Great Hetha is located in College Valley in Northumberland. It starts from the same car park so many great walks also begin in, at Hethpool, roughly ///mountains.crumbles.trample on what3words.

We have done a longer version of this hike before, without the children in tow. But as we didn’t know how they’d take to doing such a long route in winter, this time we opted for the shorter version. I prefer the longer Three Forts Foray route, though that may be because the wife sent us up the wrong (and much steeper, with sharper drop) incline than we were supposed to go up on this hike as she read the map wrong…

Three Forts Foray:

https://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/walk/three-forts-foray/

Hetha’s Hike:

https://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/walk/hethas-hike/

As we wandered along the bottom of the valley to the base of Hetha, there were times where it looked like the light was threatening to erupt. The hills would glow with a very soft side light for a few moments, and then it would disperse. After a short while it would return, but each time it did it was always fleeting.

by the time we left the road, it had been a few minutes since we’d had any light. I’d written it off. I like the flat light of winter, even without a golden glow so I was still happy with the images I was getting. And then just as we got to above the tree-line I noticed the small patch of light in the field on the left of the image above.

The light stayed like that for a couple of minutes, but I had a feeling it was about the get good so stayed stood waiting for something to happen, much to the dismay of the wife and the children. It was worth it.

After taking several images, I tried to motor onwards and upwards towards the summit. I don’t know if it’s a small mountain, or a large hill. We did have this debate with my eldest at the top. But it stands 343m high, and you rise through about 220m of that on the hike (the link above to the hiking route has the highest point of about 330m but it skirts around the summit rather than taking you to it, we went to the cairn). Unfortunately as we got high enough to see over the hill and get clearer shots up the valley, the light faded.

When the moon rose above Wester Tor this lead to slight arguments with my youngest. She was curious to know why we were still hiking at 8pm. It took a little explaining of daylight savings and winter nights to help her realise that it may be sunset, and the moon may be out, but it was still just 2.30pm…

I’m not sure if it will show properly in the image above, but the Cheviot appeared to have a light dusting of snow on the top where it met the clouds. Whilst it didn’t feel like there was any risk of snow on Greath Hetha, it was still nippy. So much so in fact, that we often carry jelly sweets for energy when walking with the little ones, and my strawberry pencils had frozen solid in my pocket… I was most disappointed!

Whilst there were some glimpses of peach tones in the clouds, and the skies above the valley, we thought we’d had all the light we were going to get. We assumed that as the sun dipped below the mountains it would be too low for where we were. As this is the first time we’d been on top of a mountain whilst hiking with the kids we thought we’d better get them back down whilst there was still some blue hour light, as I didn’t fancy carrying a 6 year old down 200m of steep slope.

We were wrong about the light…

As we started walking down, Wester Tor caught my eye as just the peak was being lit, bathed in the golden light of the sunset. I started walking back up the hill, but towards the slope that faced Wester Tor. I then saw the light in the valley and ran back up to the summit of Hetha to capture the light.

I first started taking images from the top, and then moved to the slope to the rear, near to the hillfort to incorporate that into the foreground. At first my wife just let me run off, but my eldest came after me. As soon as he saw the light he went back shouting for his mam to come and see. By the time my wife got there I was simply sat watching the beauty of the sky on fire above Northumberland.

There is a further selection of images below in a gallery format from our hike up Great Hetha.

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