Having been thoroughly spoiled with lovely weather at the weekends for most of this year, we finally faced a very grey and slightly miserable walk in the middle of October. Keen to avoid prolonged exposure to any imminent rainfall, we picked a shorter walk from our Pocket Mountains guide to the North Pennines, which ambled up onto the moor above the Northumberland village of Blanchland.
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Tucked away in the south of Northumberland, Blanchland has a chocolate box feel which is absent from lots of other towns in the north east: it’s almost a bit Cotswolds-esque. Popular in the summer months, we decided that going for a mooch in autumn would keep numbers down: and it was indeed very quiet on our walk, although we saw plenty of people in the village itself.
There’s a large car park (with an honesty box for donations) on the edge of the village, and from here we followed a quiet road steadily uphill to reach the moor. The lane is wooded and therefore there weren’t many views, but we did get some nice autumn colours. I suspect on the moor there would usually be good views across the surrounding countryside, however the lingering cloud meant that unfortunately any views were somewhat obscured.
It felt like we’d hardly been on the moor for any time at all before we were leaving it to begin our gradual descent back into Blanchland via a quiet access road and too short amble along the river. There are other, longer walks around here which keep you up on the moor for longer, and I must confess to being a little disappointed with the walk. A combination of grey weather and a lot of walking on lanes meant that it just didn’t live up to my expectations, following previous walks from Blanchland. Perhaps doing it in sunshine might have been a bit more inspiring. If my rather lukewarm description of this walk (which is at least very easy) hasn’t put you off, there’s a similar route on AllTrails.
I was apologising profusely to Sam (who actually quite enjoyed the walk) as we walked back up through the centre of Blanchland. An off chance comment from Sam about being hungry (which may not have been true and may only have been said to shut me up) led to a spontaneous decision to treat ourselves to lunch in the village. We popped into the White Monk Refectory and Tea Room on the off chance they could squeeze us in as the lunch rush began.
If we’re not on holiday, eating out is quite a rare treat for us, so thank you to everyone who has bought me a coffee recently. For a cafe in such a seemingly sleepy village the White Monk was bustling, with a great atmosphere and some extremely tempting cakes on the counter. We were seated at a table in no time (dogs welcome inside) and started the debate over what to have. Am I boring if this was the third time in a row where I’ve had a brie, bacon and cranberry panini?
Dog friendly rating: 4/5. There are no serious issues for dogs on this walk, but there are limited opportunities for letting them off the lead. Most of the walk is spent on quiet lanes (admittedly we only saw one or two cars), and the moorland section has signs up asking for dogs to be kept on leads. The route is stile free and has a short riverside section towards the end, where the water is accessible for dogs to have a paddle in the river.
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