Despite having been in the area many times over the last 40 years I knowingly never took the road that takes you from St. John´s Chapel in Weardale across to Langdon Beck in Teesdale. I am really glad I finally tried it out. The scenery is fantastic. Right at the beginning there is a great waterfall at Harthope Burn. You can park alongside the last houses of St. John´s Chapel leading up the steep hill. There is public footpath towards the waterfall but it very hard to get down to the waterlevel. I didn´t risk it due to the wet and boggy conditions all around. But definitely a place to come back to in better weather. At the top at Harthope Head is a huge quarry with great scenery and birds of prey. Again weather prevented me from exploring it further. On the descent into Teesdale you come past a gravel track that brings you to Harthope Bank from which you have a great viewpoint (in better weather...). At the bridge going across Langdon Beck is a car park from which you can have great walks ( I will say it for the last time: In better weather.) I stopped at a small layby just before the road ends and joins the B6277 coming up the hill from Langdon Beck. I noticed a lone tree up on the hillside and decided to make my way up there hoping it would give a good composition. It was quite a struggle uphill in strong winds but I managed to find it. The tree is excellent for photos and I even saw another lone tree in the field across. Very close to it is also another abandoned farm house from which you have great views across to the Tees Valley with Falcon Clints and Cronkley Fell in the distance. I took lots of photos with my mobile phone in order to know the best positions for the tripod later.

To my disgust I than discovered that the farm is only about 200 yards above the main road and from the road you have a public footpath towards it with just enough space to park at the turnoff for the farm below (see photo).

The following Sunday I set off early to take photos with the sunrise. It was great! However it was so cold and windy that I just setup the camera next to the tree and took shots with High Hurth in the distance (to the right of the lone tree) where at the top is the Ice Age cave that I visited in 2022. It was too cold to explore any other compositions. I am sure I will be there many more times in the future.

P.S. The first three pictures of the lone tree below in the box were taken within 4 minutes from the same tripod stand. (The last one was a hand held one on the way back to the car). Only while processing the photos on the PC I noticed the reason for the rapid development. The sun was coming in from the left. There was an incredible strong sidewind coming from the back. I had to stand behind the tripod sheltering it from the gust so it would not shake. That explains while over the cause of the 4 minutes the black clouds in the left half of the picture were blown out of the frame further to the left and more sky opened up so that the red in the remaining clouds got stronger and stronger being lit up by the rising sun. 

P.S. P.S. Just below the meeting of the two roads if you take a rough farm track alongside the stone wall you come to a small pond and a row of trees which give excellent photo opportunities. Below you can see the farm from which you can start the walk along the Tees towards Cauldron Snout (last two photos) 

Final thought. It is really great to have found this place only because I had enough time to scout and stop and explore. Going to famous photos spots and "tick them of the list" is nice but this is far more rewarding. Hope this is an incentive for some of you to try the location out. I am more than happy helping to find it.