The Schil & Saughieside Hill
1
NT881225 Leave the bunkhouse by heading south along a clear track to ‘Wilderness Wood’, 70 hectares of native broad-leaved trees planted in 1995, and continue through two gates. When the College Burn eventually turns away to your left, near an animal feedstore, continue straight on following the green track, which soon begins to rise towards Red Cribs and the Pennine Way. To your left lies the impressive cleft of the Hen Hole (visited on Route 12).
2
NT873201 From the head of Red Cribs, the watershed, you will take the waymarked Pennine Way for the next 6km (3¾ miles). So, turn right and follow the clear but often boggy well-trodden path as it undulates towards The Schil. The true (and rocky) top lies on the opposite side of the border fence. Continue with the path as it picks its way downhill past rocky outcrops to reach a ladder stile on your left, which takes you over onto Scottish turf. Keeping with the path, take the Pennine Way
High Level Route, when signed, eventually descending over the delightful Steer Rig caught between the English Trowupburn Hope and the Scottish Halterburn Valley.
3
NT858256 Go through the gate on your right and immediately turn right through another gate. Now, with the fence on your left, turn half right and make your way downhill joining, after a short distance, a track that continues downwards to the Trowup Burn. Once there, turn left on a fine green track, criss-crossing the narrow burn where necessary.
4
NT870261 On reaching the large stone enclosures, turn sharp right and follow a quad track steeply uphill, eventually passing a small cairn with a good view of Great Hetha and Newton Tors. The track continues across grassy Saughieside Hill before descending to a small col. Stay with the track as it climbs uphill, avoiding any tempting side track, to reach a post and wire fence. Keeping in the same direction, follow the fence until a small gate is reached on your left. Go through.
5
NT868241 Take the clear track, which descends Blackhaggs Rigg, in time passing a small rocky outcrop and then the cairn-crowned remnants of an Iron Age hill-fort. This is a superb viewpoint of the Cheviot-dominated Lambden and College Valleys. When you ultimately approach the base of the long descent the track bends to your right to join the private valley road and the final section of the walk. As you travel southwards you will pass, at the junction of two roads, Cuddystone Hall, the social heart of the valley, and a memorial to the allied airmen who lost their lives in the Cheviot Hills during WWII. Eventually, as the road comes to an end, go through the gate back to the bunkhouse.