Tindale – Tarn House - Tindale

Peter Judd

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If you're looking for a walk to fill an hour or so, that's not too stretching but contains bags of interest, then this walk is for you. Wishing to keep my 10-year-old grandson busy during the half-term holidays, we used the occasion to create this walk for you. Joshua is pictured indicating the direction you should take at each waymark en route.

Tindale and its tarn are tucked away off the A689 about 10km from Brampton in the North Pennines, an area of outstanding beauty. The tarn itself is an important RSPB-protected reserve. What we all found interesting was that there were storyboards in place at strategic places in the reserve with useful information on flora and fauna within the estate.

Good parking is available at the start of the walk in the hamlet of Tindale at GN 617593. The walk begins by cutting across fairly open ground with great views of the surrounding fells and the tarn nestled below. You will eventually reach a track that makes its way to Tarn House, a building of great character set in a commanding situation overlooking the tarn. From here you cut across fields until you come to the remains of two huge limekilns and the bed of a long-extinct railway created to serve the mining operations that took place here.

If you wanted to complete an interesting day out, you could continue down the A689 to Alston and take a ride on the South Tynedale Railway like we did. This runs from Alston to Kirkhaugh, a distance of about three miles. We then walked along a pleasant footpath that follows the line back to Alston for tea and cakes in the station café (every walk should finish with tea and cakes!)

England - North England - Cumbria - North Pennines