Riding Mill

This is the lower Tyne valley at its best. A lovely mixture of fresh, green pasture, thick woodland, bright yellow gorse, tall Scots pine and magical, secret hollows surrounding pretty burns. Tempting sights along the way include picturesque Healey Mill and the peaceful Healey church. Afterwards, make time to visit Hexham Abbey, with its Saxon crypt, and stock up on fresh produce from Brocksbushes Farm Shop.

START/PARKING

Riding Mill station access road or beyond Riding Mill Parish Hall.
Grid Reference NY798640

RECOMMENDED ROUTE

1. Walk back to the A695. Cross and go ahead past the parish hall (alternative parking place). At the top, turn right up Church Lane and then left at the brow into a narrow hedge-lined lane, and carry on where it bears right. Continue on through a gate at the end of the lane into pasture. Turn left, climb a stile and ascend the slope, with a fence to your right. At the waymarker post, walk right to pass in front of a farmhouse. Go on into a short muddy track to take, very soon, a stile, on the right, into woodland. Follow the narrow path to a waymark and then bear left along a track through woodland. Continue ahead for 1km (ignore path to right) to leave the woodland by a stone step stile. Follow the waymarks to weave on through gorse and descend to a fence on your right. Walk beside it and then cross a stile in the hedge, on your right, on to a minor road.
2. After a couple of steps right, descend left down a wide gorse- lined, grassy, boggy, way to take a gate on the left. Walk ahead to pass through the next gate. Avoid a right turn down a ride and edge the beech woodland, on your right to descend a steep, sometimes muddy, path that leads down to a bridge over the March Burn. Cross and walk along a narrow path, with pasture to the left and woodland to the right, through this lovely hollow. At its end, cross the bridge, just beyond the ford over Healey Burn, and follow the gated track uphill as it winds left to a gate, with a signpost beyond.
3. Turn left and climb gently to go through a gate and along the access track towards Healey Mill. Just inside the woodland, on your right, walk a shelf-like path through the trees. Then, very soon, descend an unmarked narrow path, on the left, to a footbridge over the March Burn. Climb the steps beyond, out of this delectable hollow to a wicket gate and turn right, away from the picturesque mill. Climb the slope and then walk the delightful track to its end at another minor road.
4. Walk left for just over 1km and then turn left down a private, virtually traffic-free, narrow road, which can be used as a right of way by walkers. After about 2km, follow the winding road left and go on to lovely Healey church, which you might like to visit. Carry on and, at the road end, turn left. At Burnt House, turn right to walk the long track through Broomleyfell Plantation. Enjoy this pleasing way through pasture and Scots pine, beneath which are vast cushions of bilberry. After passing through a felled area, join a wide forestry track and turn left for a short distance to join a narrow lane.
5. Walk left for 50m to take a stile on the right. Go ahead, with the hedge left, to reach a stile, then descend to climb two more stiles to reach a stile on to the track taken at the outset of your walk. Turn right and retrace your steps back to the station.