The Doors, (Northumberland ) October 25th.
After a break of two weeks entertaining the colonials I am rejoining the team. Nine of us are going on a variation of the popular walk from Belford in Northumberland. (John x 3, Brian, Harry, Dave, Ben, Ray and me.) Belford is easy to find, straight up the A1 in the direction of Scotland and turn left at the road into the small town. Breakfast at Sunny Hills farm shop just before the town.

                               Sunny Hills, farm shop, restaurant, classy
The map for the walk is OS Explorer 340 Holy Island and Bamburgh.
The forecast is not too promising, the gentleman from BBC North East and Cumbria suggests heavy rain in the afternoon by which time we may be in the pub.

     The walk starts from the parking area by the Community Hall on the road to Wooler, just off the Belford main street.

                Not really a car park but space for several cars by the Community Hall. On the left of the hall is a lane: walk starts here.

   The lane is part of the Northumberland Coast Path, St Oswald's Way. After a few hundred yards a gate on the left took us to a path alongside a stream close to Westhall, an old, fascinating farm house.

                        Narrow footpath by a narrow stream

                        close to Westhall.
The footpath, muddy today, goes in almost a straight line north west to Swinhoe Farm.
At the farm there is a cross roads of tracks, we took the left hand , no longer with St. Oswald but heading towards Cuthbert's Cave. However, at the delightfully named Dick's Old Walls we turned right through a gate. The footpath keeps close to the fence of a plantation and eventually emerges int  fields. 
  Still heading roughly north west we eventually joined St. Cuthbert's Way. (The saint whose body was carried round Northumbria until it reached the spot that is now Durham Cathedral.)
Crossing into the wood we walked the short but steep path down to the very cave and decided it deserved contemplation and a Herbie.

                                                The cave

                                      and some fine graffiti outside it

                   Three gadgies and a pair of feet enjoying the break.
We shared Ben's ginger biscuits, chocolate brownies, caramel wafers, Savoury scones from Mrs A and Oh Henry's, a Canadian chocolate bar brought from Canada by my sister on her recent visit. Should you wonder why there are only five lots of goodies but nine gadgies, some people, conscious of their figures, do not participate. Fridays are the only day we walk and put weight on.

Lunch over we walked downhill to the track, turned left and after a short distance turned right down another track, heading towards but not to, North Hazlerigg. After a short while we turned left and followed St. Cuthbert's Way towards Old Hazlerigg.

                          Well sign posted walk
                         

Rain approaching over the Cheviots
We turned left and walked some distance along the road before turning right at a marker post into fields. The footpath, not at all clear at this point, climbed steadily onto Raven's Crag, below the impressive Bowden Doors. Once a very popular climbing area but very quiet today, not so much as a carabiner in sight.

                                A section of Bowden Doors

                                Brian demonstrates his climbing skill

                        watched by an admiring herd.
Past the Doors we came to a road, turned left and walked some distance until we spotted the sigh post for Belford Mains.

                            Spelling mistake!

              An unusual cattle grid. Quad bikes can cross, animals won't, although some sheep have apparently learnt the art of walking on the bars.
We walked across very muddy fields, especially at the gates, to Belford Mains, turned left down the road then right and back to the cars in Belford.
At this point in time as they say, the rain started, just as the portly gentleman on TV had said it would, so well done to the Look North team.
On the way home we called in at The Cook and Barker in Newton on the Moor, they had four ales on offer, and coffee for the drivers.

                        Cook and Barker

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The walk is about 10 miles, fairly easy going with few climbs.

Some pictures from Dave;

1. Pile of real stones 2 WW2 pill box, 3,4 and 5. Large mushroom 6 Bowden Doors

Twixt Wear and Tyne October 4th
 A goodly number of gadgies are still holidaying, leaving three (John C., Harry and me) of us to enjoy a local walk which may be affected by the tail end of hurricane Lorenzo. We are walking the coast north from Sunderland to South Shields. Easy to follow; going north the sea is on the right, going south it is on the left. No map required but if needed the walk is covered by ;
OS Explorer 308 Durham and Sunderland and OS Explorer 316 Newcastle upon Tyne.
No cars either, we met at the Haymarket Metro Station in Newcastle and took the metro to St Peter's just north of the river Wear.                                                                                                                              St Peter's church has Saxon origins, is one of the oldest churches in England, started in 673 AD and is where the Venerable Bede spent some of his time as a monk and historian. He also lived at St Paul's in Jarrow for some time.
The portly gentleman on the local TV station said the morning would be wet but the afternoon would be dry, with a breeze. He was wrong, it rained lightly most of the day, clouds coming in off the sea.

                No car park this week but this is the metro station at St. Peter's and a metro train.
 Having got off the train at St. Peter's we crossed the road and went down the bank to the promenade along the river Wear.

                  Picture of a picture. St. Peter's church. We didn't visit it today but should you be in the area it's well worth looking into. Saxon tower at least.
The promenade winds its way past Sunderland University buildings, the glass museum where you can watch demonstrations of glass blowing, the Sunderland yacht club marina and finally reaches the sea near Roker Pier.

                          Art at the university

                           and on the walls of the marina

                                               Roker Pier on a grey day.
Just north of the pier the walk turns away from the sea and climbs up to Roker Park but almost immediately returns to the sea side. (This section of the walk is on the Weardale Way).
There are some interesting rocks in the area if you are a geologist.

                  Looking like badly made concrete it is a natural form of conglomerate, boulders embedded in the magnesium limestone. Information anybody?
Sticking close to the coast the walk continues past Seaburn and Whitburn, both looking like typical English coastal towns, bnbs and hotels. There is a large school at Whitburn overlooking the sea, must be heaven in those boring algebra lessons.

                                   The school at Whitburn, a Church of England Academy
Beyond the school the path (Now the English Coastal Path) passes a Rifle Range but as there were no red flags flying we assumed it was safe. There were about twenty horses grazing on it too, must be the cavalry. At the north end of the range we found a hut, unfortunately well locked, but we sat at the back of it for a Herbie Spot. Sandwiches and coffee, no sharing today!
Beyond the range is Whitburn Coastal Park, a small nature reserve, and then we arrived at Souter which has a lighthouse and rather fine foghorn, both National Trust properties.

                                    Souter Lighthouse and foghorn

    From here the footpath meanders close to the sea, above cliffs which seem to be crumbling. Every few yards a notice warns that it is dangerous to cross the low barrier and wander near the edge.
At Marsden there is a lift down to the famous Marsden Grotto, a café.

                                                  Grotto entrance
This area was once a mining village, all gone now although the lime kilns remain:

                                       Lime kilns at Marsden

                                  Sea stacks.
  As we walked along the cliff tops, passing Frenchman's Bay and Graham's Sand Harry spotted a school of Dolphins not too far from shore. There were at least half a dozen, heading south for the winter. They added wonderfully to the day, along with the curlews, turnstones, herons, oyster catchers and a single solitary Goldcrest that we had seen.
Soon we  were at the sports ground at South Shields where the Great North Run ends, half a marathon from Newcastle. We walked through South Marine Park and down Ocean Road, that long line of curry houses until we near the station.
For refreshment after the walk we went to the Wetherspoon's pub, The Woodhave. It is named for William Wouldhave, a boat builder from years ago. Good beer, good fish and chipsand then the metro home to Newcastle.
According to my GPS this walk is 10.5 miles, easy going.
We walked for 3 hours and 36 minutes, talked for a mere 36 minutes as we lunched. Not a  day for hanging around.

                   Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2019