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Blanchland Circular via Escomb
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Date 05/12/06
Leader: Russell S
Distance: 8 miles
Weather: Sun at first then rain
Walkers 11
Parking: Short term car park
Map: Ordnance Survey OL305
   

Route Summary - Bishop Auckland, High Park, Bellburn Wood, Escomb, Bishop Auckland.

 

We all arrived at Bishop Auckland but no sign of Jimmy or Ken. We decided to walk to the gates of the grounds of the castle to give them a chance to catch us up. We'd almost given up when they turned up with some dubious excuse about having to drive three times around the town centre behind a horse driven hearse! By now clouds were gathering and it had just started to drizzle.

 

We walked through the gates and followed the footpath alongside the River Gaunless towards an impressive stone deer shelter. This large stone castellated shelter was built in 1760 and provided deer with shelter and food, and originally had rooms where the Bishop and his guests could rest from their hunting, have picnics and enjoy the view. Why the deer would want to shelter under the watchful eyes of their hunters defies imagination!

 
We continued through High Park until reaching a disused railway line which is now part of the Auckland Walk. Here we turned left and continued on the track until reaching Bellburn Wood where we left the track to follow a footpath through the wood. By now the rain was getting worse and we had to negotiate several tricky streams and muddy tracks. During a lull in the rain we stopped for a lunch break only for the rain to start again.

At the end of the wood, before reaching Vinovium Cottage, named after the nearby Vinovia Roman Fort, we turned left onto another footpath. After a while we reached a minor road which, keeping the river to our right, took us over Jock's Bridge to the outskirts of the town where we joined a footpath which took us under Newton Cap Viaduct on to Escomb. This path was very muddy and we had to make a couple of diversions to avoid the overflowing river.

Russell went to collect the key to the church from a nearby house. Bad news was that nobody was in. Good news was that he was trying at the wrong house! After collecting the key from the correct house and exploring the church we continued through the village to rejoin the path alongside the river back to the car park in the town.

For a change we decided to go to a pub, this time the Thinford Arms for beer (or coffee) before making our way home.