Our Hethpool Linn and Yeavering Bell walk is a great way to visit the beautiful waterfall on the College Burn, then up Yeavering Bell (‘Hill of the Goats’) – a great spot to view the wild Cheviot goats.
Download the PDF guide to Hethpool Linn and Yeavering Bell Walk
Download RouteFrom the Village Hall turn left along the main road. Pass the red sandstone buildings on your right that were once Kirknewton Railway Station.
Cross the road bridge over the College Burn, then go over the ladder stile on the left, signed ‘Hethpool’. Follow the footpath up the field to the next ladder stile on the left.
Cross the ladder stile and turn right following the track down to the haughland (flat land beside a river). Turn right along the haughland.
After approx 200m the path bears right across the valley bottom, away from the river. Go through a gateway and follow the track uphill, and through the gate at the top of the bank, and on to the ladder stile in the wall ahead.
Go over the stile and follow the path as it contours around the hill just above the trees on your left. Cross the stile into the woodland, and continue along and down the well worn path. At the bottom of the hill turn right and carry on, keeping the fence on the left, to reach a stile.
Cross the stile, turn right and carry on up a gentle slope to cross another stile. Continue on for a short distance, at the junction turn left taking the path down to the footbridge.
(Hethpool Linn waterfall and College Burn are well worth looking at here.)
Cross over the College Burn footbridge, and turn left. Cross the stile and turn right up the hill.
At the junction turn left, (you are now on St Cuthbert’s Way) and follow the path down through the gorse, over the burn, up the other side and over the stile. (Look out for the Wild Cheviot Goats here, they offer no threat to walkers if left alone.) Continue uphill along the grassy path to the square stone stell (a roofless stone shelter for sheep). Join the farm track and follow it uphill to the wooded area. Carry on along this track through the trees and past Torleehouse.
Continue along the track, and just before the dry stone wall and cattle grid turn right up to the field gate. Once through the gate follow the track to the ladder stile. Cross the stile and turn right and continue up the well worn path.
At the junction turn left, signed ‘Yeavering Bell’, and follow the path down through the heather. Cross the burn and follow the obvious path as it winds its way to the summit of Yeavering Bell.
Spend time exploring within the ramparts of Yeavering Bell hillfort. (Here are the remains of the largest Iron Age hillfort in the region. Beneath the hillfort the Anglo-Saxon kings of Northumbria maintained a grand palace. Much earlier, Neolithic people had a temple here. Yeavering Bell hillfort consists of a tumbled stone rampart, originally up to 2.5 metres high, which encloses an area of 5.6 hectares, within which are the still visible platforms of about 130 timber-built roundhouses.)
Leave the top of the hillfort through the gap in the stone ramparts, bear left and zig-zag down the hill following the well-worn path. Cross the stile and follow the wall down to the next stile. Once over this stile, continue on through the field turning left to join the farm track which leads towards the hamlet of Old Yeavering.
Cross the ladder stile, and turn left up the road and away from Old Yeavering.
After the second cattle grid leave the road and turn right over the ladder stile. Continue up the field to the gateway in the wall, go through the gate and turn right onto the grassy track Keep to this track and follow it downhill to the stile by the road. Cross the stile and turn left along the road back to Kirknewton.
Follow the A697 north out of Wooler for approx 2.5 miles. At Akeld turn left onto the B6351, signed ‘Kirknewton.’ Continue along this road for 3.5 miles to Kirknewton.
Kirknewton Village Hall is on the left alongside the Church. Please park considerately.
