Wooler to Fenwick along the St. Cuthbert’s Way

Wooler to Fenwick

12.47 miles/20 km, ascent: 1350 ft/412 m

Waking up at the Black Bull Inn was a delight. The full English breakfast was the best of our journey, the mushroom was as big as my hand and the poached egg, beans, sausage, and bacon were just what we needed to start our second to last day.

The highlights of this section are St. Cuthbert’s Cave and the first sight of the ocean. The cave is about 100 yards just off the path, hidden in a group of trees. We were not going to walk past the cave after having missed the border crossing and Hadrian's wall.

Very narrow path leaving Wooler for .5 miles

After leaving the village of Wooler the lane becomes a narrow dirt footpath and climbs along a bramble hedge uphill to the top of Weetwood Moor. For any American’s reading this article, a bramble bush is the same as a blackberry or raspberry bush. If you do this walk in the fall I imagine it would be full of berries for the picking, but in May they were just little buds. 

From the top of Weetwood Moor, the path turns to grass and follows the moorland rim before descending to a country road. This road seemed to me to go on for a while, but I’m not complaining. I like tarmac country roads, it’s what I walk daily at home in Utah, and it’s a break from uneven terrain for my ankles. The road/path led past a large cattle farm, with lots of cows in different buildings and holdings being milked and fed. I think there was even artificial breeding and slaughtering. It was a real working cattle farm.

Country road walking past a cattle farm

During our whole trip this was the only country road where we ran into a vehicle. In this case, it was tractors moving cows from different locations. In some sections, we had to jump up on high, steep ledges along the road to avoid getting bowled over. 

But soon we were off the road and making the gradual ascent to St. Cuthbert's cave. The way to the top followed green pastures on a narrow dirt path with long grasses hanging over the path (not my favorite). I think this is where I got a tick burrowed in my lower leg that I found later the next day. 

After dredging our way through the long grass, we came to the turn-off for St. Cuthbert’s cave. The cave was quite underwhelming, and not really a cave to my standards. It was more like big boulders overlaying each other with nothing deep enough to hide St. Cuthbert’s body. It was shallow, maybe 6 to 8 feet, but very wide and tall. I’m sure it was different 1,330 years ago when the monks hid St Cuthbert’s body from the Vikings in this cave. Today, it would only shelter you from the rain for a while. The surrounding caves were really neat and made a nice place to stop for lunch. There were lots of boulders to sit and imagine what life must have been like in 687 AD.

St. Cuthbert’s Cave

After leaving the cave we walked on a combination of dirt and gravel through more pastures with sheep scattered along the hillsides. Soon we reached the top and first spotted the ocean and Holy Island about 10 miles away. It was exciting seeing the end destination and a relief to know the rest was downhill. 

Through more pastures, down a forest track, and along a country road you reach the small village of Fenwick. It has a few B&Bs but does NOT have any restaurants or markets. At the Town Hall, we were instructed to call the innkeeper at The White Swan Inn to transfer us the 3.5 miles to Lowick. 

We dropped our backpacks on the grass, sat, and waited for a gentleman to arrive in a black van. We thought it would be a normal van transfer, so we were surprised when an old black extended cab pickup truck pulled up. The gentleman jumped out, opened his back tailgate into his covered truck bed and tossed our packs into a large homemade wooden dog crate. The crate was full of hay and old blankets, which I’m sure was for the comfort of his hunting dogs. We could not understand a word the man said, but I thought, “this is marvelous, a perfect, real, and unique transfer we will never forget”. It was like we had a glimpse into local village life. This is why you travel, to experience new things and ways of life. 

When we got to The White Swan Inn we were welcomed by the first king bed of our journey and a great shower. 

The White Swan Inn