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There was a blue sky over Upper Teesdale, and a darkly forested Pennine skyline heavy with bruised cloud. The two were due to come to blows later, with foul slated to triumph over fair. This early in the morning, though, autumn sunshine was spreading across the creamy grey stone houses of Romaldkirk and soaking the beeches about the village green with translucent splashes of lime and butterscotch.
In St Romald’s Church, Sir Hugh Fitz Henry lay in the north chapel, his face smoothed by the patting hands of seven centuries. The Lord of Bedale, Ravensworth and Cotherstone was felled by the Scots. He lies in chainmail, in the act of drawing his stone sword. No knight expected to die in his bed in these regions at the turn of the 14th century, especially not a participant in King Edward’s wars against the Scots.
The Teesdale Way footpath led me from Romaldkirk over the fields towards the Tees. Near the river I skirted the handsome Dales longhouse of Low Garth, half dwelling and half byre, silent in an overgrown farmyard, windows blanked and chimneys cold. I walked by the sigh and rush of the bottle-brown Tees as it crashed down its flights of rapids, exuding that exhilarating smell of a river newly off the moors, stained with peat and rammed full of oxygen.
The Lord of Cotherstone, when he fancied something savoury after the roast heron and neat’s-foot jelly, would have tucked into ewe’s-milk cheese. But today there are milk cows in Teesdale, and beautiful crumbly Cotherstone cheese. At the post office in Cotherstone village I bought a fat truckle to take home, and an extra slice for pure greed’s sake. With a full mouth and an eye on the rainclouds, I turned home along the Tees Railway Walk, a footpath along the trackbed of the former Tees Valley Railway by way of the mighty Baldersdale Viaduct. How would Hugh Fitz Henry have reacted to a sight of the iron horse? It made a great one-reeler for the skull cinema as I walked, the warrior astride his caparisoned destrier, charging the smoke-belching monster at full and reckless tilt.
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Start & finish Rose & Crown, Romaldkirk, Co Durham DL12 9EB (OS ref NY995221).
Getting there Bus service (arrivabus.co.uk ) 95/96 from Barnard Castle. Road: A1 to Scotch Corner; A66 to Barnard Castle, B6277.
Walk (5 miles, easy, OS Explorer OL31): From Rose & Crown cross road and grass; left along lane. Right by Rose Stile Cottage (“Teesdale Way/TW” fingerpost). In ¼ mile, go through left-hand of two gates (998216); path crosses three fields to Low Garth (003216). Cross stile (TW); left down bank, stile into wood. Follow TW beside Tees, then up to gate. Left end of barn; in front of Woden Croft houses (008208), then through gate. Left down fence, through gate (009207); cross field, down to Tees. In ¼ mile pass footbridge over Tees (013202); in 100 yards cross River Balder; right into Cotherstone. Up lane by left side of Fox & Hounds (011198); cross stile and field; stile to Tees Railway Walk (009194). Right for 2 miles to Romaldkirk.
Lunch and accommodation Rose & Crown, Romaldkirk (01833 650213, rose-and-crown.co.uk); Fox & Hounds, Cotherstone (01833 650241; cotherstonefox.co.uk)
More information Barnard Castle TIC (01833 690909); visitnortheastengland.com; www.visitcountydurham.com ; ramblers.org.uk
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Online map, more walks christophersomerville.co.uk
Photographs of the walk www.flickr.com/photos/10213500@N08/sets/72157622603401677/