Snaisgill, Monk's Moor, Great Eggleshope, Middleton-in-Teesdale, Co Durham.
[11.0 km] Wed 08 Jan 2014

OS Grid Ref: NY 9540 2904
Lat/Long: +54.656422, -02.072860
After a wet and windy drove I reached Middleton-in-Teesdale, Co Durham. I was heading for Hudes Hope to start my walk and after driving up the steep road towards High Dyke carried straight on at the top of the lane along the narrow lane. The signs say Snaisgill 1 mile and Public road access via gates. There were no gates. I drove to the north end of the valley then walked back down the road for just over a mile to Snaisgill. I left the road through a very muddy gate and followed a wet grassy track up onto the moor. Although it is access land I’m not sure I was on the public footpath.

Higher up I joined the official path but there wasn’t much to see of it on the ground. At the last wall I crossed over via a stile gap in the wall and followed a route parallel to the next wall on the left. It wasn’t the official line of the public path but it was all there was. I turned up the moor to rejoin the path but as before there wasn’t much to follow. I could see the rocky outcrops of Monk’s Moor summit ahead and as I approached turned left to look for a Shooting House marked on the map. I found it but nothing much was left. A pile of corrugated sheeting and a collapsed brick chimney stack were all that remained.

Bricks from the Shooting House

I continued along the rocky outcrop and stopped occasionally to take in the excellent views. Last week I visited the trig post just under a mile to the south.

 The interesting thing is that Monk’s Moor summit doesn’t have a trig post and the one to the south is about 40m lower. I reached the northern end of the summit plateau at Monk’s Currick. It is actually more of a stone wind shelter than the more traditional conical currick.

The map shows the path descending to the NE into Great Eggles Hope. As before there was hardly any recognisable route to follow. Eventually I saw a stile in the wall below and headed for it. On the other side was the spoil mound of an old shaft. Below I headed for some substantial buildings. They still had their roofs on but the largest was rotten inside, even though the first floor was still in place. The track crossed the river by a piped bridge and after having a look at an old mine level entrance continued along the track. It re-crossed the river at a ford but it was too deep for me to wade. Further up was an old telegraph pole across the river and suspended wooden fencing below.

Old reservoir embankment

It was the only place I could get over so I sat on it and shuffled across. The bonkers thing is the map shows a public path crossing here by a ford. There I no way that a pedestrian could wade across safely. Once safely across I headed up Manorgill Sike valley through more extensive abandoned mine workings. The path vanished from time to time and eventually joined a vehicle track. There was no access for a vehicle from this end so presumably the only access is from the Hudshope end to the SW. On the track summit I made a short detour to the north to investigate and old semi circle earth embankment that would have been used as a reservoir which was now dry. Back at the track was a substantial shooting hut which looked relatively new. Both doors were pad-locked. The track improved as I descended to the extensive old mine workings above the road. The spoil heaps were huge so the underground levels must be very extensive. Back at the road I had only a short walk back to the car.