Rowley - Consett - Leadgate - Annfield Plain

Alan Anderson

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This virtually flat, linear route mainly on railway paths includes lots of interesting features and would be an ideal family walk. The walk is also suitable for dogs, as none of the paths on the route pass through enclosures containing livestock. The entire route is on either ash or surfaced paths, making it a suitable walk for all seasons of the year.

The car park at the start of the walk is on the site of the old Rowley Station, which was disassembled brick by brick and reassembled at Beamish Museum. From Rowley the route follows the line of the old Waskerley Railway, first to intersect and cross the well-known local landmark of Hownsgill Viaduct, a 175-foot-high former rail bridge with great views across the Derwent Valley. Shortly after, the route arrives at Lydgetts Junction, where four popular walking and cycle routes intersect. They comprise the Waskerley Way, the Lanchester Valley Walk, the Derwent Valley Walk and the Consett and Sunderland Railway Path, all on routes of former north County Durham railway lines. The junction is now home to a relic of the past in the form of a giant iron-smelting wagon.

In a little over half a mile further on, the route passes the site of an impressive contemporary sculpture of surveyors' measuring instruments called ‘Terris Novallis’. The walk then follows mainly surfaced paths as it first of all skirts the town of Consett, then passes through Leadgate before intersecting the 'Leadgate Maze', comprising numerous concentric earth and grass circles representing old mine workings lying deep underground. The railway path then continues, passing less than half a mile from the television mast on Pontop Pike before intersecting two huge figures on the embankment, signifying an ironmaster and a miner made entirely of scrap iron and collectively called 'The Old Transformers'.

After more railway path walking, the final lap passes through a wooded area to emerge past a picturesque fishing pond to enter Annfield Plain, where the walk finishes.

England - North England - Durham - Railway Walk