after the castle eden branch line was closed and the tracks lifted, it was purchased by the two local authorities whose areas it passed through, meaning that the line north of wynyard) came under the control of durham county council who converted it into the castle eden walkway cycle path. once the tracks were lifted on the ex-hd&r route work commenced on converting the disused section (south of haswell) into the hart to haswell walkway which was linked into the castle eden walkway to form a continuous north-south cycleway. this was eventually extended to ryhope after the closure of the remaining section of the line between murton colliery and junction in 1991.