Day 76 On my own again-Alston to Haltwhistle

Today’s portion of the south Tyne Trail was along the old railway line although the first part was alongside a steam railway. I got a bit lost, so had a pleasant wander round the backstreets of Alston before finding the station

Having just had breakfast I shunned the station cafe, and set off alongside the track.

The railway runs as far as the wonderfully named Slaggyford where there is a station. The trail then follows the line of the old railway to Haltwhistle. Before that there were some good benches (p) and a notice board about the mining -lead, ironstone, coal and lime-for which was built an aerial rope way to bring all the mined materials to the railway. Graham and I had lamented the lack of such rope ways on several occasions over the last few days, never imagining that they might really have existed.

I passed Slaggyford (apparently Slaggyford means muddy, I’m glad to report that there is now a bridge) and marched briskly-yes, I wanted to get a good part of my mileage done before lunch -along the old railway bed. There were a few cyclists but it was all very quiet. The next (former) station was Lambley which was now a rather nice house. As a result the path had to detour round it, down some steps-my legs had forgotten what to do about steps- down quite a lot of steps actually, until I found myself near the bottom of the Viaduct. At which point the path headed upwards again (lots more steps, but this time they were metal steps with a handrail which did make it a bit easier). Viaducts are difficult to appreciate from nearby-either you can see only the bottom of the arches or the former trackway and no arches. Another handy notice board came to my rescue and I can report that there are 9 main arches with 17 metre spans and 7 smaller spans of 6 metres. It was built in the 1850s and was in use until 1976.

After the viaduct there were some nice wooded paths, and then I was in a cutting for quite a while. A cutting with the most beautiful wildflowers-rivalling Hannah’s Meadow.

I came off the South Tyne Trail for the approach to Haltwhistle, passing Bellister Castle (partly ruined) before passing under the A road and into a little oasis of calm and Sunday afternoon dog walkers. There was a pedestrian bridge over the Tyne and I arrived in Haltwhistle and made my way to the Centre of Britain Hotel.

Now, fourteen and a half miles later, my feet hurt and I have a new blister, so I plan to spend the evening with my feet up.