Author Topic: Teesdale - Coldberry Gutter and Low Force  (Read 6221 times)

mike knipe

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Teesdale - Coldberry Gutter and Low Force
« on: 23:25:47, 13/03/08 »
I've had an evening meeting in Teesdale, so as the mornign  was bright and sunny, I decided to snatch this little walk before the get-together.
The route started in Middleton in Teesdale in cloudy/bright but cold conditions with lots of new, fresh snow on the tops. (No dawg today because of the extended day) I followed a road into the deep, wooded gill which surrounds Hudeshope Burn. This is private land, but has been open to the public for many years and has waymarked walks. The road ends and then a maze of paths lead off in various directions. I continued following the main valley and popped out of the woodland at Hudeshope, which is large corrie-like bowl containing lots and lots of old lead mines.
In the Western wall of the corrie there's a feature called a "hush", which is a deep ravine or channel gouged out of the hillside by water from a dam higher up  by lead  miners to strip off overburden and reveal the underlying minerals.
This hush is called Coldberry Gutter and is unusual in that it runs down both sides of the hillside and the dam for generating the head of water is still in tact at the top of the hill.
The slightly (actually, more than slightly) annoying thing about this immediate area is that whilst its designated as an open access area, access is restricted (i.e. denied) between 31 October and 31 August. Thats ten months. I dont suppose that its too much of a coincidence that the two months that access is available are the two main grouse-shooting months. grrrrr.   As it happens, I mentioned this to some local hillwalkers at the meeting later, and they said they ignored all of this and still maintained friendly relations with the keepers. 
Anyway, there's a corridor of genuine open access running up both sides of the gutter.
On the way up to the foot of the gutter, I discovered a line of stone slabs covering a water channel which contoured along the hillside - probably some kind of leat or aqueduct for the mines. It was in quite good condition and still had water in it. (pic below)
At the top, it started to rain and the wind was fair funnelling down the ravine.
I managed to insinuate myself between some patches of rushes with a wall at my back and so, had a dry and relatively cosy lunch. By thius time the rain was hurtling horizontally over the wall just above my head.
I put all my waterproofs on and stowed the camera in a plastic bag inside my lunchbox inside another plastic bag inside my pack - and blundered off in to the squally stuff. The rain was cold and needle-like and... quite good, really....
More blundering took me to Bow Lee Beck, which has a tricky crossing just under a crag which appears to have recently collapsed, then down through muddy woodland to Bowlees pickernick place and cafe (closed for the winter) - and across fields to Low Force. I took a few pics, but they were so rushged and it was so dark that they didnt really come out.
I followed the Pennine Way back to Middleton as the rain kept on batterring down - and it was starting to flood the fields.
I was pretty wet all through the meeting (had to negotiate some significant floods on the road from Middleton to get there).... a bag of chips in Barnard castle sorted me out, though.
Sign of spring..... not a lot. I heard a curlew and saw quite a few lapwings and a couple of owls on the way home.....

11 miles, 1500 feet of ascent. 3 gallons of water in each boot.
« Last Edit: 23:55:29, 13/03/08 by mike knipe »
Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles

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