What you need to take into the Cheviots depends massively on what you're planning to do.
A couple of hours wandering around a valley on a warm summer day is very different from spending eight hours crossing The Cheviot, Hedgehope and everything you can squeeze in between. So I'm not going to suggest you need an expedition rucksack and enough equipment to establish Base Camp every time you leave Wooler.
For a proper day in the hills though, there are a few things that nearly always come with me.
Layers are your friend
The easiest way I've found to stay comfortable is layers. Basically, be an onion.
Rather than one enormous coat, I'll normally have a base layer, something warm over the top and then a waterproof shell if I need it. That way I can peel layers off as I'm sweating my way uphill and put them back on when I'm standing around on a windy summit wondering where all that heat suddenly went.
I've started walks in sunshine wearing a T-shirt and ended up higher on the hills in full waterproofs. The temperature and wind can be very different once you gain height, so don't dress purely for whatever is happening beside the car.
Have a look at our Weather in the Cheviots guide before heading out and pack for what you're likely to encounter.
Waterproofs
If I'm doing a longer hill walk, proper waterproof jacket and trousers are going in the bag regardless of how optimistic I'm feeling.
You may carry them around all day and never put them on. Excellent. That's considerably better than standing on The Cheviot in horizontal rain wishing you'd brought them.
Map, compass and something electronic
I nearly always have the route on my phone or GPS device, but I don't rely entirely on electronics for a big day in the hills.
Phones run out of battery. Screens get wet. Things get dropped. Mobile signal (always!) disappears. A proper map and compass don't particularly care about any of those things.
The important bit isn't simply owning a compass because it came in a walking gift set fifteen years ago. You need to know how to use it. The same goes for reading a map and knowing roughly where you are rather than blindly following a line on a screen.
Download any GPX files or maps you need before setting off too. There are plenty of places in the Cheviots where discovering you don't have enough signal to load something is entirely possible.
We'll cover that in more detail in our Safety and navigation guide.
Food and water
For a longer walk I'll take plenty of water and enough food to keep me going for the day, usually with a little more than I expect to need.
How much water you need will depend on the weather, distance and how hard you're working. Don't assume you'll simply fill your bottle from a beautiful glacial stream along the way.
Food is considerably simpler. Sandwiches. Snacks. Something sugary for when the legs start complaining. And obviously, Fruity Malt.
I've carried enough Soreen Fruity Malt around the hills over the years that I'm surprised it hasn't acquired its own contour line on the OS map. It survives being squashed in a rucksack, provides a decent lump of energy and tastes particularly good when you're sitting behind a cairn trying to shelter from the wind.
Other foods are apparently available.
Footwear
For most of my walks in the Cheviots, I'm wearing a decent pair of waterproof walking boots.
There are good tracks in places, but once you get onto the hills you're going to meet wet grass, mud, uneven ground and some absolutely magnificent bog. Comb Fell deserves a special mention here, where I've put a foot down expecting solid ground only to discover the Cheviots had other ideas. Make sure your boots are properly tied unless you fancy donating one permanently to the peat.
Trail trainers are increasingly popular and there will be routes and dry conditions where they're perfectly suitable. Personally though, there aren't many of the longer Cheviot walks where I'd choose them over a decent waterproof boot.
Wet feet five kilometres into a twenty kilometre walk lose their novelty remarkably quickly.
Things to pack
My bag will usually contain a small first aid kit, phone, power bank, whistle and a headtorch on longer days.
I'll also normally have a small pair of gloves, even on a fairly cool day. Your hands can get surprisingly cold once you're higher up and exposed to the wind, and they take up virtually no room in the bag.
The headtorch is another one of those things you can carry for years without needing, right up until the day a walk takes longer than expected and it starts getting dark. At that point it suddenly weighs considerably less than it did when you packed it.
Sun cream can be just as important as waterproofs in the right weather, along with a hat and whatever else the conditions call for.
And don't forget any medication or personal items you might need while you're out. Once you're several miles into the hills, popping back to the car isn't particularly convenient.
Pack for YOUR walk
The main thing is not to blindly copy somebody else's kit list.
Look at where you're going, how far you're walking, how much climbing is involved, what the weather is doing and how remote the route is.
A five kilometre wander from a village doesn't require the same preparation as a full day across several summits. Equally, don't let a sunny car park persuade you that a long day in the hills requires nothing more than trainers and a bottle of pop.
Take what makes sense for the day.
And always leave enough room for the Fruity Malt. Some risks simply aren't worth taking.