A sunny breezy day in the Cheviot hills. We went to the College valley, a long beautiful valley with many hills on each side that winds its way into the centre of the Cheviot Hills. The area is steeped in history, with many of the hills having the remains of iron age hill forts on the summits, which pre date the Roman occuption of Britain 2000yrs ago. Today we were intending climbing several of these small peaks, many of which do not feature in Peakery, with the goal being the remote peak - The Schil. We set off from Hethpool, climbed steeply up along side a woodland, onto the the open hillside to the summit of Great Hetha. There is a ring of stones around the summit, which are part of the remains of the hill fort. From here we dropped SW down to a remote farm at Trowupburn, where there was a very large bull blocking the way through a gate. From here, we we climbed steeply up to Loft Hill 416m, but the ascent route had been blocked by new forest plantation and a 7ft high deer fence. After a detour we regained our route and crossed through the forest, back onto open hillside and up to Saughieside Hill, 478m. We dropped to a small stream, where we had a late snack, then climbing again onto the summit of Black Hag, 549m, here the views of the surrounding Cheviot peaks and across the border into Scotland are excellent. From here the path forms the border between England and Scotland, and is also only 5miles from the end of the Pennine Way, a 267 mile trail through the central hills of England. We then continued SE, dropping about 100m, before climbing up the rocky summit of The Schil 601m.
After a brief stop to take in the views, we returned to the col, then took a course NE over rough pathless ground, to reach Blackhaggs Rig 452m, then dropped down to an outlying hill with another iron age fort on its summit, before dropping into the College valley and walking the 3km back to the start along a very good track.