The Pennine Way and our club – a long relationship
Most of the Pennine Way is in our club’s stamping ground and as we approach the end of our Pennine Way project it is worth looking back at our relationship with Britain’s first long distance footpath. The Pennine Way between Marsden to Hawes is easily accessible for day trips by public transport and even more of it is easily within range of our coach. Over the years we have done every section from Edale to Cross Fell in day trips. We do not visit the local sections between Marsden and Cowling so often these days as Metro fares and passes have made the coach uneconomic for these sections. We have walked the Yorkshire Dales and Teesdale sections dozens of times and the Derbyshire section fairly often.
In June 1979, at the late Bernard Templeton’s suggestion, we walked the 30 mile from Byrness to Kirk Yetholm in two days, resting overnight half way in Bivvy Bags! About 30 booked but a nasty cold doing the rounds knocked the numbers down to 20. I wonder how many would book for such an event now?
In 1981 Dewsbury CHA were doing the Pennine Way in stages just like we have been doing now, but they could not get enough people for the last two weekends and they asked us to join them. So at May Day weekend we walked from Alston to Bellingham and at Spring Bank from Bellingham to Kirk Yetholm – a much tougher programme than our current one!
In 2003 we used parts of the Pennine Way in Teesdale and from Greenhead to Woden Law on our way from Bradford to Edinburgh, our Centenary walk (CW).
Now in 2010 we have almost finished our Pennine Way project, just one weekend to go in the Cheviots. I would like to thanks all the B walkers who have stoically done sections which for transport reasons just had to be A or A+ .
The Once Brewed sections were not such long mileages but involved over 2000 feet of ascent on each section.
The Heart of the Cheviots and the Pennine Way Mayday Weekend 2011
Looking forward to the Cheviot section, there is good coach access to the route and everyone should be able to do the whole section as hard/medium B walks – about the same as the Once Brewed weekend. However, there are some ‘cheat shortcuts’ which will give a continuous route in fabulous scenery.
Anyone who wants some great Cheviot walking should come along even if they are not doing the Pennine Way.
All in all we have had 19 good weekends at the northern end of the Pennine Way. In nearly every case some part of the Pennine Way was walked, in some cases the whole weekend was devoted to it.
Here is the list.
Alston:1981, 2002, 2010. Baldersdale: 1986, Bellingham: 1992, 2003.
Bivi-bag: 1981. Byrness: 1981. Dufton: 1992, 2004.
Greenhead: 1990. Once Brewed: 1998, 2008, 2010.
Wooler: 1985, 1987, 1996, 2003, 2005. Ray Wilkes (2010)
Most of the Pennine Way is in our club’s stamping ground and as we approach the end of our Pennine Way project it is worth looking back at our relationship with Britain’s first long distance footpath. The Pennine Way between Marsden to Hawes is easily accessible for day trips by public transport and even more of it is easily within range of our coach. Over the years we have done every section from Edale to Cross Fell in day trips. We do not visit the local sections between Marsden and Cowling so often these days as Metro fares and passes have made the coach uneconomic for these sections. We have walked the Yorkshire Dales and Teesdale sections dozens of times and the Derbyshire section fairly often.
In June 1979, at the late Bernard Templeton’s suggestion, we walked the 30 mile from Byrness to Kirk Yetholm in two days, resting overnight half way in Bivvy Bags! About 30 booked but a nasty cold doing the rounds knocked the numbers down to 20. I wonder how many would book for such an event now?
In 1981 Dewsbury CHA were doing the Pennine Way in stages just like we have been doing now, but they could not get enough people for the last two weekends and they asked us to join them. So at May Day weekend we walked from Alston to Bellingham and at Spring Bank from Bellingham to Kirk Yetholm – a much tougher programme than our current one!
In 2003 we used parts of the Pennine Way in Teesdale and from Greenhead to Woden Law on our way from Bradford to Edinburgh, our Centenary walk (CW).
Now in 2010 we have almost finished our Pennine Way project, just one weekend to go in the Cheviots. I would like to thanks all the B walkers who have stoically done sections which for transport reasons just had to be A or A+ .
The Once Brewed sections were not such long mileages but involved over 2000 feet of ascent on each section.
The Heart of the Cheviots and the Pennine Way Mayday Weekend 2011
Looking forward to the Cheviot section, there is good coach access to the route and everyone should be able to do the whole section as hard/medium B walks – about the same as the Once Brewed weekend. However, there are some ‘cheat shortcuts’ which will give a continuous route in fabulous scenery.
Anyone who wants some great Cheviot walking should come along even if they are not doing the Pennine Way.
All in all we have had 19 good weekends at the northern end of the Pennine Way. In nearly every case some part of the Pennine Way was walked, in some cases the whole weekend was devoted to it.
Here is the list.
Alston:1981, 2002, 2010. Baldersdale: 1986, Bellingham: 1992, 2003.
Bivi-bag: 1981. Byrness: 1981. Dufton: 1992, 2004.
Greenhead: 1990. Once Brewed: 1998, 2008, 2010.
Wooler: 1985, 1987, 1996, 2003, 2005. Ray Wilkes (2010)
