A word from T'up North.

 Bizzle Burn, 5th May 2012

Northumberland! Have you ever been?

After having lived here since 1987, thanks to a conversation I had with Ian " Guru" Cobb (while working on shift at 02:00 in the morning, about 2004,possibly a Wednesday, I think the wind was from the SW?), I was given the opportunity to sample the outdoor delights that this county has to offer.

Ian has been climbing and mountaineering for some considerable time now, while I, the Johnny come lately, only started the outdoor lark when I was just turning 40 (mid life crisis?). So, when the opportunity arises to broaden someone else's horizons, I consider it to be a privilege to be able to give something back. I didn't know one end of my compass from the other when first starting out all those years ago, but I was fortunately tutored (and kept out of bother) by T'Cobbster. 

Bearing all that in mind, a work colleague of mine and acquaintance of Ian, Rob "Chuck" Norris, had been duly nominated to accompany us on days out, when available. So, a glorious Saturday morning, a late start (out of the house for 08:45 - a certain amount of socialising involving beer spillage had taken place the night before) and away we went. After picking Rob and Ian up, we proceeded north at a rate of knots (nautical terminology is allowed as it tends to be quite wet up here). It's about 45 miles to the parking spot, at a place called Langlee Ford, just south of Wooler, and once you are off the main roads it's pretty much all single track, following the course of Harthope Burn, a small but stunningly pretty water course.

So, out of the car, a brief discussion about gaiters and their merits, some meaningful looks from a particularly belligerent pack of sheep, and we're off.

Normal looking people.

Not a normal person, note the insane grin.

 The initial part of the walk runs north west keeping Hawsen burn on our left side, where you quickly gain enough height to look back across the valley to see Langlee Crags, with the car parking area in the valley below. The path does not appear to be that well used, although Ian and I have traversed this route quite a number of times. There is also a Landrover track that runs parallel to it for the bird chasing, gun toting athletes that have forgotten how to walk..... sorry, went off on a one momentarily there. The hill crests at about 450 metres, with the path running between Blackseat Hill and Scald hill to our left, and Cold Law and Broadhope Hill to our right. As we plodge fourth the valley opens up below and in front of us. A leap over the fence, a walk through the trees and we are back to a steady descent to the valley floor. A brief sad session ensued when we found a red squirrel in a rat trap, then in no time at all we find ourselves walking between the farm buildings at Goldscleough and continue our westerly route to Dunsdale, effectively having walked around the bottom of The Cheviot.

Bizzle Valley 

Having reached Dunsdale, we start to make our way into the Bizzle valley with the somewhat unstable crags high up on the plateau to our right (don’t ask why we know they are unstable, alright, you saw nothing.....). Again, Ian and I have passed through here many times before, and it is one of the few places in Northumberland where a decent ice climb forms most years. It has also been the scene of a particularly tragic event, when in the early 1980’s, two young men were killed in an avalanche.

Looking up Bizzle Burn

 The valley becomes quite narrow as you get higher, eventually turning into a slot that holds Bizzle Burn, collecting the water from the plateau and channeling it down hill. After a short stop for butties and a bit of a play around on the solitary block, we started following the burn, with this probably being the steepest section of the walk. Most of the way up you can stick to the side, crossing the stream a number of times to make better progress as some of the sections require you to either go up over the rocks in the middle of the stream or swap sides due to the path disappearing into a rock wall. The only really tricky bit was the occasional bits of ice on some of the rocks. As we got higher we then started to traverse off to our left, the very steepest bit, and break out on to the plateau near to Bellyside Crag. After a few more photos, a quick snowball fight (not joking) and a very light snow storm, we made our way  about another kilometre across the reasonably flat , water drenched top to the summit and the elevated trig point.

Just on the Plateau

One of the best things about the Cheviot is that some enterprising souls installed an excellent path made from huge (and I do mean HUGE) blocks of stone. Ian tells me that it was particularly unpleasant in the old days, especially as the mountain - yes, it is officially a mountain - is more of a mud splat than a pointed rock edifice. Anyway, the path is a good 1 km or more long, and allows you to make excellent swift progress across the top.

Guardians of the sacred Trig

And, as they say, it’s pretty much all downhill from here, quite literally. The route down is quite steep in places, but navigating is really easy as there are a number of fences that give you a “hand rail” (its a navigating term and simply means a reliable object that points the way). So, back to the car, a swift drive to The Shoulder of Mutton at Long Horsley, a pint to toast the day’s success, and away home to the sounds of Steel Panther, dropping my chums off along the way.

Perfect? Pretty much really.

Robin.

Distance 15km

Max altitude 815 metres

Total ascent ~1000 metres

Duration 4hrs 30 mins