Lower Teesdale Way - Leg III: Piercebridge to Blackwell – Thursday 27 October 2013

Leaving the car parked alongside South Park in Darlington, a brisk walk through the park to the town centre enables the good old number 75 bus to Barnard Castle to be used again, this time to get to Piercebridge in time to walk down to the bridge and start the actual walk about one o’clock. The afternoon is bright and the trees surrounding the large village green are showing their autumnal colours against the blue sky.

On the north side of the bridge the path dives through a hole in a pink-washed wall and goes down to the riverbank opposite the George Hotel. After passing through a couple of gates the signage fails me and I guess at a footpath through a garden and drive to a track that zig-zags up to the A67 (sooner than the map indicated) which I march along for about a mile to High Conniscliffe.

Although it’s only half an hour into the walk it has been a while since breakfast so a short stop at the village bench to eat an apple is in order. From there the path is clearly signed down the side of the church and soon reaches the river, keeping alongside it across open ground pleasingly interspersed with trees and bushes.

Although the day is fine, rain earlier in the week has left the ground skiddy, rather than muddy, underfoot as the river is tracked for about an hour round a couple of meanders. The lack of distinguishing features (just bending river) makes it difficult to locate exactly where a nice spot for lunch emerges; but it has a fallen tree trunk fashioned into a bench of sorts and is pleasant enough place to spend 20 minutes snaffling a sandwich.

It turns out to be just about a mile, passing under the A1, to Low Conniscliffe where the path emerges into the quiet village for a few yards. A sign points into adjacent fields and, after crossing a couple of stiles, it is back out onto the A67 opposite the Baydale Beck pub.

Ten minutes down the busy road, Broken Scar picnic site is reached, entered, honoured with a pork pie and exited via the bottom left hand corner along a wide track beside the river. The track peters out to a path, across open land, gaining height above the river, before plunging into a small wood.

From here steep steps lead out on to a suburban street, just called Blackwell, and turning right brings me quickly to the A66 at Blackwell Bridge giving me about a fifteen minute walk back to South Park and the car.

The six and a half mile walk has taken three hours with the mainly flat terrain still offering variety with riverside, fields and woods all pleasant and the two road sections at least short.