shewhomust | Bollihope Burn revisited

Todays walk was a version of one we've done before (and more than once; here's the map that

durham_rambler made when he was planning it.

Our outward route was the same as last time: we parked at White Kirkley (I love that name) above Frosterley, and followed the Bollihope Burn through the old quarries, then climbed up - and up - following shooting tracks out onto the high heather moorland. There were all the flowers of summer - harebells and tormentil and eyebright, and the heather in purple bloom - but the breeze was cool and sometimes gusty, and the skies were dramatic, grey more often than blue, though it never quite rained, and we did see some sunshine. We lunched where the track makes a hairpin bend and crosses Shaftwell Syke, a pretty stream flowing down between mossy banks, and where an ols bridge provides a wall to sit on.

Then up again and finally out onto what feels like the top of the world, flat uplands with wide views across the moorland to the dales beyond. We left the broad track and followed a narrow path; at first it was a relief to be walking on turf rather than the loose stony surface of the track, but as it grew wetter underfoot, and the need to watch my footing meant that I wasn't really looking around me, this too became tiring. At last we came to the wall that forms a boundary between the moorland and the valley sides, and Weardale opened up on our left. The Elephant trees - the clump of trees which are visible on the skyline from so much of the dale - were ahead of us, but before we reached them we turned through a gate in the wall and walked down the farm road, past the old barn and back to our starting point.