Lanchester Valley Railway Path

About the Site

This 19.5 km (12 mile) Railway Path provides an ideal way of exploring the countryside of the Lanchester Valley and beyond. It is suitable for walking, cycling and horse riding. The railway was originally built to carry iron ore to Consett Steelworks and coal from Langley Park. It opened as a passenger service in 1862 and closed altogether in 1965.

Hawthorn Blossom

The Lanchester Valley Walk starts at Broompark Picnic Area and is signposted where the route passes alongside the main East Coast railway line. The path follows the valley of the River Browney as far as Malton.

It travels through a rich mosaic of farmland, wood, heath and marsh. These habitats support plants and animals indigenous to this part of Durham, many of which have been lost through disturbance and agricultural practice in the surrounding area.

The River Browney supports a dense fringe of vegetation including mature trees. Sand martins breed along the banks and kingfisher, dipper and herons can sometimes be spotted.

Finches, warblers and linnets are abundant and greater spotted woodpecker, skylark, chiffchaff, song thrush, lapwing curlew and breeding kestrels frequent the area. Butterflies include common blue, small skipper, meadow brown, small heath and ringlet.

Otter

Along the railway walk the trackside has been colonised with a variety of herbs such as perforate St John’s wort, wood cranesbill, hemp-agrimony, red bartsia and lady’s mantle, and is rich in insect life. Pockets of acid grassland occur along the track near to Bearpark. Heath bedstraw, mat grass, Yorkshire Fog and tormentil grow, with the occasional stand of heather and hard fern.

There is an area of heath adjacent to the track near Bearpark, which consists of dense heather with wavy hair grass. Butterfly orchid occurs at several points along the track as far as Hurbuck embankment.

Mature woodland is dotted throughout the valley and alongside the track. Some dominated by sycamore and ash whilst other woodlands are mainly oak and birch. Bluebells carpet some of these woods in the spring time.

The walk passes alongside Malton Nature Reserve and through the picnic area. The picnic area next to the River Browney has roost sites for a variety of bats including noctule, long-eared, daubentons, pipistrelle and foraging whiskered bats. Otters and mink pass through here as well as badgers and foxes. Kingfishers, dippers and yellow wagtails are regularly seen and it is one of the best places to see tawny owls at night time. Butterflies include comma, which use the remaining elms, orange tip, small tortoiseshell, peacock, and green veined white.

Common Blue

At Lanchester, the route crosses the road and continues along the reclaimed railway passing the former station. After 2.4 km (1½ miles) the track follows an embankment at Knitsley. There was once a magnificent wooden viaduct here until 1915 when it was filled in with colliery waste and converted into the Hurbuck embankment, which can be seen today.

Disused railways are favourite wintering places for redwings and fieldfares from Scandinavia, particularly where berry-bearing shrubs such as hawthorn, wild rose, blackthorn and elder, have colonised the cuttings. These cuttings are home to numerous blackbirds, thrushes, finches and tits. Roe deer are also known to use the walk during quiet periods.

Tawny Owl

The path continues past Hurbuck Farm and Hurbuck Cottages, crosses the road and continues through fields before joining the original track at Knitsley Station. The diversion of the route here is due to the line being lost through opencast mining and farming.

The track ends at Lydgetts Junction on the former Consett steelworks site. Here the Lanchester Valley route links with the Waskerley Way (this extends for another 16 km (10 miles) to Crawleyside near Stanhope), the Derwent Valley route (which extends for a further 13.5 km (8 miles) to Rowlands Gill) and the Sustrans Consett-Sunderland cycle path, which form part of the C2C (sea to sea) Cycle Route.

Lanchester Valley Railway Path - Map

Location

Broompark Picnic Area: 800 metres (½ mile) from Stonebridge on the B6302 road to Ushaw Moor. 3 km (2 miles) by road from Durham City centre. Take the A690 to the Stonebridge roundabout, then west on the B6302.

Malton Nature Reserve and Picnic Area: 10.5 km (6.5 miles) by road (A691) from Durham City centre and 2 km (1.5 miles) from Lanchester centre.

Broompark to Bearpark - 2.5 km (1.5 miles)

Bearpark to Langley Park - 4 km (2.5 miles)

Langley Park to Malton - 3 km (2 miles)

Malton to Lanchester - 1.5 km(1 mile)

Lanchester to Hurbuck - 4 km (2.5 miles)

Hurbuck to Lydgetts Junction - 4 km (2.5 miles)

Total length 19.5 km (12 miles)

Facilities

Free parking is available at Broompark Picnic Area, Malton Picnic Area, Lanchester, old road (on the west side of unclassified road, opposite entrance to Hurbuck Cottages) and Lydgetts Junction, at the junction of the Waskerley Way and the Lanchester Valley Walk.

Benches and seats are located along the walk, which is suitable for walking, cycling and horse riding. Picnic areas are sited at Broompark and Malton.The Lanchester Valley is generally quite flat, with low gradients making it suitable for people with a physical disability (including wheelchair users). However, at many of the road crossing points, where bridges once stood, the slopes are steep, with a 300 m section of walk near Knitsley Station (between Hurbuck and Delves) around a 1 in 20 gradient.

At the Broompark Picnic Area, the Lanchester Valley Railway Path meets two other railway paths: the Deerness Valley Railway Path, which is 12.5 km (7.5 miles) long and terminates on meeting the B6299 near Stanley Crook, and the Brandon/Bishop Railway Path, which is 14 km (8.5 miles) ending at Bishop Auckland on the Newton Cap viaduct.

Enquiries

Durham County Council
Environment
County Hall
Durham
DH1 5UQ
Tel: 0191 3833594