Between two sister moorland rills There is a spot that seems to lie Sacred to flow’rets of the hills, And sacred to the sky.
We had slightly damp boots but the weather was decent. It was neither a particularly long walk, nor much of a climb but… Du lieber Gott! … it was a grind. I slept for 12 hours that night. That said, I think it was my favourite section of the Eden Way. There is something atmospheric about a wild moorland walk.
And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, A highwayman comes riding—riding—riding— A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.
Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard. He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred. He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord’s daughter, Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
The Highwayman. Alfred Noyes
The Eden Way guide offers two routes from Thrang to Hell Gill Bridge, one is closer to the river but more rustic, and one further from the river but on a better path and passing the Watercut Eden Benchmark. I had always intended walking both of these routes but probably as part of separate walks, but a last minute hiccough left us with only one car and a need for a shorter walk. Making these two routes into a circular walk allowed us to go ahead. This took us by origin of the River Eden as a named waterway, as well as the final, and most impressive, benchmark sculpture. I had not realised we would have to ford Hell Gill above its waterfall but that just added to the experience.
10.85 miles 5h 48m ascent 227m – Eden Way: 9.47 miles 4h 50m ascent 201m – Poetry Path, 1.38 miles 58m ascent 26m
The Eden at Sandford
Sandford-Kirkby Stephen-Stenkrith
This section of the Eden Way took us from Sandford Bridge to Stenkrith Park in Kirkby Stephen. It has pleasant riverside paths through fields and woodland, short sections through farmland and pavements through Kirkby Stephen. There are couple of miles of road-walking on quiet country roads. But it was not a vanilla hike. Overgrown paths saw us stung by nettles and snatched by brambles; there were stiles to try the patience of a saint; the odd navigation lapse kept us on our toes; and finding the section’s Eden Benchmark proved challenging. But the weather was good and we had the Kirkby Stephen Poetry Trail as a dessert.
We had finished the last section a little way off the Eden Way. The closest parking had been where Colby Bridge crosses Hoff Beck, half a mile off the Way. Luckily, a public right of way runs alongside the beck between the Eden Way and where the car was parked. Unfortunately, it was not obvious how we should reach it.
A gate led to the right of way but it was not easily opened and the route beyond was overgrown with brambles. Another few paces and it was impassable. But the fates smiled on us. A woman appeared from the house beside us and told us how to reach the path. We walked through her back garden (with her permission) to a farm gate with a yellow right-of-way plaque. I imagine the original right of way had been altered at some time.
Breakfast: scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and mushrooms. View: an iceberg strewn fjord, on one side Erik the Red had established a Norse outpost in 986 AD, on the other, the US built airstrip at Narsarsuaq. A small aeroplane, a Cherokee or something like it, rose from the runway and climbed over us.
The Ordnance Survey shows a footpath between Polmaddy and Carsphairn. For more than 500 years it was part of the main route through the Glenkens to the south coast. It was once part of a network of routes across SW Scotland bringing pilgrims from Glasgow and Edinburgh to the cradle of christianity in Scotland at Whithorn. King James IV used the route to visit the shrine of Saint Ninian in the 1490s. But with construction of the turnpike (now the A713) the old route fell into disuse. With forestry planting and upland land improvements in modern times the path was beginning to disappear. Parts had become impassable. The Glenkens Pilgrims’ Way project spent three years rejuvenating the route and reopened it in 2020.
Glenkens Pilgrims Way
The Glenkens Pilgrims Way runs from the abandoned settlement at Polmaddy to the bridge just south of Carsphairn. Our plan was to visit the ruins at Polmaddy and walk the Way, there and back. Fallen trees meant the path proved a little more trying than it might have been. To be fair, the Forestry Commission website had said the path was closed by storm damage. We did manage to scramble over, climb under or find a way around the fallen trees but it slowed us down quite a bit and when we reached Bennan, the wee hill above Carsphairn, I decided to forego the final walk down the hill (and the enevitable re-ascent). So we turned back and retraced our steps.
“I was born on Sunday, the 22d of October 1775, (I ascertained these points in 1805,— I did not exactly know my age in 1794) and baptized a fortnight after, on Tuesday 7th November — stated in the register of baptisms to be the 27th, but the old style is understood, (in the register.) The place where my father then lived is called Dunkitterick, or commonly Kitterick; in Earse, Dun-cheatharaiach, — the know of the cattle. It is on the burn of Palneur, on the south side, about a quarter of a mile from the burn, and on a rivulet that flows from the high hills above on the south. The hills of Craigneildar, Milfore, and others, quite overshadow the spot, and hide it from the sun for three of the winter and spring months. The cottage has been in ruins for more than twenty years, as the farm is herded from the house of Tenotrie, the tenant of which holds both Tenotrie and Kitterick. This place, now laid open by a road, was, when my father lived there, in a completely wild glen, which was traversed by no strangers but smugglers.”
Alexander Murray, Manse of Urr, July 20, 1812.
Yet another Galloway Forest Walk. From the car park at the easily overlooked Brockloch Bridge, along to the Red Deer Range, up the forestry track to High Craigeazle, from where you can see the three Cairnsmores. Then the track and wee footpath to the ruins of Dunkitterick Cottage. An easy enough stroll but with 1000 feet of ascent.
