If you love waterfalls, I highly recommend walking to Linhope Spout on the Linhope Burn in Northumberland’s Cheviot Hills.

Yet again on an early January family hike we were blessed with stunning weather for the time of year; bright sunshine, cerulean skies, no wind but deeply biting cold (which went unnoticed once we were moving) and heart-stopping views with hills and valleys reminiscent of New Zealand’s south island.

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Something to aim for

For wild kids who are still building up their hiking stamina, a waterfall makes a fun focus for a walk. As an only child Caroline can get tired or bored sooner than children with siblings so if we’re not with friends (when she can run great distances without a whinge), having an end-goal on a walk keeps her momentum high, especially when going uphill! A bankside picnic at this huge waterfall worked well too though we didn’t sit for long as it was frosty!

The lure of a death fall!

I’ve a suspicion that waterfalls are becoming an addiction although I have to admit the attraction of this one, having been recommended by friends, was the morbid possibility that a woman had recently died in a fall there. This knowledge certainly piqued my interest; I haven’t managed to verify the story so it’s sounding like an urban (read rural) myth but it made us take extra care anyway.

Raw wild required

It was a stunning day with not another soul in the hills. A joyous highlight was spotting Caroline’s first ever Goldcrest, a tiny flame-fairy skitting about in a conifer.

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Courtesy of RSPB, photographer ‘Mag’

There was also a lot of Pheasant noise which interestingly felt misplaced. In other rural areas a Pheasant call can be a real affirmation of being in the countryside. Here, in the remote, rugged wild it was an oddly unwelcome reminder of domestication and human interference in nature. I wanted raw wild to complement the raw beauty of the land. Sorry Pheasants, some other time perhaps.

Children, dogs and Red Squirrels

The 3-mile round walk to Linhope Spout is moderately hard. Some of it follows farm roads (closed to public traffic) with a couple of challenging hills for young children, some rocky and slippy in wet or ice. My challenge was the frozen mossy grass on the high ground, welly soles proving useless for grip.

Dogs need to be under close control or on leads for part of the way as it is permissive access over grouse land.

There are red squirrels in the area though we didn’t spot any.

How to find Linhope Spout

Park at the roadside near Hartside Farm (Grid Reference NT 976 173). There are toilets before there, at Bulby Woods car park in Ingram but from here on in it’s wild wees ahoy!

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This useful map board is near the farm if you don’t have an OS map, and there’s a signpost once you reach the hamlet of Linhope.

Up in the hills, the waterfall spout is at first invisible, then unassuming and then a precipitous and roaring chute, dropping 60′ (18m) to a 6′ (2m) wide, 16′ (5m) deep plunge pool, perfect for swimming in the summer. It’s effectively a natural infinity pool where you swim against the current!

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Where’s the waterfall?

Waterfall of doom

Linhope Spout is in a wildly beautiful area.

We thoroughly explored the waterfall from above and below, with some tricky scrambling down the rocks to the pool. It’s easy to see how one false move could lead to that reportedly fatal fall, so it it was a courageous adventure for a 7-year old (and me!).

We had a speedy picnic at the bottom to avoid numb backsides on the freezing earth, and warmed up with paddling, bouldering over stepping-stones and yomping home at sundown for hot chocolate in the van.

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Check out these guys running the spout in a kayak – that’s a hard pass from me!

Anyone heard of ‘Waterfalls Anonymous’ so I can curb this growing addiction?…or possibly extract some secret locations from fellow sufferers!

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What’s your wild addiction?

Need more inspiration?

For more things to do near water read Kids of the Wild’s Rivers and Lakes section

For fun things to do in the north east check out my Northumberland pages and for more fab family walks check out Kids of the Wild’s walking and hiking pages

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