Rothbury Terraces

 Rothbury Terraces. August 21st

The terraces above Rothbury were laid out for Lord Armstrong as carriage drives around his home at Cragside. Now they make for a good gadgie walk with spectacular views over the Coquet Valley.

We parked in Rothbury, there is a good sized free car park on the south side of the river. Reached by going north on the A1, turning on to the A697 at Morpeth and turning left at Weldon Bridge. Turn left on Rothbury High Street, cross the river, turn right and park.

Rothbury is on the edge of two map. OS OL 42 Kielder and OS 332 Alnwick.

Car park in Rothbury. I have cropped the picture, hope you approve.

Booted up  we crossed the river by means of the convenient footbridge and walked to the Newcastle House Hotel for breakfast. Strangely not a bacon sandwich or scone in sight today, tea or coffee for all.

Ready for a walk at last we crossed the main street, turned right and took the  second on the left, passing the terrace of flats Lord Armstrong had built for his retired workers and, having spotted the gate (or was it a stile?) crossed a field to Hillside Road. Turning right  we walked a short distance to the stile which guided us across a field to the track at Addycombe.

Looking down on Rothbury from Addycombe.

From here the track (drive?) wanders through woodland still showing the scars of storm Arwen in places. After a mile we found, on the right, the footpath leading down to a track near Primrose Cottage.

The start of this footpath is not marked, the path is narrow andfor a while the ground has a covering of rocks, difficult to see as the bracken is high. 

Unfortunately these two are not at the start of the path permanently, but watch out for it.

The path is narrow to begin with, goes downhill, crosses a stream by means of a footbridge  and then arrives at a forest track near Primrose Cottage.

                               The blooming heather. The hillsides are covered with it.

We followed the track until we reached the turning into Blue Mill 

                            Take this track,

 The track goes gently uphill. After a bit less than half a mile we took the footpath on the right, clambered over a stile and continued on a grassy trail until we had clocked up about four and a half miles.

A well built stone wall provided shelter from the breeze and an old gatepost which had fallen over made a seat for some. Herbie time: Caramel tarts, a new experience, flapjacks and sweet and savoury of course.

                                                                       Dining out

Moving on we turned downhill at a gate and headed down to Physic Lane and the village of Thropton. Crossing the Wreigh Burnusing the footbridge next to the road bridge we then crossed the road and followed the footpath alongside the same burn until we reached the footbridge over the River Coquet.

                  Crossing the Coquet.

The footpath that follows the river back to Rothbury has, we were told, been partly washed away. Regardless, some of the team wandered across fields by the river, crossed it by another footbridge and followed a footpath back to the car park. (Reached by another footbridge)

Some took a slightly different route, heading toward Newtown but we all finished at the same time, more or less. And then some went home.

Contains OS data, copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2026

The walk is about 8,5 miles, easy going after the first climb and worth it for the views.