Rothley, a folly and a dismantled railway

 Rothley, a folly and a dismantled railway January 17th.

These boots were made for walking. But after years of good and faithful service they are at the end of the road, heading for Boot Hill. In spite of the cobblers efforts restitching and gluing  I'm  replacing them. Today is their last outing. Sad in way.

I was going to let them go but she who has a PhD in common sense suggested I hang on to them as a reserve pair.

Today's  walk is a country stroll centred on Rothley, a hamlet north of Belsay. The map, advised, is OS OL42 Kielder Water and Forest. But we are parking at Greenleighton Quarry North of Rothley.

          Not the greatest of car parks  and it looks like rain.

Leaving the car park, and closing the gate as requested, we headed north through the old quarry for a while before climbing out, up to the trig point and turning north east across ground overgrown with Lauder Grass (qv) which makes walking uncomfortable as it is lumpy and bumpy. As we approached a small plantation near Fontburn Reservoir we turned east, crossing even more of the lumpy bumpy ground, and it was soggy too.

                    Distant view of Fontburn. Very popular with fishermen.

             Marked on the map as Rare Breeds Centre it looks quiet from a distance but you can see the bumpy lumpy ground .

We reached the dismantled railway and climbed the embankment to find amore comfortable terrain. As we reached a road and left the railway Dave pointed out the remains of an enclosure, possibly Iron Age but certainly mostly destroyed by railway and farm.

 We walked down the road to Ewesley and then followed a track, crossing the railway (mile 3) and heading downhill to Broomfield Fell. Much of the wood had been felled, the stumps made pretty good seats so we called a Herbie. (Almond slices, Christmas cake, Viennese whirls, ginger biscuits and pork pies! A blast from the past. Unfortunately Mrs A is indisposed,  hope for a speedy recovery).

After struggling through piles of twigs for a while we found a good forest track which eventually brought us to a road. turned left hen right for Hill End.

                        A good forest track

            A hemmel is a semi open barn building used for storage or shelter. I hope the milk is straight from the cows as I remember it but probably H and S prevents it today.

We followed the track to and past the farm, chatting cheerfully to a pair of camera shy pigs.

                     Newcastle supporting pigs.

We walked own a fenced path between two fields before heading right through a gate to the wood at Rothley Park. From there we followed paths, not marked on the map but clear, up to Rothley Castle.

               Rothley Castle. Not a medieval building but a folly built in1755 for Sir Walter Blackett of Wallington Hall. Further north is another folly, Codger Fort but it's not on our path today. It's a triangular gun battery, but not real.

Leaving the castle we walked own to a road, found a stile, crossed the road and headed towards Donkin Rigg on a farm track. Once we reached the dismantled railway we walked that to Rothley Lakes where we left the iron road and took the tarmac road in a straight line back to the car park.

On the way home we paused at the Ridley Arms in Stannington, again!

Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2025.

The walk is just over 9 miles, little climbing but lots of Lauder Grass.

And not many photographs today.