Rookhope

Rookhope is a village in the civil parish of Stanhope, in County Durham, England. A former lead and fluorspar mining community, it first existed as a group of cattle farms in the 13th century. It is in the Pennines to the north of Weardale. W. H. Auden once called Rookhope "the most wonderfully desolate of all the dales". In the 2001 census Rookhope had a population of 267. The village had two public houses, the Rookhope Inn and the Swallow's Rest (closed May 2022) on the fell surrounding Rookhope, both popular with cyclists on the coast to coast cycling route from Sunderland on the east coast to Whitehaven or Workington on the West Cumbrian coast of northern England. The village primary school closed in 2024 because of falling pupil numbers. By road, Rookhope is 25.4 miles (40.9 km) west of Durham, 37.4 miles (60.2 km) west of Newcastle upon Tyne, 48.5 miles (78.1 km) north west of Middlesbrough and 47.2 miles (76.0 km) east of Carlisle.