Durham Hewitts Round.

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On 27th May 2006 Steve Lumb and Stuart Ferguson completed an unsupported round of the Hewitt’s within County Durham, covering 48 miles, 7,500 feet of ascent in 14 hours and 3 minutes.

HEWITTS are a list of:
Hills in England, Wales and Ireland over Two Thousand feet high with a drop of 30m on all sides. There are 177 in England, 11 of these are within the County of Durham.

Stuart devised the round which started and finished at St John’s Chapel in Weardale and visited the tops in the following order -

· Burtree Hill - GR862432
· Killhope Law - GR819448
· Deadstones - GR793399
· Burnhope Seat - GR785375
· Great Stoney Fell - GR823359
· Three Pikes - GR833343
· Viewing Hill - GR788332
· Mickle Fell - GR804243
· Bink Moss – GR875243
· James Hill - GR923325
· Chapel Fell - GR875346

The route has virtually no tarmac and little tracks and trails to follow as much of the round is on open access countryside this featureless terrain is very challenging particularly the large stretches of peat hags. Mickle Fell is on MOD land and access must be agreed through the ranger on 01768341661


The round took longer than planned; due to gale force winds all day, heavy rain and sleet showers for the second half of round coupled with poor visibility over Mickle Fell and Bink Moss which made navigation on this stretch very difficult.

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