Teesdale Way - Barnard Castle to Darlington (★★★★☆)

Today we are out completing another stretch of the Teesdale Way - and the final stretch that I plan to walk (with the final stretch from Middlesbrough to South Gare being very industrial, and unlikely to be very enjoyable).

This means that at the end of this walk I will have completed the length of the trail from Dufton to the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough - and for me this is significant, as this walk holds additional importance compared to the other walks I have been doing.

In 2012 I had graduated from University with a good degree to my name, but also with no one being particularly interested in hiring me, due to the misdeeds of some reckless bankers in the years before. 

After struggling with the recruitment process for some time, I eventually came up with the idea of filtering jobs based upon which had the fewest number of applicants - and ended up being the fourth member of a small company based in the North East of England.

After moving up from the south of England, the first thing I did was introduce myself to the area by walking the Teesdale Way - and later I would use this same trail to walk to and from work to give myself at least some time in the outdoors each day.

And whilst I had done walking growing up, it was really these walks along the Teesdale Way that kicked off my adult love of walking - and from here I gradually did more and more walking, until reaching the peak you see today.

In the end that decision to join a lowly company in the North East of England also proved to be a smarrt one, and both I and the company did very well - to the point where now I can afford to spend the majority of my time walking the paths of Britain.

But despite my having plentiful time to go exploring, the task of completing the section of the Teesdale Way that is worth walking has proven to be more challenging than expected - and the issue here has been Whorlton Bridge - or rather the absence of Whorlton Bridge.

This bridge closed to vehicles in 2019, and was fully closed in 2020 - and so it has been some time since this trail has been able to walked as intended - but last month it did finally open, and so now is a good time to head out, and walk this final remaining stretch from Barnard Castle to Darlington.

And so today we are heading out first by train to Darlington, and then swapping over to take one of the regular buses out to Barnard Castle.

This year I have made far more use of buses to break up walks - and tmy increased use of buses has made planning and executing walks significantly easier than it had been whilst I was merely relying on trains.

These days buses do seem to be far better than they used to be (the improved technology around a bus trip certainly helps) - and so far I have had no issues with buses on a walk (other than slightly late arrivals) - and today it is a very quick trip to Barnard Castl,e and the start of my walk.

Barnard Castle itself is a town that I  had not been to until this year, but one that I have increasinly become fond of - and along with a very impressive 12th century castle (more on that in a second) it has a lovely centre, lots of walking routes, plentiful buses (to everywhere except the Yorkshire Dales), and an art museum in a very grand French-château-style manor house.

And if it weren't for the lack of buses across the short distance from here to the Yorkshire Dales, I would have this down as a leading candidate for me to move to.

If your primary means of getting about whilst walking is the car, then that problem goes away - for both Reeth and Kirkby Stephen are less than 30 minutes away - but I like long distance walking from point A to point B, and here public transport is invaluable (particularly when you intend to finish some way away from where you started originally).

But focusing for now on our walk through Barnard Castle, we step off the bus, and head down to the base of the main street - where we find the castle.

Passing the castle at Barnard Castle

Here I feel like we are due another history lesson, in order to understand why there is a massive castle in a fairly small market town, far away from the normal centres of activity.

In order to do this, we must take ourselves back ot the Battle of Hastings - and specifically remind ourselves that this battle was not a decisive single event that saw William the Conquerer become undisputed king of England - but rather one of a chain of events that led to the completion of a broader Norman Conquest.

Prior to the Battle of Hastings, this area of northern England had operated under the control of the Earl of Northumberland - with the area around Barnard Castle being an Anglo-Norse community, centred on Gainford (under the control of those Earls).

These Earls did operate under the King of England, but Northumberland was always a region that had remained apart from the rest of the country.

In 1055 the Scandinavian Earl of Northumberland (Siward - who had been appointed during the reign of King Cnut) died - and the King (Edward the Confessor) replaced him with an Anglo-Saxon noble, Tostig Godwinson.

But whilst the king might have wanted Tostig to be Earl of Northumberland, the Northumbrians did not - and in the final months of Edward's reign they expelled Tostig, and replaced him with their own candidate, Morcar (another Anglo-Saxon).

After the death of Edward, Morcar put his support behind Harold Godwinson to be the next king of England. But having spent time raiding along the Northumberland Coast, that former Earl Tostig Godwinson had teamed up with the Scandinavian Harald Hardrada to launch a full invasion of England.

Harald and Tostig sailed up the River Ouse to York, and on the 20th September they were confronted by Morcar and his brother Edwin (Earl of Mercia).

The defenders lost what is now known as the Battle of Fullford, but both Morcar and Edwin both survived - and in response to this setback Harold Godwinson marched his army the 190 miles north from London.

He did this swiftly, and in doing so he surprised the Viking army led by Harald Hardrada - and defeated them at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on the 25th September - before racing back to face William of Normandy at Hastings on the 14th October, only to be himself defeated in that second battle.

At the end of all these battles, William of Normandy had won the throne of England - but whilst he had conquered England, he never properly managed to bring Northumberland fully under royal control - and Northumberland became the centre of a chaotic rebellion against William's rule.

The incumbent Earl (Morcar) initially put his weight behind the election of Edgar the Ætheling to the throne (grandson of Edumnd II - who had been defeated by Cnut in 1016), then pledge his support to William, then rebelled against William once again, before finally restoring his support for William.

This flip-flopping led to him being replaced as Earl of Northumberland - but his replacement (a nobleman named Copsi) was murdered within five weeks of his accession (by the grandson of Uhtred of Bamburgh - who had been Earl until 1016, when he had been murdered on the orders of King Cnut, and replaced by the formerly mentioned Siward).

After his death, a nobleman named Gospatric offered William a large sum of money to become the next Earl of Northumberland, which William accepted - but then he too rebelled in an early 1068 uprising.

That same year William led an army north, successfully driving the leaders of the rebellion back into Scotland - and installing Robert de Comines as a new Earl of Northumberland - although he himself was killed in 1069, after rebels breached Durham's city gates.

By this point it had become quite clear that the Northumbrians were fairly ungovernable - and William's response was to head north in the winter of 1069-70, and conduct scorched earth tactics against the misbehaving Northumbrians.

The result of this was catastrophic, and possibly genocidal - with land value taxes plummeting between 1066 and 1086, and with figures from the Doomsday Books suggesting that 75% of the population either died in the subsequent famines, or moved away from Northumberland.

When we go through Durham or Yorkshire villages these days, we get the opportunity to admire the lovely ordered layout of these towns or villages - but it has been suggested that this regular pattern of house building is more likely to result from the rapid repopulation of areas after this devestation, than from good town planning.

But despite the devestation, this still did not mark the end of the period of rebellion.

In 1080 the Bishop of Durham (Bishop Walcher - who had also purchased the Earldom of Northumberland) was murdered in Gateshead - and there was an additional rebellion fifteen years later in 1095.

By this point William II had succeeded his father - and he ordered Northumberland to be split up into smaller baronies (with the last Earl being Robert de Mowbray - whose most notable achievements include leading a rebellion against William II, and later leading the army that killed Malcolm III of Scotland).

After this change, a barony was established around Gainford - with Lordship being given to a French noble by the name of Guy de Balliol.

Between 1095 and 1125 Guy built a wooden ringwork castle with a stone gatehouse at this spot in what is now known as Barnard Castle (we got there in the end!) - and after his death, his nephew Bernard Balliol and his son rebuilt this castle in stone between 1125 and 1185 - resulting in the substantial fortification that stands today.

In time the site would become known as Bernard's Castle - and this morphed into the modern name of Barnard Castle (offering some consolation to those that have mispelt the town as Bernard Castle).

The castle itself survived a siege by the Scots in 1216 - and remained in the family until 1296, by which point the family's leader (John de Balliol) had gone on to become King of Scotland.

This position as King of Scotland came about as a result of the weath that this family had accumulated over time - and as their wealth and prominence grew, they grew to be an influential family, capable of playing a prominent public role.

Eventually one of their family members (John de Balliol - the father of the John who would later be King of Scotland) secured a marriage to Dervorguilla of Galloway. 

She was the daughter of Margaret of Huntingdon - who in turn was the eldest daughter of Prince David of Scotland - who was in turn grandson of King David I of Scotland, and brothers to Kings Malcolm IV and William I of Scotland.

This established a tenuous link between the de Balloils and the Scottish throne, but after the death of Alexander III of Scotland there was an unexpected succession issue that resulted from Alexander's three children having preceded him.

Fearing civil war the Scots asked King Edward I of England to lead a process to pick a successor - and after this process had run, the candidate named to become King of Scotland was John de Balliol of Barnard Castle.

John de Balliol did have a particularly strong claim - based upon the fact that his grandmother (on his mother's side) had been Margaret of Huntingdon - granddaughter of David I of Scotland. 

And this was quite some rise for a family that had been given lordship over this stretch of countryside - but this success did not last long - and with Edward treating Scotland as a vassal of England, John felt obliged to sign a treaty with France, and renounce his fealty to Edward.

In response Edward invaded Scotland - and after suffering defeat, Balliol abdicated - and later retired into obscurity in France.

Ten years later, Scotland did manage to restore it's monarchy - and did so through the grandson of another of the claimant's from that process. 

That claimant's mother had been Isobel of Huntingdon, the younger sister of John's grandmother (Margaret of Huntingdon) - and that claimant's grandson was Robert the Bruce - and he went on to be a far more successful King of Scotland than John of Barnard Castle.

After the deposition of John Balliol, the castle at Barnard Castle was passed to the Bishop of Durham - but later granted to the Earl of Warwick at the start of the 14th century. 

Over time it would pass down to the Duke of Gloucester, who later became King Richard III of England - and it became one of his favourite residences.

Later on the castle was used against Elizabeth I by Sir George Bowes, during a rebellion designed to return Mary Queen of the Scots to the English throne - and it was also besieged by Cromwell during the English Civil War.

The final act committed against the castle ultimately provided to be it's most damaging - but this damage wasn't the result of a siege, but the action of Henry Vane (1859-1655) - an English politician serving King Charles I in a number of posts.

Henry had purchased Raby Castle and Barnard Castle in 1626 - and chose to make Raby Castle his principal home - de-roofing and removing stone from Barnard Castle to provide material for Raby Castle (situated halfway between here and Bishop Auckland).

Now the castle is in the custody of English Heritage - and with the history of this castle exhausted, we can finally continue to make some progress along our walk.

Here our onward path takes us round the castle, and then down beside the River Tees.

Barnard Castle bridge

From here we head along the river - passing below (but without seeing) the unexpectedly grand Bowes Museum.

The Bowes Museum, Source: The Bowes Museum

The Bowes Museum is an art gallery, and it was originally built to house the art collection of John Bowes and his French wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier in 1892.

The Bowes family had become particularly wealthy in the 18th century due to the coal that was mined beneath their family estate - which sat to the north east of Barnard Castle (on the way to Raby Castle).

The museum itself feels a bit out of place in this town - although you could also say that it is somewhat fitting for a town who's founding family went on to reach the position of King of Scotland (before their subsequent downfall).

But our path is a humbler one of green grass and fields - and from here we head down to Abbey Bridge, which is named after Egglestone Abbey (which sits on the far side of the river to the side we have been walking on).

Crossing Abbey Bridge

Egglestone Abbey itself is now a ruined abbey (with free entry) that was founded by Premonstratensian monks (known for blending monastic habits with pastoral ministry).

Egglestone Abbey, Source: English Heritage

The Abbey itself was fairly poor, and was made poorer during the Scottish raids of Yorkshire - but after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Robert Strelley converted part of the abbey into a mansion. And later the site was granted to the state (in 1925).

But as we cross over at Abbey Bridge, and continue to walk along the far side of the river - what is most notable to us the is amount of rock along this section of the river - and here I believe we are looking at the Great Limestone rock formation - although I may be wrong because geology is never explained very simply.

But what I do know is that it is very pretty - and quite a nice stretch of river to be walking along - and so we have an enojoyable stretch walking this section of river from here until Rokeby Park.

Down by the River Tees

Rokeby Park itself is a grand manor that sits at the junction between the River Gretna and the River Tees - and up ahead we cross directly over the River Gretna.

Crossing the River Gretna

The River Gretna is an old friend of ours, as we followed it during the early part of our walk along the Pennine Way between Bowes and Hawes - but this meeting of these two rivers is particularly attractive as both cut through the rock.

From here we continue to make our way across Rokeby Park estate - heading past Mortham Tower, which is a modern replacement of an older fortified manor, that would have been used to help protect these lands from the raiding Scots.

And then we make our way across the fields, until we reach Whorlton Bridge.

Across the fields

Whorlton Bridge

The newly restored Whorlton Bridge was built in 1831, and is believed to be the UK's oldest road suspension bridge.

The restoration work done here has been lovingly done - with many of the original parts having been re-used or rebuilt to a similar design.

And the bridge is a sign that we do still care about our heritage - even if the bridge is also littered with modern signs telling people to both slow down, and only pass over in single file (if they are in a car).

View from the bridge

The old tollhouse

The tolls due

From here we briefly follow the road, before turning off - but here all the cars heading past are very polite, and both go slowly and give us plenty of space.

Then we head down through the trees, back to the side of the River Tees.

Down through the trees

Back towards the Tees

Here we walk beside the river along this attractive stretch of trees - and we can get very close to the river on this part of the trail.

But it isn't long until our path turns back on itself, and up the slope - after which we start walking through the fields above the valley edge.

Just before we head away from the river

This means that we don't have too many views of the river - except when we find some gaps in the trees - and we will continue to walk away from the river until we pass Winston, which sits over two miles up the path.

Some pretty houses through one of the gaps in the trees

Before we get round to Winston we pass Winston Bridge, and having not seen much of the river recently, we take the opportunity to head down to the bridge to see how the river is doing.

The view from Winston Bridge

From here we are now walking closer to the river, but still don't see all that much of it until we close up on West Tees Bridge.

Now getting back closer to the river

As we approach West Tees Bridge

The view through one of the arches

West Tees Bridge is no longer in use - but used to form part of the railway line that ran from Darlington down to Barnard Castle.

In those days trains would stop at Piercebridge, Gainford, Winston, Broomielaw and Barnard Castle - with an onward branch to Middleton-in-Teesdale, and a further onward route via Lartington, Bowes, Barras to Kirkby Stephen (on the Carlisle-Settle railway).

In addition there was a further line that used to run from Barnard Castle round to Bishop Auckland - via Cockfield Fell, Evenwood, and West Auckland.

But with no trains running now, our path can climb up onto the embankment - and we now follow the former route of the railway, up to the current route of the A67 - which we then walk beside.

This is a very fast road, and although there is a pavement, don't expect cars to ease up on their way past - and so it is nice to make use of a track that heads past some horse fields (and whilst technically not a right of way, I don't think they mind if you use it).

The map then says that we turn off the road - but instead you must continue on a bit further until there is a sign that points either to Gainford (along the road) or to Gainford Spa (down a slope).

Here you should turn to head to Gainford Spa - where you find a very attractive (if a bit smelly) spot where water is flowing into a fountain.

Gainford Spa

The fountain

From the bench

Here water flows up from the ground, into the Tees, from a sulphur-rich spring.

You do have to ignore the smell to enjoy this spot, but the Victorian's loved it - and came by railway deliberately to 'take the waters' in the belief that it would fix skin complaints and digestive issues (you would hope they didn't drink it, but I think they did).

And as the Spa became more and more popular, guesthouses grew up around the area - and Gainford became popular as a Spa destination.

The water itself was discovered after a borehole was sunk in 1834 (possibly whilst searching for coal), and as can be seen in the photo, water continues to flow from the spring to this day.

From here there is an excellent path along the river that takes us round to Gainford - where the drivers are a lot less polite than they were at Whorlton Bridge - and not very convincingly following the 30mph speed limit through the village - but fortunately there is a lull in the traffic as I pass through the section without any pavement (in that 30mph zone).

From here we head past Gainford Manor, and through the village of Gainford - and for those looking to break up this walk into two, I would probably suggest breaking up the walk here (with the same regular service that took us to Barnard Castle from Darlington stopping here).

Gainford Manor

The village itself is a pleasure to walk through, and it is quite a large place - with more houses being added as we head through.

Beyond the village we continue to walk alongside the road - albeit a bit more set back on this side - before we turn off, and start to head back through fields.

Through the fields

The paths here are particularly good, and there is a bench to stop at looking out towards the sheep - but soon we are back on the move, and continuing to make our way alongside the river towards Piercebridge.

This section round to Piercebridge is about two miles, and it's quite a nice stroll through some lovely farmland - but upon reaching Piercebridge another history lesson is set to begin.

The sign at Piercebridge

Piercebridge sits on Dere Street - and if you look at it on the map you will notice a very straight road heading north to Bishop Auckland (and then on to Consett and Corbridge), and a very straight road heading south to Scotch Corner, and along the route of the M1.

This road was ultimately built to provide a fast route between York and Hadrian's Wall (with the route ultimately continuing on up to Edinburgh).

A large fort was built by the Roman's here around 260AD, and the fort remained occupied until the 5th century - with it being likely that Roman's had some sort of occupation here from 70AD onwards (with a ford or ferry initially being used to get across the river).

Not much of the fort remains today, and from the path it hardly looks worth an explore - but a little research suggests that it would have been worth heading up to the south-west of the village, for there is a nice section of the fort that remains there (this section is not obvious on the way past).

There is also evidence that there were once two bridges - one directly on Dere Street (I think where the modern bridge is today), that may have been washed away at some point - and a second on flatter land that would have required a small diversion from the main route of the road.

Continuing on, we cross over the busy road - and on past the site where the second Roman bridge is thought to have sat - and from here we are heading round to High Coniscliffe.

Bridge at Piercebridge

This section is not quite as interesting as the prior stretches of the Tees have been oday - and having walked this bit before, I already know that Piercebridge was the end of the best of the walking today.

But there is nothing wrong with this stretch - and so we have a nice enough walk round to High Coniscliffe - where we do have the challenge of having to cross a busy road.

Here the road is quiet enough for us to wait for silence, but the path does crosss the road on a blind bend, and to add insult to injury the 30mph speed restriction for the village starts a little bit down from this crossing (I'm not sure why they couldn't move it up to protect the footpath crossing).

That said most people are doing about 50mph through the village anyway, so I'm not sure if it would make too much difference - and although it is a pretty village, I'm happy enough to be soon off the road, and back on the footpath on the far side.

Here we are starting to follow a very meandering section of the River Tees, as it lazily makes it's way across the flatter stretch down from here to the North Sea - but here it is still a very rocky river, which is wide and shallow.

Here we follow the meanders round until the river eventually heads under the M1, and into Low Coniscliffe - and whilst the river isn't quite as impressive any more - this is the best stretch of this section between Piercebridge and Darlington.

On the run towards Low Coniscliffe

Slightly further along

Upon reaching Low Coniscliffe we find a pretty enough village, but we also get back to that busy main road - which we follow past Tees Cottage Pumping Station.

This site was built in 1849 to provide drinking water to Darlington, and retains two fully functional pumping engines - including a 1904 beam engine and a 1914 two-cylinder gas internal-combustion engine (the largest such engine that survives in Europe).

It is hard to see much of these on the way past due to the high walls - and as it is a weekday, the site is not open - and so here we merely walk past, and make our way to Broken Scar Weir - where we can rejoin the River Tees.

Broken Scar Weir

By now we are on the outer edge of Darlington, but with there being no homes or buildings by the side of the River Tees, we still have a quiet trip along this now fairly sedate river - as it continues to meander round on it's way to Blackwell.

Our final stretch along the River Tees

At Blackwell we pop out onto a road, and here the Teesdale Way turns left - but we will turn right - and start to head towards the train station at Darlington.

This means heading on past the houses, and then through South Park - before finishing up with a walk past the terraced houses around the station.

And then it is time for me to head home.

The bits of the Teesdale Way that most people will have seen and explored will often be fairly plain sections of paths (unless they have walked the bit that is also the Pennine Way), with very little in the way of notable history or detail - but this is actually a pretty incredible river, that starts in the remote landscape of the North Pennines - and then heads down across rough terrain to the plains of lower Teesside.

On the way it passes Britain's largest waterfall (in terms of volume of water), Celtic towns, a Roman fort, a town whose founding ancestors went on to (briefly) become King of Scotland, villages with clear links to a Viking past - and then on past the very beginnings of the railways (not just in Britain, but in the world).

It passes abandoned railways, former spa towns - and near the coast passes the longest remaining transporter bridge in the world.

That's bad for a quiet little trail that few will explore, in an under appreciated part of the world. And for me personally, I'm glad it played a key role in my getting out and starting to walk more regularly all those years ago.

Total Distance: 22.1 miles (19.9 miles on the Teesdale Way)

Total Ascent: 1,004 feet (869 feet on the Teesdale Way)

Enjoyment Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ★ / 5

Click for the adjoining sections of the Teesdale Way from Darlington to Yarm and from Middleton-in-Teesdale to Barnard Castle.

Disclaimer: This writeup provides a narrative of what to expect rather than a route guide to follow. The route is covered by the 92 and 93 OS Landranger maps - while there is also a Teesdale Way guidebook (links redirect to Amazon). The route is not that well way marked, but not too hard to follow either (except where the route has changed over time)