W16: Barnard Castle And Lartington

Leave Station car park 9.15am. Park at Demesnes (free car park, accessed via Gray Lane off Thorngate) (GR: NZ 050 160, What3Words: ///beeline.bring.speedily) at 10.00am. 7 Miles. Moderate. £7

We follow the Teesdale Way for the first part of our walk, passing the Castle which gives the town its name. We cross the Tees and walk along it’s south bank to Pecknell Wood. Here, we pick up a bridleway that takes us into the lovely grounds of the Grade II listed Lartington Hall. Reaching the village of Lartington, we follow the course of a dismantled railway that once carried coal from the Durham coalfields to the Lancashire mills. An impressive bridge abutment marks the line’s crossing of Deepdale Beck, where we descend into Deepdale Wood. We follow the beck back to its confluence with the Tees, and then back into Barnard Castle, where our walk concludes with opportunities to visit the Castle, cafes, and the Bowes Museum.