This is longer than most, but it’s worth it on a good day. If it’s windy or rainy, think again before setting off, because it gets very bleak up on the top. It’s a rewarding walk for those who like panoramic views, former railways and riverside paths. If you like all three, fill your boots.
Park at the Dale Craft Centre in Stanhope, and make sure you visit it when you return. From the car park, turn right along the main A689 and walk west for a hundred yards or so before turning right up a narrow street, and quickly turn right again so you are heading roughly east. Don’t take the first public footpath sign, but turn left at the second alongside a chapel and begin a steady climb which will eventually take you to the top of Crawley Edge. Cross a couple of iron bridges over former quarries and bear left, continuing the climb, until you almost reach a minor road heading north. Here, turn right and follow the path round some farm buildings and reach the former Crawley incline.
By now all but the superhuman will have stopped for a rest or two, but the climb continues, albeit gently, until you reach the site of the former Weatherhill Engine, which used to drag wagons up the incline. Here you join the minor road for about half a mile until you see signs for the Waskerley Way cycle track on the right. Turn left off the road onto the slightly raised former railway embankment and follow this along the contours for a long way. You are well over 1,500 feet above sea level here (450m in new money) on the former route of the highest standard gauge railway ever built in this country and the weather can be very English.

But the walking is a lot easier now as you bear left and begin to head east and then take a sharpish left bend to go south west and begin the drop into Rookhope. Pass the ruins of Boltslaw engine works on your right as you walk through a cutting, and then watch your calfs as you descend the Boltslaw Incline, thanking goodness you aren’t climbing it. Follow the path and the waymarks, and you’ll soon enter Rookhope, where the Rookhope Inn can’t be missed. When we were there last, it was run as a village co-operative and the beer is usually good.
After refreshments, follow the minor road out of the village South-ish for less than a mile and after crossing Rookhope Burn, leave the road on a footpath, re-cross the Burn and follow the footpath alongside it right into Eastgate.
Here the pub isn’t bad either, and you’re on the last lap as you walk a short way east on the A689 before turning right towards the River Wear. Cross the railway and take a sharp left along a marked footpath through the caravan park (or alongside it) and follow the path that runs south of the railway until it crosses it and, near a deep former quarry full of water, join the minor road that takes you into Stanhope. Follow the A689 for a short walk back to the car park and don’t forget to visit the Craft Centre.