Our annual Christmas walk followed by a Christmas meal is the highlight of our walking year. With children free from school and University, it’s one walk that is always guaranteed a good turn-out and a walk where no-one is worrying about the next day.

This year twenty of us made the pilgrimage to Corbridge to meet up in the market square for the start of the walk. We had two dogs as well.

Our walk is usually a variation on the theme of muddy lanes, churches and a castle. The order often varies but the content is pretty much the same. This year we added in a detour to the old bottle kilns sitting on the high ground above Corbridge before we crept under the A69 and headed for the pretty hamlet of Halton. It’s only a loose handful of stone dwellings including a stout 15^th century manor house and a low church, however it is a picturesque spot and ideal for savoury festive nibbles and crisp, bubbly prosecco!

We staggered back down the hill to the jagged walls of Aydon Castle – a place we must visit when it’s open in the summer – standing above the steep sided valley of the Corr Burn. The final stretch of the walk took us above the A69 this time and down into the town via a narrow winding footpath. The Black Bull beckoned with promises of roast turkey and roast potatoes!