Thorsgill Wood Walk from Egglestone Abbey

PARKING AT EGGLESTONE ABBEY

Parking for this walk is available at Egglestone Abbey car park (DL12 9TN). The car park is a well-known starting point for local walks near Barnard Castle and provides easy access to woodland, riverside and countryside routes. Please park considerately and respect the historic surroundings.

ROUTE DESCRIPTION

Leave the car park and walk down the quiet road towards the River Tees, with the ruins of Egglestone Abbey gradually disappearing behind you.

Continue to the junction beside Abbey Mill House and turn left.

Within a minute you reach Bow Bridge, an attractive old stone packhorse bridge spanning Thorsgill Beck. Although this route doesn't cross the bridge, it is well worth pausing for a moment to admire it. For centuries, bridges like this helped connect farms, fields and settlements across the Teesdale landscape.

Just before Bow Bridge, go through the gate on your left and follow the path beside Thorsgill Beck.

After a short distance you'll reach a small wooden footbridge. Cross here and enter Thorsgill Wood.

Immediately the walk becomes quieter.

The woodland closes around the path as Thorsgill Beck winds between moss-covered stones and small cascades. Mature trees shade the valley while the steady sound of flowing water follows you for much of the walk. Despite being only a short distance from Barnard Castle, this section often feels wonderfully secluded.

Eventually the woodland path reaches the road.

Turn left and continue for a couple of minutes until you reach a small lay-by on the left-hand side.

Cross into the field and follow the field edges as the landscape begins to open up.

The final section provides a complete contrast to the woodland, with wider views across farmland and towards the surrounding countryside. Continue alongside the edge of Thorsgill Wood before heading diagonally between two traditional farm buildings.

From here, the route returns to Egglestone Abbey, completing a short but rewarding circular walk.

IMPORTANT LIVESTOCK INFORMATION

The return section crosses working farmland where cattle may be present.

On our most recent walk, we had a young dog with us on a lead and a large group of cattle gathered close to the public footpath. Rather than trying to pass through them, we turned back and returned through Thorsgill Wood.

We walk this route regularly, but livestock can move between fields and conditions may be different each time. Always assess the situation before entering a field and be prepared to turn back if cattle are gathered near or blocking the path.

WHAT YOU’LL SEE ON THIS WALK

Although short, this walk includes a varied mix of scenery and landmarks.

About Thorsgill Wood

Thorsgill Wood follows the course of Thorsgill Beck through a narrow valley just beside Egglestone Abbey.

It is a small woodland, but there is far more history here than first appears. Old maps show several fords around the beck and the River Tees, revealing how important these crossings once were before modern roads and bridges changed the way people moved through the landscape.

Bow Bridge is the clearest reminder of that past. You do not cross it on this walk, but you can see the old stone bridge beside the route, standing where travellers, farm workers and local families once passed through the valley.

Thorsgill also formed part of the wider landscape surrounding Egglestone Abbey. We cannot say exactly which paths the medieval canons used, but it is very possible that they walked beside the beck or used the nearby crossings while travelling between the abbey, its farmland and the surrounding settlements.

By the nineteenth century, Thorsgill had become known as a pleasant place to walk. Old newspaper reports described visitors following the beck beneath mature trees, while routes through the wood linked Egglestone Abbey with Startforth and Barnard Castle.

Today, the woodland is quieter and more overgrown in places, but the old route remains. As you follow the beck, pass the bridge and climb towards the open fields, you are walking through a valley that has been used for far longer than the modern footpath suggests.

A LANDSCAPE SHAPED BY THOUSANDS OF YEARS

One of the remarkable things about this short walk is how many different layers of history lie within such a small area.

On the slope above Thorsgill Beck is a nationally protected prehistoric carved rock, officially recorded as a Scheduled Monument. The carvings include cups, rings and grooves thought to date from the Late Neolithic or Bronze Age, meaning they were carved several thousand years ago.

The stone is not part of the walking route and lies away from the public footpath. It should not be approached by crossing fences or entering private land.

Centuries later, Egglestone Abbey became home to Premonstratensian canons, whose lives were closely connected with the surrounding fields, woodland and rivers. We cannot know exactly which paths they followed, but the old crossings and routes around Thorsgill would have formed part of the landscape around them.

By Victorian times, Thorsgill had become known as a pleasant place to walk. Guidebooks encouraged visitors to explore the woodland after visiting the abbey, while newspaper reports recorded large excursion parties arriving for events at Egglestone Abbey and wandering through the surrounding countryside.

Sir Walter Scott also celebrated Thorsgill in Rokeby, describing its wooded valley and green, sheltered scenery.

Today, although the landscape around it has changed, Thorsgill still feels like a place carrying far more history than its short woodland path first reveals.

A MOMENT OF CALM

This walk is a reminder that you don't always need dramatic landscapes or long distances to find somewhere memorable.

Within just over two miles you'll discover flowing water, woodland, open countryside and several thousand years of history. More importantly, you'll find a place that encourages you to slow down.

Sit beside Thorsgill Beck for a few minutes and listen to the water.

It isn't difficult to imagine that countless others have paused here before you.