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Bollihope Burn
Jun. 15th, 2008 09:33 pm- or, post-industrial elfland revisited.
Today's walk took us along the Bollihope Burn: you come down the hill by the farm, cross the old railway bridge and a green lane takes you between two walls of rock into the old Fine Burn quarry. Follow the burn along - today we crossed the footbridge, and followed the path until we found ourselves in another disused quarry at the other end:
Then we followed above the Howden Burn, a long climb up, with a pause near the top for lunch but the steepest, hardest grind after. A fine view from the top, with the Frosterley mast behind us, and the quarry above Tow Law ahead, and then - since the route we had planned looked likely to bring us back to the car sooner than seemed proper, a certain amount of messing about through heather and across country, cutting round across the burn. This was tiring work, but I was very aware that we were walking through bog vegetation (lush cushions of moss, spiky tufts of marsh grass) yet the going was dry and firm; we were walking through heather, but always either crunching across dry stalks or treading through this year's growth. We got off very lightly, and another year, it could have been much more difficult.
As a route, it has potential. Another time I'd try to improve that descent; and another time, I'd start at the other end of the Bollihope Burn, so that the prettiest, easiest stretch of the walk came at the end.
Today's walk took us along the Bollihope Burn: you come down the hill by the farm, cross the old railway bridge and a green lane takes you between two walls of rock into the old Fine Burn quarry. Follow the burn along - today we crossed the footbridge, and followed the path until we found ourselves in another disused quarry at the other end:
Then we followed above the Howden Burn, a long climb up, with a pause near the top for lunch but the steepest, hardest grind after. A fine view from the top, with the Frosterley mast behind us, and the quarry above Tow Law ahead, and then - since the route we had planned looked likely to bring us back to the car sooner than seemed proper, a certain amount of messing about through heather and across country, cutting round across the burn. This was tiring work, but I was very aware that we were walking through bog vegetation (lush cushions of moss, spiky tufts of marsh grass) yet the going was dry and firm; we were walking through heather, but always either crunching across dry stalks or treading through this year's growth. We got off very lightly, and another year, it could have been much more difficult.
As a route, it has potential. Another time I'd try to improve that descent; and another time, I'd start at the other end of the Bollihope Burn, so that the prettiest, easiest stretch of the walk came at the end.
