CORNHILL WALK No. 1
CORNFIELDS & RIVER TWEED
3.75 miles
Refreshements Cornhill has a village shop and coffee shop; the Collingwood Arms a bar and brasserie restaurant.
Parking There is limited parking outside the village shop, and to the rear of the church, please park considerately and do not obstruct access.
Footwear Many of the paths on this walk can be wet and muddy at any time of the year, and suitable footwear is essential.
Maps You will find Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map Sheet 339 (Kelso, Coldstream & Lower Tweed Valley) necessary to follow this itinerary. This map can be purchased at Cornhill Village Shop.
Please follow the Country Code:
Enjoy the countryside and respect its life and work
Guard against all risk of fire
Fasten all gates
Keep you dogs under close control
Keep to public paths across farmland
Use gates and stiles to cross fences, hedges and walls
Leave livestock, crops and machinery alone
Take your litter home
Help to keep all water clean
Protect wildlife, plants and trees
Take special care on country roads
Make no unnecessary noise |
LEAVE ONLY YOUR FOOTPRINTS, TAKE ONLY PHOTOGRAPHS
Produced for Cornhill Parish Council by Julie Grainger and Keith Bailey, 2008. Assistance from Northumberland County Council is gratefully acknowledged.
The route is generally described in an anti-clockwise direction, starting from the centre of Cornhill village at the church, although it can be joined at other points, for example Coldstream Bridge, and may be followed in the reverse direction.
- Cornhill Village is in the form of two parallel rows of houses, and probably reflects a deliberate act of planning, probably in the 11-12th centuries. St Helen’s Church, first mentioned c.1080 occupies what appears to be a natural hillock between the rows, although the land has been considerably raised by centuries of burials. The church was rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries, although medieval masonry survives in the lower walls. Several buildings in grey stone survive from the late-18th to late-19th centuries, including the Collingwood Arms, Cornhill Farm and the shop. The Old School north of the church was built in 1837, and replaced in the 1960s. Note the milestone, provided when the main roads were turnpiked (converted into toll roads) in the 1760s. The two modern houses by the milestone are on the site of the village smithy. Cornhill Farm is unusual in remaining in the village street, rather than being relocated to the fields.
Proceed along Main Street to the fingerpost on the left of roundabout, the post is marked Peter’s Plantation. Turn left onto a track, and walk through the farmyard to a gate marked Public Footpath. Follow the track/path across the fields to the edge of a wood crossing over a ladder stile. The River Tweed is visible below.
- Several fields in this area are named Chesters, which may indicate a prehistoric or Roman fortification of some kind, protecting what has always been an important river crossing. The gentle undulations in the area are drumlins, formed of soft material carried by glaciers and deposited when the ice sheet retreated c.10,000 years ago. A planned railway of the 1860s would have terminated close to the main road and Coldstream Bridge
After the stile turn left and follow the track with the River on your right below you. This track runs through pleasant woodland and eventually comes to a flight of steps. At the top of the steps you are on Coldstream Bridge.
- The high river cliff is formed of Carboniferous cemenstone, and provides clear evidence of the erosive power of the river over a relatively short period (c.10-12,000 years).
Coldstream Bridge, a fine five-arched structure, was designed by John Smeaton and built between 1762 and 1767. Each span is about 60ft. Problems with river currents led to the building of the weir below the bridge in 1785. The bridge was widened in the 1960s. The small house on the Scottish bank was once the scene of so-called “irregular” marriages”, much favoured by English couples between the 1750s and the mid-19th century. The fishing station next to the bridge is The Slap, possibly from an Old English word denoting a slippery place. There was a foot ferry around here in the 18th century, although the principal crossing before the bridge was always by one of a series of fords leading to the low-lying shore and Coldstream town.
(From the Bridge it is a short walk into Coldstream, with several places for refreshment, and places of historical interest.)
To continue this walk, retrace your steps back along the woodland path with the River now on your left as far as the ladder stile. Pass the stile and continue on the track passing a marker post and then cross a stile and turn left alongside a field hedge.
- The large ditch to your left marks the site of Cornhill “castle”, although in reality this seems to have been little more than a fortified tower, probably built in the 12th century to overlook the village of Lennel. This was the mother settlement of Coldstream, and its ruined church and churchyard can be seen across the Tweed. Cornhill Castle was in need of repair several times over the years of border warfare, and was finally abandoned in the late-16th century.
Continue through the field to a ladder stile in the hedge and continue straight on. Lennel Village is visible on your left and above across the River which is now not visible.
- The path runs along the south edge of Lennel Haugh. As you turn south, the site of Brownridge Farm is in the first field on the left. Dating from the late-18th century when the local fields were enclosed, it was abandoned about a century ago
When the path meets the next stile DO NOT CROSS THE STILE! Instead turn right onto the farm track. At the end of the track is the Main A698 road to Berwick. Turn left and follow the path beside the main road for a short while before crossing the road and taking the marked track to Cramond Hill Farm.
- As you turn off the main road, the trees and field on the right mark the sight of Cornhill glebe, the land given to support the local priest in the Middle Ages. The track crosses the line of the Tweedmouth-Kelso railway of 1849, climbing towards Cramond Hill Farm, which takes its name from an early-19th century farmer. It is one of many local farms built from he mid-18th to early-19th century as farmers moved from the local villages to be within their newly-enclosed blocks of fields.
Half way up the farm track take the finger post on the right marked Muggers Loan Public Footpath. At certain times of year the fields around this area have electric fencing. Take care!
- Muggers Loan takes its name from the muggers or earthenware sellers, many of them from Ireland, who plied their business along the local roads and tracks. This lane once formed the main link between Cornhill and the village of Heaton. The inhabitants of Heaton would have used it to carry their dead to the parish graveyard
Rejoin the main A698 road crossing the road to use the footpath.
- On the left behind Rickerby’s modern building was Cornhill Auction Mart, regrettably demolished in 2008. This octagonal building in grey stone with a typical roof lantern was built in 1881, at a time when the local livestock market was growing rapidly. Sheep and cattle from a wide area were brought here for sale and onward transport by rail. There was direct loading from the lairage to cattle wagons in the adjacent sidings.
Walk back through the village for well earned refreshments at Cornhill Shop or The Collingwood Arms Hotel.
