. They are very skittish!
As I was walking up the hill on the shoulder of Easter Tor, trying to photograph the Cheviot goats, I heard a loud rumble of thunder behind me. I turned and saw that above the hills on the opposite side of the valley, there were dark thunder clouds with rain showers clearly visible. The thunder rumbled several more times. I looked for lightening but couldn’t see any, but then judged by the direction of the wind that those thunderclouds were headed directly towards me! After another loud rumble of thunder, I decided that it would be prudent to get off of the high ridge and descend towards the shelter of a wood below.
On the way down however, I was distracted by another group of wild goats, this time a group of dark-coated bachelors. They seemed less skittish than the females and kids I had been following earlier, and those horns were quite something so I didn’t feel like trying to get too close!
Suddenly I felt a change in the wind and temperature and I looked behind me to see that the rain cloud had travelled much faster than I had expected and it was almost upon me. I hastened down the hill quickly, and then started running (carefully!) when the first big drops started to fall. The sky turned dark, the thunder rumbled, and I made it to the edge of the wood just as the rain started to really pelt down. I couldn’t enter the wood as there was an electric fence at the edge of it, but at least I was a tiny bit protected by branches above. I quickly donned my rain pants just as the pelting rain turned into hail! I made myself as thin as possible, and then just enjoyed it! Here are views from my small sanctuary during the cloudburst, looking right towards the top of Easter Tor and left towards Yeavering Bell.
Luckily I brought my rain jacket and pants! I decided to give up on my climb, having already had a full and wonderful day, so I continued on down the hill to reconnect with Saint Cuthbert’s Way. I love this next image of the sun emerging above the tail end of the thunder cloud, with blue skies behind.
Soon I was walking in the warm sun and the breeze was gently again. I found a nice place to have a very late and welcome lunch, with pleasant views both distant and close.
I decided to take an alternate trail back to Hethpool, in order to see the Linhope Spout.
And lastly I visited the small lake just behind Hethpool House, with its small summer house. There were a pair of swans with eight cygnets!
I had a brilliant day in the Cheviot hills and beautiful Northumberland National Park. Calm, peaceful, beautiful, inspiring, new, fun, exciting (thunder! rain! hail!), then calm again, and very very satisfying. Goodnight.
What beautiful countryside, Christine! Regarding lightning; I thought staying away from trees is what you are supposed to do?
Hi Moira. Yes, it is such beautiful countryside! It was a large group of trees, instead of a lone isolated tree, and although not necessarily a safe place it was better than being the tallest thing on the hill.