CORNHILL WALK No. 4
TWIZEL, TILLMOUTH & HEATON
5 miles
Parking Cars can be parked off the road on Twizel Bridge approximately 2½ miles from Cornhill village on the A698 road to Berwick upon Tweed.
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 This information must be used in conjunction with Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map Sheet 339 (Kelso, Coldstream & Lower Tweed Valley). 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 comprises two out-and-back legs, joined by a short circular walk through farmland, starting and finishing at Twizel bridge, although it can be joined at other points, for example Tillmouth Park and Castle Heaton, and may be followed in the reverse direction.
From Cornhill or Berwick take the A698 and park by Twizel Bridge.
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- Twizel Bridge, said to date from the 15th century, is one of the most impressive examples of a medieval bridge, crossing the Till in a single 90ft span at considerable height. It was used in 1513 by part of the English army on its way to the battlefield of Flodden, encircling the Scottish forces from the north.
- On the right across the Till, Twizel Castle stands on top of a Carboniferous cementstone cliff. It is the ruin of a large gothick house begun c1770 by Sir Francis Blake, but containing the remains of a medieval tower as its core. It was never completed. A tunnel runs beneath the road, linking parts of the Tillmouth Park estate. Note the 18th-century milestone provided by the owners of the newly-turnpiked road in the 1760s.
Cross the old bridge, then, taking great care, cross the road to follow the footpath around the high wall of Tillmouth Park. (You may drive along the A698 from Twizel Bridge and park near the road junction.)
- On the left are the gothick lodges and gateway to Tillmouth Park, dating from c.1810. The house, now a hotel, is an Elizabethan-style rebuild of 1882 by Charles Barry junior, including some features from the earlier house. There is an interesting complex of cottages and buildings, including a dovecote. The Henlaw tunnel is around 100ft long, probably part of the overall gothick scheme of around 1800.
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Opposite the gates is the Dower House, a splendid five-bay gothick building, much of it in fact dating only from the 1970s, when a farmhouse was embellished by Felix Kelly for another Francis Blake.
Take the minor road, with a fine 19th-century signpost to Old Heaton and Crookham, past the gatehouses.
- On your right is Tillmouth’s former school of 1879, which continues the gothic theme of the Blake estate. It was however rather inconveniently located for the majority of the children who lived at Harper Ridge/Donaldson’s Lodge
Continue on the minor raod.
- In the wooded area between Tillmouth Park and the road which you are following is one of the vanished settlement sites of Cornhill parish. Stotford is recorded from the 17th century to the early-20th. The name denotes a ford across the Till, in this case leading to Twizel Mill. The first element probably refers to a stud farm in the area in early medieval times.
Continue to follow the minor road. Views are spectacular with Cheviot visible. Pass a small cottage in a field on your left. This is Buckie House generating much of its own electricity needs by means of a wind turbine. Continue on this road until you reach the entry to Castle Heaton.
In order to see Castle Heaton and then Heaton Mill follow the sign posted road up to the farm.
- Heaton (the high village, named from its position above the Till) was one of the three medieval villages in Cornhill parish. As with Tillmouth (see Walk No.3), it has vanished since the enclosure of the local open fields in the 17-18th centuries, and been replaced by a series of isolated farms. The core of the village was at Castle Heaton. This takes its name from a castle built by the Grey family, which suffered from the centuries of warfare between English and Scots after 1300. Part survives in the farm complex, however, suggesting a tower house with courtyard and outbuildings so common around the Border, rather than a full-sized castle.
Through the farmyard but just before the main farm building turn left continuing downhill along a track to Heaton Mill House. The remains of the Mill are at the end of the track but essentially lie within the extensive garden area of the house owner.
- Heaton Mill lies on the Till opposite another imposing cliff of Carboniferous cementstone. Although in ruins, the shape and size of the mill are clear, and there are remains of machinery in the grass. The line of the leat channel taking water the mill wheel is also visible
Retrace your footsteps to the Tillmouth road, then turn left at a field gate, enter the field and turn right along the hedge. At the next stile turn right for Stickle Heaton. This farm has some superb layered willow hedging all down the farm road. There are also excellent views of the surrounding countryside.
- Stickle Heaton is a more recent isolated farmhouse, dating from the early 20th century. Its name comes from Old English sticol, ‘steep place’, although it lies in gently undulating drumlin country, hillocks of soft material deposited by the ice which once covered the whole are
At the end of the track turn left onto the minor road and retrace your steps past the former school house and back to your car at the Tillmouth Park Hotel or Twizel Bridge.
Refreshments are available at the Tillmouth Park Hotel or at the Collingwood arms Hotel or Village Shop in Cornhill
