The Bizzle Burn & Braydon Crag
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NT881225 From the bunkhouse, head south on a clear track as far as ‘Wilderness Wood’. On the left-hand side of the fence take the track towards and across the College Burn via a ford. This continues diagonally across the hillside before turning sharply upwards on a grassy ride. At the top of the ride, turn left along the outside edge of the part-harvested plantation, eventually descending on a clear track to the bridal-white holiday cottage of Dunsdale. Continue around the outside of the cottage to a tarmac road. Immediately after crossing the Bizzle Burn you must head right.
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NT899231 Staying in close contact with the Bizzle Burn, take the thin, intermittent path through thick heather while heading towards the impressive Bizzle Crags. In time, heather is replaced by rough grassland. Soon, you will spot, on the other side of the burn, a large square block of fallen rock. At this point cross over the burn, and continue towards the head of this ice-crafted amphitheatre. After crossing a side (and possibly dry) tributary of the Bizzle Burn, the route starts to climb more steeply.
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NT899217 At the first rocky outcrop, beside a sudden drop in the course of the burn, head diagonally left to join the narrow thread of the burn (above the drop). This is your guide upwards, and while there is, occasionally, a hint of a path you will spend a fair amount of time with your boots in the normally shallow burn. This is a fabulous ascent through a narrow defile of tumbled rock and small cascades and, though there is no real scrambling, the use of hands will come in useful. Eventually, the gradient eases and grass begins to dominate.
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NT901214 Leave the burn by turning right and contouring the slope via an intermittent path that continues
above the head of the ice-scoured bowl in a north-westerly direction, eventually veering towards the west. Once you are beyond the peat line to your left, where rough grass now dominates, start to pick your way diagonally uphill towards the plateau edge. Soon you will see, on the skyline, the clenched fist of Braydon Crag, site of a B17 ‘Flying Fortress’ crash in 1944.
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NT893214 At the base of the crag, face south. Less than 1km away you will spot some more crags; your immediate destination. By keeping just below the peat line you will, in time, reach a rocky, cairntopped outcrop, and the point where you need to turn left upwards to arrive at the stone men on rock-shattered West Hill. Here there are superb views across the cleft of the Hen Hole to Auchope Cairn.
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NT889206 Now stick closely to the 700m contour, heading in an easterly direction then turning south along an intermittent trace. Your target is a 90° turn in the burn, which is easily crossed just above a rock-splitting waterfall. Once over, turn right on a path and then, after 75m, turn left up the rough slope, continuing south-westwards through small peat haggs to join the paved Pennine Way. Turn right.
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NT890198 Follow the border fence downhill, then just prior to the bottom of the slope take the faint track that drops right to the College Valley. Continue with the track via flat grassland towards an animal feedstore and beyond to the track arriving from Red Cribs. Follow this downstream to the bunkhouse.