Good day, sunshine. (Northumberland) July 6th
High pressure continues to sit over the British Isles causing record temperatures and promises of water shortages. Local TV broadcasts pictures of dry river beds in Cumbria and warns us to take care on the moors. Quite right too, there are some raging moorland fires in Lancashire, the army has been called in to help.
And we seven gadgies are off for a country stroll based on Wark in the North Tyne Valley. We are Dave, Brian John C, John H., Ben Harry and me.
The walk from Wark is covered by OS Explorer OL 43 Hadrian'sWall, Haltwhistle and Hexham, and it would be useful to take one To get to Wark take the A69 west and turn north beyond Hexham and follow the B6320. Opposite the Battlesteads pub is a Yorkshire car park at GR NY 860769.
Close by is the Battlesteads Dark Sky Observatory which has four telescopes and a programme of star gazing activities, warm drinks supplied.
We stopped at Brockbushes farm shop/café on the way for breakfast, friendly place, too early to pick your own blackberries although strawberries are available for Wimbledon fans who might like to pretend they are there as they watch on TV.

                       Brockbushes farm shop and tractor.

                 Battlesteads hotel and car park across the road (Ian Allen no378)
And at last the walk, which is in many respects a wander from farm to farm.
Once ready to move, and it takes longer as we get older, we walked up the street from the car park, turned left, passed a few cottages and spotted the signpost on the left which was well hidden in a  bush.

                                 Well hidden sign in a bush.
From here we crossed fields to Woodley Shield, hoping we were on the path, which isn't too well marked, before turning down to Ramshaw's Mill on Wark Burn. The mill no longer operates but the conversion has some interesting garden ornaments.

                       Interesting ornaments at Ramshaw's Mill.

Beyond the mill we took a lane, forking right after a few yards and climbing the bank to the fields above. Two fields later we were at High Moralee Farm. Beyond the farm we reached the tiny cottage near Sheilahaugh, a name combining two Northumbrian words meaning at a guess "The shelter on the flat land near the stream".

                               Shielahaugh

                           and the footbridge beyond.

Crossing more fields and passing the delightfully named Pea Hill and Catless (Wish I was!, only joking dear) we hit the road near the house marked as Manor House on the map. There is a visitor centre here and a collection of eagles, owls and other large hunting birds. I do not like to see them caged, doesn't look right. (But is it ok to keep a budgie?) We didn't call in anyway but continued up a dirt track to Ravensheugh Crags.

              On the way to Ravensheugh Crags.

            There are several ancient burial cysts on this moor. This is a "four poster" marking some ancient something. Handy stones to sit on. My Mand S check shirt drew some sarcastic remarks for some reason, lack of style on their part I suspect. It was comfortable and the breeze quickly helped evapourate the sweat. They mocked my Tilley hat too. I'm stressed.

Having searched in vain for one particular burial cairn we moved on across the moors to Goatstones Farm and beyond that we sat on the bank by the roadside, checking carefully for adders, and declared a Herbie.

                    Herb by the roadside. Lunch included Titan bars, chocolate crisp, ginger biscuits, cookies and cake from Mrs A. In spite of all that I lost a couple of pounds on a hot day.

Moving on we turned right at Pit Wood and followed the edge of a plantation , crossing Red Burn to Allgood Farm. On the way we were carefully followed and watched by a buzzard, protecting his nest probably, not that he had anything to worry about from us.

Heading north from Allgood Farm we came to a road, turned right then almost immediately left into fields past Conshield  and Bleaklaw until we came to Low Moralee farm.

                           Low Moralee (I think)

From here we walked across fields until we were above the valley of the Wark Burn. The path here was not too clear, Dave and John H. descended to the ford marked on the OS map and made their way back to Wark. The rest of us walked the fields parallel to the stream until we hit the road, turned left and were soon back at the cars. At one point the thermometer John C. carries on his rucksack gave a temperature of 30C

Changed (Clean shirts at least on a hot a day) we crossed the road into Battlesteads pub which had several hand pumped beers on offer, including Jarl which Brian decided must be a pirates ale. "Two pints of Jarl, shipmates " spoken in pirate fashion with rolling rs. The soda and lime with ice and lemon went down well too.

Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2018.
Next week is the annual gentlemen's trip. This year we are off to Arran with two barrels of beer and the possibility of walking or cycling. Big blog in a couple of weeks. (Hasn't there been a week away this year already?)

Matrix MMXVIII  VIIa
                                                                                                      steps               miles
NAK                                                                                             26095              9.88
iPhone                                                                                          22184              9
etrex              (3hrs 35 minutes walking 1 19 talking)                                         9.07
Dave's 3D                                                                                     22004             9.46
  "" USB                                                                                       20014              9.16
"" NAK                                                                                        19840              9.08
 S M                                                                                            21068               9.31
OUTDOOR GPS                                                                                                 8.98
Brian                                                                                                                    9.01?
 And a few pictures from Dave and me