North Tyneside Unitary Authority

Walk Details:
Date: 8/7/2006
Total ascent: 12m/ 39ft
Total distance walked: 0.29 miles
Walk difficulty: 0.5/10
Enjoyment rating: 0.5/10
Best bits: Errm...
Worst bits: Feeling silly in front of the local populace.
Walkers: Anth, Jim
Car Parking: We parked in a layby near the entrance to the Camperdown estate at NZ 280 719

Top details:
Name: Camperdown
County top number: 136 of 205
Grid reference: NZ 28091 71820
Height above sea level: 86m/ 282ft
How nice was the top? 0.5/10
Views: 0/10
Description/Notes: The highest point in the North Tyneside unitary authority is an indeterminate point near a school, on the footpath east of Camperdown estate.

The Walk:

This is a county top which I don’t think even the most ardent hikers would bother trying to make a walk out of. After a day of rubbish and awkward-to-access tops all we wanted to do was get this final one of the day over and done with as quickly as possible.

From the map it looked like there might be a way out of the back (east side) of the Camperdown estate. However, there wasn’t, and Jim turned the car round and parked in a handy layby at the estate entrance. We left the estate, walked down Northgate and then took a path that ran along the south of the estate (here we found another way into the estate that we would use on the return trip. The path came to a T-junction and the county top could have been anywhere on the crossing path – it was flat for some distance. As there was a lady walking a dog we pretended to walk down the path a bit, but when we turned back she was still looking at us suspiciously. In return, we looked suspiciously at the adjacent school entrance, which had a ridiculous maze of fences to get through. On return to the car I was rather suspicious of the ascent figure given by the GPS (shown above) – we felt it should be no more than a couple of metres.

We stayed the night at a B&B in Morpeth. We were looking forward to a nice pub meal, but all the pubs were heaving with tarts and slappers (I’m talking both the blokes and girls here). Instead we had a distinctly average Italian, and retired to the B&B to reflect on what, despite a large number of tops, had been a thoroughly depressing day’s bagging. We hoped for better on the Cheviot tomorrow...