Slow Ways – West Rainton to Chester-le-Street. Most of the route is on firm footpaths, but there is a short section on a pavement along the A1052 at Woodstone, before the Slow Way continues on footpaths for the second half of the walk in the wooded valley of the Lumley Park Burn. The terrain is flat or gently undulating, except for a steep section with a flight of steps close to the A1(M) bridge over the Lumley Park Burn at Grid Ref NZ 299509. The route passes sites of significant conservation and historic interest; the Wear Rivers Trust, Bournmoor Conservation Group and partner organisations have completed numerous tasks to improve wildlife habitats along the Lumley Park Burn, and their work is evident as you walk along the route. In terms of facilities there are convenience stores in West Rainton and halfway along the route in nearby Fence Houses, while in Chester-le-Street there is a wider range of shops, pubs, cafes and recreational facilities....

Richard Hockin

On the first half of the route there are extensive residential and industrial estates nearby, but on leaving the Houghton estate there is a remarkably rural character to the route. The original Slow Way passes the acid test of being an attractive, publicly accessible route between Houghton and West Rainton....

Richard Hockin

This attractive route contains a section on a public footpath across fields, followed by a section on the Pittington Way along the course of a dismantled railway line....

Richard Hockin

The first 1/2 mile was fine as it was along the roads in West Rainton but when we turned onto the public path between 2 houses, it was totally overgrown due to the excessive rain recently experienced and weeds had grown in abundance (photo attached). Then a few yards along this road, turned right onto the public path. The path comes out onto a road in Hetton le Hole marked with a Sustrans milepost. There are buses going from Hetton Le Hole to West Rainton (though not on a Sunday!)...

Lesley Thomas

We really enjoyed this route through colliery villages starting in West Rainton and passing through High Pittington, Littletown, Haswell and finishing in South Hetton....

Richard Hockin

This was a good walk using a combination of shared cycle path, roads and footpaths....

Philip Le Marquand

A minor deviation, very easy to find , will take you through the Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve where there are toilets and a cafe. There are no public toilets in West Rainton or Houghton , but as pointed out in a previous review there are toilets at Lidl in Houghton and some of the pubs there seem to keep long hours...

Jeff

There are no public toilets in either West Rainton or Houghton-le-Spring but in Houghton-le-Spring both Lidl and the public library have toilets for customers....

Annette

In reality, this path is quickly lost in the overgrown grass and gets quite boggy towards the end and it appears the locals have created another route that diverges Easterly of the suggested footpath that then runs Northerly alongside the fence towards the stile (this 'new' path is easily identifiable on satellite imagery) and future walkers may consider this slight alteration....

DavidMMMXXI