Gadgie Walks

The Dragons Den, a tale of four Wittons.

Northumberland, October 30th.

Mud warning, but only because of recent downpours.

There are seven of us out today for a walk from Hartburn, very small village in Northumberland. The team, carefully divided to avoid a group of more than six consists of John x 3, Brian, Margaret, Harry and me. The walk has been devised by Harry.

To get to Hartburn head north on the A1, turn off at the junction north of Morpeth for Ashington and Morpeth, turn left and follow signs for Mitford. Drive through Mitford to Hartburn and continue beyond the village for about half a mile to a gravelled area on the right which has room for ten cars and is near the spot marked Dragons Den on the map.

Hartburn has a church with Saxon origins, St. Andrews. Once used by the Knights Templar and apparently Oliver Cromwell kept his money box there for a time. (Hartburn =O.E heoret burne = stag stream)

St. Andrew's, Hartburn, Saxon with 12/13 C additions.

The map for this walk is OS Explorer 325 Morpeth and Blyth.

Can't compete with last week's car park at Craster for scenic beauty but here it is.

The walk;

Starting from the car park we followed the signpost towards The Garden House. (on a previous walk in February 2018 we visited the grotto near here, designed as a bathing changing room for ladies. Read all about it in Witton, Witton and Witton, February 2018)

Before reaching the house we turned off to the right and crossed the Hart Burn on a footbridge, the track through the wood was very muddy.

Cross here.

The track headed north towards Wittonstone before turning north east and meeting a road. Here we turned right and walked along the tarmac before turning off on the left to walk across fields. We were following the Devil's Causeway which is the course of a Roman road running from Corbridge to Berwick upon Tweed. Like most Roman roads it's straight, but then they did not need planning permission. When we reached Oldpark Wood we turned off the Devil's Causeway and followed an equally straight but much more modern forestry track. We also had the only light shower of the day.

Straight but not Roman.

At the edge of the wood (The Trench on the map) we met a road and turned right to walk to the village of Netherwitton. (Witton= O.E widu-tun = settlement by a wood. Nether means lower settlement by a wood.)

Turning left we walked up the road to Bellion Farm, through the yard and on into the fields which were nicely grassed, but with Lauder grass which is always difficult on the feet. The path went roughly west and through a small plantation. We had to cross the Font Burn which was not too easy as the heroic picture of John shows.

Once out of the wood we spotted a ruined stell, unusually rectangular, and decided it made an excellent Herbie Spot.

Socially distanced dining, with shelter from the breeze. Titans, flapjacks, biscuits, ginger biscuits and savoury tart and apple cake from Mrs A.

Lunch over we headed west on a narrow footpath to Broomfield Fell plantation, entered the wood and walked a narrow path which was strewn with ankle catching brambles. The path turned slowly through 90 degrees and we emerged heading south towards Hilltop. The gateways round Hill Top were muddy, cows tend to congregate in them, churning up the ground.

At Hill Top we turned right across more fields, crossed a road and walked more fields south to Southwitton.

From this farm we walked a well puddled track to the farm at Longwiton Dene. One field later we were on a woodland track above the stream which brought us back to the car park.