Steven's Blog: Weardale Way: Westgate to Killhope

Distance: 8.82 miles
Time: 3 hours 40

This was the prefect end to the Weardale Way, the weather was fantastic sunny, clear skies and no wind. I didn't think this part of the walk would be very exciting and expected it to be boring. It ended up being the best section of the whole 77 mile walk, once above Wearhead me and my dad really enjoyed it and kept saying how fantastic it was. I'm not sure we would think the same if it was raining and blowing a gale.

The best part of the walk was once we climbed the steep bank up towards Weardale Forest above Killhope, when we turned around and looked back down the valley. We had 2 ponds in front and an excellent clear view. The forest has actually changed a bit from when the map was produced and the instructions were written. The trees to the south of path through the forest have been cut down but probably made for a slightly better view and certainly enabled us to get some sun.

Another fantastic bit along this part of the walk was Kidd's Dam, with the sunlight playing off the top of it and the way it disappears under the tree edge it looked very strange, the trees reflected off the surface it made it look like it was actually a drop not water. It's hard to describe unless you actually saw it. The picture below doesn't pick up how it looked to the eye.

This section of the walk was the perfect end , now on to the next one (walking all the Wainwrights).

The distances have mentioned in the walks were what the GPS said at the end except for one I forgot to check. Sometimes the GPS could of lost a signal or gone slightly wrong or we have done odd parts slightly wrong too. Officially the Weardale Way is now 77 miles, it has recently been changed so is longer than it used to be. We walked the new route, so anyone thinking that's not correct go look at www.weardaleway.com