Walk 3 – Hunwick Village, New Hunwick and River Walk
A walk around Hunwick, New Hunwick & the river
(7.5 miles)
Suitable for Walking
NOT suitable for wheelchairs and walking aids
About this walk
From the village green/Joiners Arms go along a lane to the immediate Right of the Joiners Arms and through a short passageway to a housing estate with a central circular road. Go around either side of the circle to a gate. After the gate bear Left to a stile and gate and then straight ahead across crop fields towards farm buildings to a gate with iron rings then immediately right (nettles) to a kissing gate. Then straight across crop fields towards a large oak tree where there is a metal gate with a sign “Jane’s Gate” to its left. Then straight ahead along the hedge line (holly) to a metal gate on the right just after a field gate. Follow the edge of the crop field to Cringle Dykes Farm. There is a stone stile where the track turns into the farm buildings. Turn right and follow the road to Lane Ends, turning left at Co-Operative terrace just after crossing the road. Turn right at the sign for the cricket club and follow the lane to Rough Lea and the railway path.
At Rough Lea turn left on to the Brandon to Bishop Auckland railway path and follow it to Sunnybrow. Following a thin cinder path to the left near the road crossing. This joins Rockingham Road which is followed straight ahead to bends and the Rocking Strike Memorial. Follow the concrete road beside houses down the hill to two metal gates. Go past the gate on the left and follow the rough track to a metal footbridge, known locally as the Paybridge, which crosses the River Wear
Turn right through the kissing gate and follow the Weardale Way riverside path to the point where the track bears right into Furness Mill Farm where you should go straight ahead on a thin path, passing through a metal gate to join a narrow path beside the Mill Leat. Cross a footbridge and climb steep steps to a wooden gate at the top of the ridge. Go through the gate and follow the edge of the field until a white building comes into view. Head for the building and go through a kissing gate to join a track.
Turn left and eventually passing through a kissing gate next to large white gates, follow the track to Farnley Farm. Follow the Weardale Way signed track to the right just before Farnley Farm and follow the track which becomes a rough field track. The path eventually follows the edge of the final field to the right (West) to a kissing gate. Go through this and turn left (South) to follow the riverside path which ultimately reaches the security fencing for Kynren.
A narrow path continues parallel with the external fencing of the Kynren site towards the venue’s second security gates. Continue to follow the track and below the Eleven Arches viaduct a path goes right, steeply uphill past a picnic table to join the railway path at a car park and the main entrance to Kynren. Go along the Brandon to Bishop Auckland railway path to the first barrier then turn left and join a poor track leading to a Kynren sign and a rough car park. Follow the right-hand edge of the field around to a stile. Cross the stile and go straight ahead keeping the hedge on your left to another stile. Cross the stile and go diagonally across the field following the direction on the waymark to a third stile. Keep the hedge line on the left until at a field boundary swaps the field line to the right-hand side. As you approach Hunwick village and the farm, cross the stile to the left of the farm gate then pass through two stiles to the left hand side of the buildings which leads through to an estate road and the village green opposite the Joiners Arms.
