Drake, Lake and Star

 Drake, Lake and Star. July 16

Another walk with the Greens of Gosforth. This time starting in Harbottle, a small village beyond Rothbury.

Directions: A1 north, A697 from Morpeth, turn left for Rothbury and drive through. At sign on right for Alwinton and Harbottle turn and follow the road through the village. Ignore car park on the right by the castle. A little further on turn left into the Forestry Commission car park. Second free car park of the week. Enjoy.

The walk is covered by OS Explorer 16 The Cheviot Hills.

Forestry Commission car park, just beyond Harbottle. Cleared by storm Arwen a couple of years ago.

Close to the entrance to the car park is a track leading upwards. It turns into a narrow footpath, closely guarded by lace undoing heather and bilberries. It is also rather stoney and needs a little care. At one point, at the top of the rise we turned off to admire the Drake Stone

The Drake stone. a monolith that sits and admires the view of the Coquet Valley. Nobody seems to know why it is called the Drake Stone. Nothing to do with Sir Francis, not thin enough for Ducks and Drakes.

Having admired the view we continued on the path round the edge of Harbottle Lake until we came to an important looking notice from the Ministry of Defence telling us to keep out and not to pick anything military looking up.

                         Harbottle Lake, more like a tarn

So we followed a very straight but rough path through West Wood. A line of old concrete posts marked the route, most of them in a bad state and there were no fence wires anyway. A bit tricky in places before widening into a decent track that ended at a gate.

Through the gate we turned right and walked down a good track to the road for Alwinton, passing belted galloways on the way.

                               Belted Galloways

At the road we turned left towards Alwinton. Once over the bridge we turned right down a lane with some attractive holiday chalets. Reaching Low Alwinton Lime Kilns we paused for lunch, sitting in the sun on a grassy bank.

Low Alwinton Lime Kilns. Well built, no longer used but good shelter from the rain.

Lunch over we folloed the track past Park House and into Ferny Wood. Leaving the path we crossed the River Coquet using the footbridge, turned right and were at the Star pub in Harbottle.

                                           River Coquet near Harbottle

          The Star Inn. Several hand pumps, a restaurant specialising in pizza, a greengrocery and small shop. 

After a drink we headed back to the car park, passing the few remains of Harbottle Castle.

Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and databaseright 2023

This lovely walk is about 5 miles, but well worth it.