Teesdale Way - Piercebridge to Winston

Monday 28th August 2023

Teesdale Way - Piercebridge to Winston

A couple of hours walking alongside the picturesque River Tees from Piercebridge village was just the ticket as I was slowly recovering from a nasty bout of 'manflu'. Nice and gentle terrain, coupled with fine weather and a relatively short walk was just what I needed after a pretty grotty week or so. Plus the chance to catch up with Ste and his son, Robert.

The area is somewhere that I rarely venture to, although there are some places nearby that I can remember as a youngster having plenty of fun in the water - Winston and Whorlton Lido come to mind.

I think the Teesdale Way is something I should really walk, as it's so close to my home, but I think the stretch from Middlesbrough to Redcar really puts me off - but it's certainly on the 'to-do' list.

The information contained in the material on this Website is for information purposes only and does not constitute advice.

Distance: 5.8 miles

Duration: 2:15 hours

Ascent: 436 ft

Difficulty: Easy

Accompanied By: Ste & Robert

Weather: Mild & Dry

3D outline of route

Parking

As we had two cars, this was to be a linear walk. So I parked mine up at Winston and Ste left his here at Piercebridge.

Picking up the Teesdale Way after a short stroll through the village.

Our first sighting of the River Tees. It certainly wasn't to be the last.

Piercebridge - steeped in Roman history, although we didn't actually venture over to visit the fort.

Giant hogweed can now be found throughout much of the UK, especially waste ground, roadside verges and like here on river banks, where its seeds are transported by water. It grows in dense clumps and can out-compete native plants. It's related to Cow Parsley, which always sends a shudder through Ste after his unfortunate incident on our recent Pennine Way.

A bit of a blot on the landscape - the pipe bridge over the Tees coming up

The paths were generally pretty flat and well defined and the route was easy to follow.

The path picked up an old dismantled railway and it's embankment for a very brief period.

Arriving in Gainford.

Gainford Green

A short bit of road-side walking before heading down to Gainford Spa.

A lot of the interest today was concentrated on Kingfisher spotting - ideal territory for these mythical birds. (Kingfishers spotted = 0). They just don't exist in my world.