Rothbury, the return

 Rothbury with the Greens. October  20th.

A Sunday walk with The Greens, that friendly group of walkers we occasionally join. 

Greens is their name. Not their politics as far as I know.

It was raining heavily, the forecast was for a wet morning but sunny afternoon.

The walk is covered  by OS OL 42 Kielder water and the car park on the south of the Coquet is free.

                     Familiar car park in Rothbury

                      

                       And a fairly full Coquet.

We crossed the river by the footbridge and headed for the Bewick Bistro next to the church for breakfast.

                               Bewicks bistro and bacon sandwich restaurant.

Fed, and pleased to see the rain had stopped, we left Bewicks, passed the church, and turned right to cross the river by the road bridge.

                                        All Saints church, Rothbury

                                    It's a long way to Preston.

Once over the water we turned left, walked through a small industrial estate, it contains the office of Shepherd's Walks, the company that arranged our Dales expedition and are planning our trip on St. Cuthbert's Way next September. Highly recommended.

Soon we were on the dismantled railway, we followed the track for a couple of miles before leaving it.

                                                   Waterfall beside the old railway.

At one point we left the old line and continued across the first slightly soggy fields of the day to the farm at West Raw.

                     Highly decorated farm building at West Raw.

From the farm we headed north west, saying hello to some friendly horses and climbing steadily across soggy fields. Just after four miles of the walk we stopped for a Herbie. Some sat on the grass, some sat on rocks. The Greens are not into sharing............yet. Probably as well, there were eight of us.

After the break we carried on uphill then turned south, watched by some interested cows, ubtil we came to a road.

                                    Friendly horses.

Turning left we walked about half  a mile on the road to a finger post that sent us on a super soggy track to Lordenshaw farm.

                         Interested cows.

Once past the farm we reached a road, turned right and headed for the car park nearby. From here we took the less soggy but grassy track over Gatleigh Moor to Whitton Glebe Farm and from there a farm track full of puddles took us past Dr. Sharp's folly and back into Rothbury.

                  Sharp's folly. Looking a bit worse for wear with the tree growing on the top.

On the way home we stopped at the Ridley Arms in Stannington. Shuggy Boat blonde, tasty.

                         Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2024.

                     The walk is a bit less than 9 miles. Easy going but soggy today.