150,000 hits and counting.
Bolam and Shaftoe Crags (Northumberland) March 20th
This is a reference to the number of times the blog has been read and has nothing to do with corona virus that is sweeping the world.
Corona virus has hit hard, several gadgies are away, several have their concerns but Dave and I have decided to take a chance and have a walk from Bolam Lake in Northumberland.
Take the Ponteland Road and just past Belsay turn right. There are several car parks round the lake, we opted for the main one near the information centre, a mere £3 for the day.
The walk is covered by:
OS OL 42 Kielder Water and Forest.
Bolam Lake car park, early in the morning
The lake. The flat bits on the wall are useful when booting up.
Ready to go we set off south on the lakeside path until we reached a second car park, crossed the road to Bolam Low House and spotted The White Gate.
Once through the White Gate we followed the footpath across the fairly dry fields to the farm at Shortflatt Tower.
Several notices saying the farm was private kept us away from the tower which is named in Gothic Script on the map and is therefore quite old. Probably a pele tower and first mentioned in 1305
From Shortflatt the footpath crosses fields before it morphs into a metalled road. It passes Sandyford farm.
It should be called symmetric farm not Sandiford. My theory is that bthe land was inherited by two brothers who could not agree on who got the farmhouse so they built one each.
The road continues south west and just beyond West Tofthill a finger post indicates the grassy track to East Shaftoe Hall.
Head north at this finger post. The grassy track crosses fields and a Roman Road (Devil's Causeway) although I found it impossible to pick out the line of the Roman route.
Beautiful south facing walled garden at East Shaftoe Hall.
East Shaftoe Hall. The left hand side is old, 14th century, the rest probably 18th
From the farm we headed west on a well made track passing the remains of an ancient fort.
The Piper's Chair. On the top is a bowl shaped depression that, according to legend, was filled with wine at the wedding of one of the Shaftoe family
Ancient fort, Iron age?
The path turns north and passes Shaftoe Grange. Eventually we reached a wall. Going right takes walkers to Salters Nick, ruts still visible, but we turned left and walked down the side of the wall to a fine stile, built into the wall.
A proper stile
We walked across the field to see the Standing Stone, not particularly special as standing stones go
Standing Stone. The grooves are due to weathering
From the stone we followed the official path which is quite well marked to Middleton South, turned right then almost immediately left into fields.
Eucalyptus Northumbriania
Middleton South Hunt
The next section of the walk is over fields to Middleton Bridge which made a grade one Herbie Spot. Sitting in the sun, backs to the stone embankment we shared Titans and Trackers and I ate a vegan sausage roll which was as good as a real one.
Lunch over we crossed the bridge and headed down the road to Middleton Mill.
We have a sign
Middleton Mill, not milling but farming now.
From Middleton the walk goes across fields for almost two miles, all north of the mini River Wansbeck, across a dismantled railway and more fields until it meets a road south of Angerton Hall. Sights along the way:
Rob Roy MacBull
Do not disturb
A culvert on the site of the Roman road as we crossed it again. Possibly a Roman arch?
We walked the road for a short way south to Low Angerton. Just beyond the farmhouse a finger post pointed us back to Bolam;
We're on the way home.
The footpath, again across fields, crosses the dismantled railway again, passes Angerton Steads farm which has a tennis court! At the corner of the field south of the Angerton Steads we turned south west and walked even more fields to the corner where there is a road junction, and the entrance to the car park.
A brief wild life report;
We saw nuthatch, great blue tits, grey and pied wagtails, yellowhammers, a heron with an egret, rooks, buzzards and a snipe, plus LBJs. And a couple of quiet hares although it's March.
Most interesting was the head of a Barn Owl. Very clean separation from the body which we couldn't see. And it seemed relatively fresh. Caught out as it was hunting? Who knows but the wise owl.
Car park entrance
Beware the dog fruit trees
Late afternoon, the car park is busy
Contains OS data copyright. Crown copyright and data base right 2020
A matrix for the day
steps milesNAK 26880 11.8
Dave's NAK 1 23364 11.06
""""""""""""""2 23348 11.05
SM 23339 11.05
OUTDOOR GPS 10.4
And a few more pictures.
Bolam and Shaftoe Crags (Northumberland) March 20th
This is a reference to the number of times the blog has been read and has nothing to do with corona virus that is sweeping the world.
Corona virus has hit hard, several gadgies are away, several have their concerns but Dave and I have decided to take a chance and have a walk from Bolam Lake in Northumberland.
Take the Ponteland Road and just past Belsay turn right. There are several car parks round the lake, we opted for the main one near the information centre, a mere £3 for the day.
The walk is covered by:
OS OL 42 Kielder Water and Forest.
Ready to go we set off south on the lakeside path until we reached a second car park, crossed the road to Bolam Low House and spotted The White Gate.
From Shortflatt the footpath crosses fields before it morphs into a metalled road. It passes Sandyford farm.
The road continues south west and just beyond West Tofthill a finger post indicates the grassy track to East Shaftoe Hall.
From the farm we headed west on a well made track passing the remains of an ancient fort.
The path turns north and passes Shaftoe Grange. Eventually we reached a wall. Going right takes walkers to Salters Nick, ruts still visible, but we turned left and walked down the side of the wall to a fine stile, built into the wall.
We walked across the field to see the Standing Stone, not particularly special as standing stones go
From the stone we followed the official path which is quite well marked to Middleton South, turned right then almost immediately left into fields.
The next section of the walk is over fields to Middleton Bridge which made a grade one Herbie Spot. Sitting in the sun, backs to the stone embankment we shared Titans and Trackers and I ate a vegan sausage roll which was as good as a real one.
Lunch over we crossed the bridge and headed down the road to Middleton Mill.
From Middleton the walk goes across fields for almost two miles, all north of the mini River Wansbeck, across a dismantled railway and more fields until it meets a road south of Angerton Hall. Sights along the way:
The footpath, again across fields, crosses the dismantled railway again, passes Angerton Steads farm which has a tennis court! At the corner of the field south of the Angerton Steads we turned south west and walked even more fields to the corner where there is a road junction, and the entrance to the car park.
A brief wild life report;
We saw nuthatch, great blue tits, grey and pied wagtails, yellowhammers, a heron with an egret, rooks, buzzards and a snipe, plus LBJs. And a couple of quiet hares although it's March.
Most interesting was the head of a Barn Owl. Very clean separation from the body which we couldn't see. And it seemed relatively fresh. Caught out as it was hunting? Who knows but the wise owl.
A matrix for the day
steps milesNAK 26880 11.8
Dave's NAK 1 23364 11.06
""""""""""""""2 23348 11.05
SM 23339 11.05
OUTDOOR GPS 10.4
And a few more pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment