Need somewhere near Newcastle to drop off the face of the earth for a few days

Right, basically I just need to forget all the stuff going on in my life at the minute, in aid of this I'd like to go hiking on my own for about four days in the October half term.

Anyone have any reccomendations for doing this somewhere near Newcastle? I'd prefer youth hostels due to the slight issue of not owning a tent, however if campsites are required I can grab a Terra Nova Laser Competition from school, it won't be missed over half term.

Thanks in advance

 Spenser

<nods in agreement>

Youth hostels, and the AD122 bus when you can't hostel on an A-B basis.

If you need accomodation / hostels you could try Isaac's Tea trail: Allendale - Nenthead - Alston - Allendale.

Easy to get to from Newcastle - train / bus to Hexham, then 688 bus to Allendale.

WHSmiths or Waterstones likely to have that book Paddy? I have a feeling one of the campsites wiill be at Murder Cleugh since that's got quite the border riever's story!

I was looking into Mountain refuge huts as a place to kip Ed, not sure about the rules on them though as I've only ever visited the one on Lamb Hill, thouh I'm pretty sure the people who'd visited before weren't into Leave No Trace camping.

Spen - Waterstones is the best bet, and if they don't have it, they can order it quickly. You can also get it direct from Cicerone anyway.

The last time I passed the hut on Lamb Hill, in the summer, it was clean and tidy. I couldn't even get my head round the door of the one above Hen Hole though, coz it was crammed full of schoolkids. 

Sounds like an excellent place but keep the details to yourself, I'm just looking to camp by the look of things, wild if nescessary (particularly if I'm doing windy Gyle as Murder Cleugh seems to be used solely by cadets and the occasional regular soldier).

I mentioned this to a couple of friends saying that I'd leave a routecard and stuff with them in case stuff went toes up,  they've all expressed severe concern about me doing this solo to the point of some deciding to join me for one or two days (yes, I know it negates the point of the trip but they mean well). I understand the risks of injury and no-one finding me if I go solo (hell, a cadet collapsed on silver DoE practice on saturday, air ambulance was called out over it), I've been pretty much made to promise not to do anything dangerous if I am doing solo (no survival bagging down the side of hills ). Anyway, this would be my first time hiking on my own and I'd like to know how risky it really is? I'd like to persuade my friends that I'm not doing anything particularly dangerous as some of them seem to think I'll end up dead...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Do you get lost, make daft decisions, fall over and break limbs, tweak the nose of terror when with your mates....if no.....then why are you more likely to on your own?

I generally don't tell anyone where I'm going. That way, no-one is worried about me. The very LAST person to worry about me is ME!

Alreet then, so no getting drunk and no extreme survival bagging, I can deal with those two.

 Cheers guys.

@Paddy, it's probably a good idea if I tell my dad/ gran as I'm only 17, my gran would file a missing persons report if I'd been gone 24 hours, my dad would just go ballistic when I returned!