Rothbury Terraces

 Rothbury Terraces. August 21st

The terraces above Rothbury were laid out for Lord Armstrong as carriage drives around his home at Cragside. Now they make for a good gadgie walk with spectacular views over the Coquet Valley.

We parked in Rothbury, there is a good sized free car park on the south side of the river. Reached by going north on the A1, turning on to the A697 at Morpeth and turning left at Weldon Bridge. Turn left on Rothbury High Street, cross the river, turn right and park.

Rothbury is on the edge of two map. OS OL 42 Kielder and OS 332 Alnwick.

Car park in Rothbury. I have cropped the picture, hope you approve.

Booted up  we crossed the river by means of the convenient footbridge and walked to the Newcastle House Hotel for breakfast. Strangely not a bacon sandwich or scone in sight today, tea or coffee for all.

Ready for a walk at last we crossed the main street, turned right and took the  second on the left, passing the terrace of flats Lord Armstrong had built for his retired workers and, having spotted the gate (or was it a stile?) crossed a field to Hillside Road. Turning right  we walked a short distance to the stile which guided us across a field to the track at Addycombe.

Looking down on Rothbury from Addycombe.

From here the track (drive?) wanders through woodland still showing the scars of storm Arwen in places. After a mile we found, on the right, the footpath leading down to a track near Primrose Cottage.

The start of this footpath is not marked, the path is narrow andfor a while the ground has a covering of rocks, difficult to see as the bracken is high. 

Unfortunately these two are not at the start of the path permanently, but watch out for it.

The path is narrow to begin with, goes downhill, crosses a stream by means of a footbridge  and then arrives at a forest track near Primrose Cottage.

                               The blooming heather. The hillsides are covered with it.

We followed the track until we reached the turning into Blue Mill 

                            Take this track,

 The track goes gently uphill. After a bit less than half a mile we took the footpath on the right, clambered over a stile and continued on a grassy trail until we had clocked up about four and a half miles.

A well built stone wall provided shelter from the breeze and an old gatepost which had fallen over made a seat for some. Herbie time: Caramel tarts, a new experience, flapjacks and sweet and savoury of course.

                                                                       Dining out

Moving on we turned downhill at a gate and headed down to Physic Lane and the village of Thropton. Crossing the Wreigh Burnusing the footbridge next to the road bridge we then crossed the road and followed the footpath alongside the same burn until we reached the footbridge over the River Coquet.

                  Crossing the Coquet.

The footpath that follows the river back to Rothbury has, we were told, been partly washed away. Regardless, some of the team wandered across fields by the river, crossed it by another footbridge and followed a footpath back to the car park. (Reached by another footbridge)

Some took a slightly different route, heading toward Newtown but we all finished at the same time, more or less. And then some went home.

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The walk is about 8,5 miles, easy going after the first climb and worth it for the views.

 

A hot day on Hartside

 A hot day on Hartside August 14th

The UK and Europe are suffering the fifth heatwave of the year. The temperature where I live is 33C  but it is cloudy. Cloudy enough to make the eclipse of the sun on August 12th a disappointment. Now you see it now you don’t. Same as 1999.

Never mind, today a few of us are off to walk-in the Cheviots, starting at Hartside. To get there A1 north, A697 at Morpeth, not far beyond Powburn turn left for Ingram Valley. Several miles beyond Ingram stop at Hartside. You have to, only the inhabitants of the few houses at Linhope are allowed to drive further, unless you are a delivery van.

A map would be very useful, OS OL 16 The Cheviot Hills covers the walk.

Not a contender, parking on the roadside at Hartside.

Booted and suncreamed we set off on the road passing Hartside farm to Linhope.

Linhope is hardly big enough to be a hamlet, a few houses and a path to Linhope Spout waterfall. But we turned off on the left near the gates of the last house and followed the track round the side of Ritto Hill. The track became a farm track and then a hard to find footpath across hard ground with a fine crop of Lauder Grass (qv).

                    A good day for Northumbrian scenery.

We climbed steadily, and slowly in the heat. Reaching a fence line (3.5 miles) we followed it, went through a gate and followed ma rough path through the bracken downhill to High Bleakhope Farm.  (mile 4)The farmhouse is deserted and locked up, windows shuttered and no sign of any farming activity. A pile of timber made a fine table so we called a Herbie.

        High Bleakhope house. Well named, winters must have been hard here when we had snow.

No sharing today, after lunch in the sun we set off down the tarmacced road (Salters Road) to Low Bleakhope farm.

Hareshaw Cleugh at Low Bleakhope. 

Here we took the track (still Salters Road) south east that started easily and the climbed Little Dod  After a well earned descent we left the track at mile 6 and followed paths downhill across fields  to Rowhope Burn. From here we took the path through high bracken to the farm at Alnhammoor.

Alnhammoor farm, used in a TV seriws recwntly but I can't remember what.

And finally a tarmac road back to Hartside, car and home.

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This is a beautiful walk of about 8.5 miles. It includes  climbs of about 1350 feet in total which I found hard going on a hot day.

Six go on a canal boat

 Six go on a canal boat. (And Amber too) August 1st

There are approximately 4000 miles of canal in the UK. Most of those miles were dug in the 18th and 19th centuries to carry goods in the early Industrial Revolution. The railways reduced the loads they carried and today they are almost exclusively used for leisure.

When I was very small we lived near the Leeds Liverpool canal. When I was a bit bigger we lived near the Lancaster canal. But most of my life I have lived in the North East, canal free.

When somebody suggested we should celebrate my wife’s birthday with a day on a canal boat I immediately said yes, even volunteered to pay!

My younger daughter lives not too far from Bollington, a small town on the Macclesfield canal  in Cheshire, so we hired our boat there.  Bollington was once famous for its high quality cotton yarn, much of which was sent to Nottingham and Brussels for lace making.                                                                    It was not a full length barge, probably as well as steering wasn’t too easy but it came equipped with a kettle, water, tea bags and sugar, bring your own picnic and milk.

  The boatyard in Bollington and a remaining mill building.

 Once we had been given a lesson in steering the boat, speeding up, slowing down and reversing we set off, heading north.

We left the town almost immediately and were out in the country, passing large houses with gardens reaching down to the canal bank, then open fields and woodland. 

Originally  the narrow boats were towed by horses, the tow paths are now used by walkers and cyclists.

Running parallel to the canal is the Middlewood Way, a walking route on an old railway line. Hint for gadgies, canal banks and railway lines are flat.

Steering is easy once you have got the hang of it. To turn right (to starboard technically) you move the tiller to the left. After a couple of seconds the boat begins to turn.

There are, naturally, rules of the road. Maximum speed seems to be about 4mph, reduced to 2 when passing moored boats or when passing barges coming in the opposite direction.

                           Never batted an eyelid as we passed. Probably used to boats.

After a couple of hours, some steering, some relaxing, some brewing and handing out snacks, we arrived at High Lane and moored the boat to the bank. Three ropes came with the boat and there are iron rings firmly embedded in the bank so we tied up securely. Leaving the barge we walked a few hundred yards to the Horse Shoes for lunch.

                         Lunch in the garden at the Horse Shoes, High Lane. There was a menu for dogs too.

After a leisurely lunch we returned to the boat and turned it round. Trickier than a three point turn but fortunately there was a nearby pool designed for the very purpose.

Slowly we chugged back to Bollington, carefully passing approaching boats and taking careful aim going under bridges as the canal narrows considerably at them. Docking was a bit tricky but we finally tied up and got off.

Including lunch we had been out on the canal for about eight hours of peaceful scenery on a warm August day. This part of England is very pretty as well as being historically interesting for its industrial past.

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