Harthope Valley
The Harthope Valley is a steep valley cut through the heart of the Cheviot Hills by the Harthope Burn: it is one of the few cuttings into these hills and carries a public road into the heart of the Cheviots, though a dead-end road ending at the high farms. The valley is renowned for its wild beauty and is signposted from Wooler.
The valley is in the north-west of Northumberland, the head of the valley found close to the boundary with Roxburghshire.
The Harthope Valley provides an access to the highest hills of the Cheviots, including the Cheviot itself, the highest fell amongst the Cheviots and the highest fell of Northumberland, although parking may be problematic.
The head of the valley is between the Cheviot (2,674 feet) and Hedgehope Hill (2,343 feet). From here it runs directly south-east to Skirl Naked (a farmstead, not a local manner of playing the Northumberland smallpipes), where it receives the waters of the Carey Burn and the valley softens. The joined waters are the Wooler Water, whose valley beneath Skirl Naked is known as "Happy Valley".
There are no villages in the valley, just isolated farms accessed by the single road, which climbs as high as Langleeford. A track leads up higher to Langleeford Hope and a public footpath leads higher still, ultimately to Cairn Hill (where there stands a finger post).
Harthope Burn
The Harthope Burn which cuts the Harthope Valley is a long beck cutting a deep valley in the Cheviot Hills, in Northumberland. The stream rises high up on the southern slopes of the Cheviot. Gathering the waters of many minor burns as it goes, the Harthope Burn carves a deep valley almost in a straight line north-eastwards down towards Wooler.
The burn tumbles over the Harthope Linn and down to Langleeford Hope and Langleeford, where the public road begins, and down to join the Carey Burn above Skirl Naked, below which the joined streams form the Wooler Water, a tributary of the River Till. The Burn is wholly within the Northumberland National Park until the meeting with the Carey Burn.
Fells above the valley
The three highest of the Cheviot Hills cluster around the upper reaches of the Harthope Burn, peering down into the narrow valley below:
- The Cheviot, 2,674 feet; the county top of Northumberland and the highest point of the Cheviots. It is a massive mountain with a broad top and tributary summits reaching into Roxburghshire;
- Hedgehope Hill, 2,343 feet; a majestic hill comparable in height with the Cheviot but different in form, appearing perfectly conical from the Harthope Valley;
- Comb Fell, 2,139 feet; a high, remote fell.
A walk visiting all three of these fells can be begun in the valley. It is a classic Cheviot route, a horseshoe-shaped journey between the peaks crossing the watershed of the Harthope Burn.
The Cheviot can be climbed from below Langleeford over Scald Hill (north-east of the Cheviot) with a return journey by way of Cairn Hill and down the burn, or vice versa, or from the Cheviot one may follow the Pennine Way down to Kirk Yetholm, a somewhat longer journey.