COUNTY DURHAM
Paddy Dillon takes a walk in north-east England
People must look at my book list and wonder … County Durham … what ’ s that all about ? I ’ ve written guidebooks covering big-name trails around Britain and overseas . I ’ ve written guidebooks covering entire national parks and even entire countries . So where does County Durham �it into all this , and why is it now in its �ifth edition ?
My family connection with County Durham is tenuous , at best . My great-greatgrandfather was a hunted man , on the run from the authorities due to his political inclinations . It must have occurred to him that mining coal at Tow Law was one way to keep himself out of sight ; at least until he could hide in a coal mine in Lancashire .
I didn ’ t point my feet in the direction of County Durham until 1988 . There was no internet in those days . I spotted an appeal in an outdoor magazine asking for anyone with expertise in walking the coast of Britain to get in touch . It turned out that Richard Sale was compiling a coffee-table book for Unwin Hyman . In the initial rush , my preferred stretches of coast had already been snapped up by hungry outdoor writers , but I was offered south-west Scotland and north-east England .
The �irst thing I ever wrote about County Durham was … ‘ Seaham can seem a depressing place , with a ‘ Super Pit ’ blocking any coastal route out of town , necessitating a long detour through backstreets and over wasteland .’ Nor did my onward commentary offer many redeeming features … ‘ scarred by colliery wastes ’… ‘ a noisy conveyor over the path dumps a small mountain of waste from Easington Colliery into the sea ’… ‘ dreadful scene ’… ‘ ugly ’… you get the picture . There was a glimmer of hope . The National Trust had just started purchasing stretches of the coast , not to preserve them , but to actively restore them .
Fast-forward to 1995 . I had a handful of guidebooks in print and I was sitting in the Cicerone of�ice . Walt Unsworth had started a ‘ County Walking Series ’ and he wanted to know if I would take on County Durham . My only knowledge of the area involved following the Pennine Way through Teesdale , walking along the devastated coastline and a day spent trespassing * on Mickle Fell , but I reckoned I could �ill in the gaps .
The ‘ Outdoor Writers Guild ’, as it was known in those days , had just formulated a policy suggesting that members might want to talk to people in charge of rights of way before writing guidebooks . So , my �irst stop was Durham County Council and their Countryside Team , and in particular Mike Ogden . That was a good move , because Mike had a number of walks that he was keen to highlight , and he reckoned it would do no harm for them to go into my guidebook . He also offered to check my manuscript before publication . I spent the rest of the day on a short heritage walk around the city of Durham , scaling the cathedral tower in order to have a look at the countryside I was about to explore .
In short County Durham has a low cliff coastline , extensive uplands , verdant dales and a lot of little hills , woods , towns and villages scattered all over the place . While the scenery is sometimes very good and occasionally spectacular , perhaps the main reason for exploring the countryside is because its history and industrial heritage is just so incredibly interesting . I like to explore by using public transport , and County Durham has always had one of the best transport networks I ’ ve ever used .
The area is known as the ‘ Cradle of the Railways ’, and the earliest lines were built to serve quarries and mines that were dotted all over the place . Many of the old lines had been converted into paths
Low Force is on
Durham has one of the offering a scenic walk
8 outdoor focus / summer 2023