Weardale Way Section 3 (Westgate to Rookhope)
Introduction
Section 3 of the Weardale Way starts at the “Candle House” on the junction of Front Street and Scutterhill Bank, in Westgate and finishes at the Rookhope Inn, Rookhope. This section is probably the most exposed of the entire Weardale Way. The profile is ‘up and over’, climbing steeply for much of the first half before a gentle descent to Rookhope. The middle, and highest, part of the route is rough, potentially boggy and quite challenging to navigate accurately if visibility is poor. Be aware that the Rookhope Inn has experienced changing fortunes over the years and is currently closed.
Stats at a Glance
Distance 7.5 km/4.7 miles) | Elevation Gain 181 m/592 ft | Maximum Elevation 445 m/1461 ft (Weather Hill) | Going Generally firm with potentially wet or boggy sections on trail (indistinct in places), road and track through upland pasture, moorland, farmland | Exposure Very exposed for much of the route | Navigation (OS Maps Explorer OL31; Explorer 307; Landranger 87; Landranger 92); GPS File | Hospitality & Supplies Westgate (CS; GS; PH); Rookhope (BH; PH*) | Start The Candle House, Westgate NY 907380 (w3w: flick.disprove.curable) | Finish Rookhope Inn, Rookhope NY 938428 (w3w: serious.spectacle.blurs) | Grade Challenge | GALLERY
Trail Updates
The following updates have been published by The Durham Cow for this section: 21/04/25; 30/03/22; 22/03/23; 22/06/21; 21/06/21
Description
From the ‘Candle House’, start uphill on Scutterhill Bank to a Weardale Way fingerpost way-marker, pointing to the right, across fields (on the left side of the road, opposite the way-marker, the trail passes close to the now reburied foundations of the ‘West Gate’ entrance to a huge hunting park that extended all the way down the dale to Wolsingham, belonging to the medieval Bishops of Durham).
The trail heads through a field, towards a farm, past a hotel that was once Westgate Manor and St Andrew’s Church. After squeezing between the farm and the church (and crossing the potentially muddy farmyard) the route heads – via a stile in the wall – down a narrow alley and into a domestic cul-de-sac (St. Andrew’s Place), leaving in a similar manner on the opposite side. After crossing several fields via high – potentially slippery – wall-stiles, the route then turns left, up the steep access road to Warden Hill Farm.
Through the farm, the route follows a stony, way-marked track steadily upwards – past a well preserved pair of lime kilns. Over the brow of the hill, the route turns right, towards a conifer plantation behind which there is a ladder wall-stile leading onto a large expanse of rough pasture. This is the approach to Weather Hill – the highest part of the section – where the trail is difficult to follow accurately, and is potentially boggy. In poor visibility it’s best to follow GPS or a compass bearing, or you can follow the wall and wire boundary to the left (it’s rough going) until you reach a simple stile.
Over the shoulder of the hill, slightly left of the summit, on the boundary with the cropped grass, there’s more rough, boggy ground as you begin a long, gradual descent to an embankment that was once part of the Rookhope & Middlehope Railway linking Rookhope with Westgate. The railway path will take you directly into Rookhope, past the lonely, abandoned dwelling at High Bishopseat, through Smailsburn Farm, to a small industrial estate above the Rookhope Burn – opposite the village itself.
Below the trail at this point – at river level – is the ‘Rookhope Borehole’. All that remains of what was a pivotal 1960s geological survey site that helped define the very nature of what makes Weardale special, is an insignificant concrete block with a rusty pipe bolted to it. The trail then turns right, in the estate and over the Rookhope Burn via a bridge, into the village.