England`s most famous long distance footpath crosses mile after mile of Northumberland`s wild and empty Cheviot Hills as it winds its way over the final leg of an epic journey along England`s spine. This walk will take you from the upper reaches of the River Coquet onto the border ridge where you will join the Pennine Way for four undulating miles over the high ground of Lamb Hill, Beefstand Hill, Mozie Law and the aptly named Windy Gyle. You will experience far distant views over seemingly endless hill country as clouds billow above you against a backcloth of blue sky. You will end the day visiting two smaller subsidiary hills as you descend gently back to beautiful Upper Coquet Dale.

2. The track rises across the upper slopes of Carlcroft Hill before descending gently to cross the Blind Burn near to a fine circular sheep stell (NT 820127). This is a delightful spot with the ruins of the grandly named former shepherd`s cottage Yearning Hall visible to the west. The path away from the burn is faint in places but is marked occasionally by finger posts, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for these as you cross a fine stretch of  mat grass. These areas of grass are known locally as `Whitelands` because the erect spikes that are produced by the grass in June become bleached to almost white as autumn approaches. Eventually, the path merges with a clearer green track arriving from Yearning Law and you continue with this until you reach the mountain refuge hut at Yearning Saddle (NT 804129) on the border ridge. This is an ideal spot to take a short break. You are now on the Pennine Way as it traverses the high ground of the Cheviot Hills all the way to the quiet Scottish border town of Kirk Yetholm. When Tom Stephenson first proposed the Way in 1935 he rated the Cheviot Hills as his favourite walking area in the country. Many of the wettest sections across these lonely hills have now been paved with stone slabs taken from derelict Yorkshire cotton mills. Your route now heads north eastwards with the border fence, on your left, for company, first to the trig point on Lamb Hill and then to the undistinguished tops of Beefstand Hill and Mozie Law. You will feel an intense sense of isolation as you see wave after wave of foothills rolling away on either side of you, blocking out all sign of habitation. If you are lucky you will see the shy feral goats that have roamed these hills for many years and if you are downwind you will more than likely catch their pungent scent.

4. You must now leave the Pennine Way and the higher ground to head south easterly from the summit cairn, over the stile, and then downhill towards Scotchman`s Ford (NT 861148). Once reached, continue along a grassy quad track in the same general direction, towards the 495 metre top of Little Ward Law. This requires a small diversion from the main track. On leaving the top you will need to rejoin the track, which in a short while will turn to head southwards, to meet the gravel road leading ultimately to the remote farm of Uswayford. It is not unknown, during severe winters, for this farm to be cut off for weeks at a time. Deep in the plantation on the other side of the track is the mysteriously named Murder Cleugh, hinting perhaps at some distant dark and deadly event. Turn right along the gravel road until you reach the end of the plantation and the stile on your left (NT 868131). Cross over the stile and proceed along the waymarked green bridleway over relatively flat ground with the rounded top of Barrow Law ahead of you. On reaching the white topped waymarker on the flanks of Barrow Law take the faint quad track, to your right, which heads uphill to the 419 metre summit (NT 863116). This is a tremendous vantage point,  looking down to the twisting River Coquet below and dominated to the south east by the huge bulk of Shillhope Law.