Wooler to Belford – 18 January 2025
The image for this post was taken in April 2022 and if you look closely you will see groups of daffodils to the left of the image. Unfortunately, there will be no daffodils today on this walk, it’s far too early in the year and almost certainly too cold. The routes going out from Wooler all follow St Cuthbert’s Way as it heads out of Wooler towards Holy Island.
St Cuthbert’s Way is a long-distance route of 62.5 miles (100 km) which starts in Melrose, Scotland and finishes on Holy Island. If you were planning to do the whole route over five days you would be doing the Wooler to Fenwick section on day four and covering 11.5 miles (19 km). Our routes follow St Cuthbert’s Way from Wooler to St Cuthbert’s Cave. From here St Cuthbert’s Way heads away to the north where our routes turn southeast to finish at Belford.
We have walked various sections of St Cuthbert’s Way over the years and have very rarely seen other walkers on it. Perhaps it has been the time of year, but regardless, many of the long-distance paths do not start getting busy until May, so we will probably still have the majority of this route to ourselves.
The longest route at 12 miles gets off the coach just outside Wooler and heads uphill to a farm called Coldmartin then comes down beside the radio mast that overlooks Wooler where it picks up St Cuthbert’s Way and follows it as far as St Cuthbert’s Cave. From the cave, the route heads southeast past Swinhoe Farm and into Belford.
The 11.5-mile route follows St Cuthbert’s Way out of Wooler and then picks up the 12-mile route to Belford. Finally, the 9.5-mile route starts on the B6348 road at Weetwood Bridge and heads to St Cuthbert’s Cave. From the cave, it heads southeast past Swinhoe Farm and passes underneath Sunnyside Crag and then into Belford.
If you fancy a walk with no daffodils but with a big cave to look at on the way you could join us for a walk. You can get in touch with us using the Contact Page of our website and you can download the walk descriptions below and the GPX routes here.
The image for this post was taken in April 2022 as one of the groups approached St Cuthbert’s Cave.
