free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Follows St Oswald's and St Cuthbert's ways. No great height, even for the Cheviots, but lovely countryside and great views out to sea and to Lindisfarne Quite boggy, even farm tracks very muddy. Hazard warning! Two bulls in separate fields en route - unavoidable if you stick to permitted paths.
Followed St O's way down lane from community centre. Turned L to follow stream to a gate, went through, turned R to a stile leading to field with first bull!! He was with cows, but nasty looking, so gave wide berth. Headed NW across field to climb Hag Hill, (great views E & NE to coast and Holy Island) following stone wall N to a phone mast, then NW to a gate and into Swinhoe Farm, a big farm and riding stables. The way continues up a muddy farm track to the unimpressive, but jealously private, Swinhoe Woods and Lake.. At the end of the track is a gate where the way leads into a field with another bull running with cows. The bull was a fair way off. so I carried on, unimpeded, to the junction with St Cuthbert's Way (Shame about where the bull stood as it was on a shortcut across the field which would have saved me about a km walk). Consoled by great views out to sea.
Followed StCW SW to a gate and some woods, wherein lies the cave. More historical value than visual.
Took a footpath SW across the field, where the bull began to bellow. It was still a far way off so I went on, as swiftly as caution would allow. I crossed a stile into another field where a sign took me into some dense woods, moving SE to Dick's Walls. It would have been better to skirt the fence along the woods as it reached the same point on Dick's Wall. From here a farm road leads back to Swinhoe and Belford via the field with the first bull. It was grazing on the path as I approached, so I took a parallel route higher up the hill, to descend to the stile and safely back to Belford.
