Kirknewton to Milfield – 8 January 2022
Here’s a new one for our first walk of 2022, Kirknewton to Milfield on the northern edge of the Cheviots. We have started from Milfield before and headed north to finish at Crookham and we have started from just outside Kirknewton and headed south to Wooler but this time we are sort of going south and west to finish at the Red Lion in Milfield.
In 2020 we started off the year with some routes along the coast to Bamburgh but our last walk for that year occurred on the 17th of March when we finished in Alston. By the time we got started again after the worst of the Covid pandemic was over it was the 11th of September 2021 and we finished some routes in Rothbury. In total, we managed six walks in 2020 and eight walks in 2021.
On average we had 42 members coming out on each walk in 2021 which is a remarkable achievement after eighteen months of inactivity, not only that but we also increased our membership over the year and we even have some potential new members coming out with us on our first walk of 2022. We have a full programme of walks planned for this year with our last walk on the 10th of December, some 25 walks away.
We have three routes planned for our first walk of the year. The shortest route is around 8-miles and starts from Westnewton which unsurprisingly is just to the west of Kirknewton. This route goes over the River Glen and heads north past Crookhouse and almost to the site of the Battle of Flodden before coming back south over Flodden Hill which was the original position of the army of King James IV on the morning of 9th September 1513. This route then turns south towards the farm at Flodden Bridge and then into Milfield.
The next route at 9.5-miles starts at Akeld on the A697 road at the junction with the B6351. This route follows the Hill Fort Trail as far as the hill called Yeavering Bell but then follows a section of St Cuthbert’s Way before cutting between West Hill and St Gregory’s Hill and walking through the village of Kirknewton. The route then crosses the River Glen and passes Lanton Mill before picking up the same footpath as the 8-mile route. At Crookhouse this route then climbs up to Quarry Field Plantation before beginning a long descent into Milfield.
The longest route is 10.5-miles and starts just north of Wooler at Low Humberton. This route also follows the Hill Fort Trail and goes over Yeavering Bell and comes down to Old Yeavering before a short road section into Kirknewton. It then skirts the edge of Watch Hill before reaching Crookhouse and then follows the 9.5-mile route into Milfield.
All the routes have at least one climb involved in getting out of the River Glen valley, hopefully not too strenuous for our first walk of the year. So if you fancy a new start to the year and a new route to follow and you would like to join us for a walk you can get in touch with us using the Contact Page of our website and you can also download the walk descriptions below and the GPX routes here.
The image for this post was taken in February 2017 when we were walking from Millfield to Crookham and the footbridge is just to the south of Crookhouse.
