Northumberland Day 8: Durham

Saturday 15th May

Our last day of this trip, we decided to call in at Durham on the way back down the A1.

Neither of us had been there for a look around, so we took the opportunity in passing nearby.

We had a look around the shops, a walk around the backstreets near the Cathedral and university, finding a riverside walk back into the town.

We had our lunch at a "slug and Lettuce", and then headed off home back down the A1, arriving back in Cleethorpes late afternoon.

all in all, we had a good trip, weather could have been warmer, but it did not rain on us too much, and we had seen some sights and walked in areas we had not visited before.

Would we go back?

Yes, but the Lake District would be our own preference, and totting up those Wainwrights!

Northumberland Day 7: Hethpool (Cheviots)

Friday 14th May - Hethpool (Cheviots)
Cicerone Norhumberland Guidebook Walk#1
(Hethpool, Old Yeavering, College Burn) 6.33 Miles, 2hrs 40 mins.

We decided to round off our trip with a short-ish walk in the Cheviot hills further north. The one we chose was a fairly low level valley walk, with views of the Cheviot hills rather than up and from them.

Weather: Cloudy with showers.

We parked at Hethpool, just up from a row of cottages in a largish car park. The track continued on but not general access for motor vehicles.

We walked back up the road past the cottages and tok a right onto grassy tracks.


The route was fairly level across grassy tracks and fields with open views of the cheviot hillsides across the valley.

We joined a road past Old Yeavering and this led us into the village of Kirknewton.

Quite a bit of road/verge walking, but not too many vehicles using the road.

once through the village we ate our packed lunch (and soup) at a road bridge over a stream/burn and continued on.

The statue head below was atop a gateway.

It then began to rain, so waterproofs were donnned and we trudged through quite narrow grass paths and gorse/shrubs in the rain.

The rain did ease after a while and the path adjavent to college burn is quite pleasant, but would have been more so without the rain.

We arrived back at the car park, having enjoyed most of this walk, spoilt a little by the rain towards the last few miles.

Our Walk Score : 6.5/10

Northumberland Day 6 13th May: Kielder Water

Thursday: Kielder (Bullcrag Peninsula)
Pathfinder Guidebook Northumberland Walk#1

Weather: Cloudy with Sunny spells

Quite a longish drive from Rothbury to Kielder water taking well over an hour. (40 odd miles)

We had a general drive around the various tourist information and parking areas hoping to see some "views".

We both felt a bit let down by Kielder in general. Not sure what we were expecting really, its a forest and there is a very large man-made lake and dam. Thats what it was, no more or less. A wide good road links the various information and parking areas. For water sports no doubt it is great, but we felt that for walking and great views it was not really our bag, though no doubt if we had attempted a higher level walk it would be far more impressive. All a bit "manufactured", tourists go this way, and heres a nice wide road to get there.

However.... That said, the actual access road to our start point of the Bullcrag Peninsula walk was far from tourists this way...... quite a rough narrow track with dust and ruts galore.

We parked at the Otterstone viewing point car park (room for about half a dozen cars, just a rough rocky opening really - Free though!)

We headed down to the viewing point, yes, a view of Kileder water, though its not the Lake District is it? Sorry, but the views do just not compare.

The short walk around this peninsula was about 3 miles through mainly level forest tracks, and views over Kielder Water from the shore line at low level. OK, for a general family walk, but we felt a bit short changed having driven over an hour.

In conclusion, I am sure you can have an excellent time here doing water sports on the lake, but there did not even appear to be much of anything going off at all at the time of our visit even with regard to this.

We left.. dissapointed and headed back to Rothbury.

Our Walk Score : 4/10

Still.... we visited "The Treehouse" restaurant that evening.

The treehouse is literally that, a treehouse restaurant at Alnwick Gardens that serves very nice food in very nice and unique surroundings.

We both started with Ham Hock terrines with Picallilli and salad garnish, with main courses of Fillet of beef and Chicken stuffed with Chilli and Northumberland cheese.

All cooked to perfection including a large bowl of veg, and in the case of Sues dish, extremely chunky chips!!

Toffee tart and strong mint and AfterEight choc chip parfait finished us of.

This made up for Kielder!!

We left the treehouse satisfied and rolled back to Rothbury.

Our Restaurant Score : 8/10

Northumberland Day 5 12th May: Craster

Wednesday: Walk 3 Craster
(Pathfinder Northumberland Guide Walk#7)
4.68 Miles, 2hrs 15 mins.

Weather: Cloudy with sunny spells, a little rain

Todays short coastal walk started form the small coastal harbour of Craster.

We parked up in what was probably the main (only?) car park, paid £2 (all day parking), and headed off up the road to the very small harbour.


Here we paused a while for a few pictures, took in the views around, and then continued on the coastal path leading to Dunstanburgh Castle (just follow everyone else!!)

The path along the coast is wide, grassy and popular, but quite good views across the rocky coast, and of the castle in the distance.

We headed up to the castle entrance, declined to pay the fee for what effectively is a ruin (not THAT into castles!), and then followed the suggested route on a path left around the castle below it. Looking at the ruin, Dunstanburgh would have been a large castle, a pity that there is only a part of it left. It does look very distinctive though on the coastline and the ruin perhaps adds to that effect.

This led us along a grassy narower, sandy path near to a golf course on the left and the coast on our right, very pleasant really. We then headed back inland at a path crossing the golf course, following bridle paths and roads back in parallel to our original coast route with views of the castle form a more inland perspective.

We arrived back to the car park after 2hrs 15 mins, and decided to have a drive along the coast, then back to Rothbury.
Our Walk Score: 6.5/10

Northumberland Day 4 11th May: Alnwick Gardens & Castle

Tuesday: Alnwick

Alnwick is a market town about 12 miles North East of Rothbury.

We decided to spend the best part of a day here and visit both Alnwick Garden & Castle and make a day of it. Admission was just over £20 each for the ticket to include access to both, so it is best to spend most of the day and get good value!

We arrived mid-morning, parked in the main car park nearby, and crossed the road to the Garden entrance and pay booths.

Once though this you walk through the gift shop/cafe area and then out onto the main throughfare to the gardens. This is quite impressive as it is a very open area with paths/flagstones leading up to the main fountains surrounded by ornamental hedges.

To the right of this we entered an area with many water features and small fountains on display, each bearing a description of the effect they were portraying. An interesting one shown below, allows you to go down into a small pit in the centre of the feature and look through a "curtain" of water cascading down, giving a distorted, rippled effect to those looking from the outside.

After this we watched the main fountain "show", but despite the fountain looking good overall the actual display on the hour was a bit of a let down - perhaps we were expecting too much and trying to compare with fountains we had seen elsewhere (Its not the Las Vegas Bellagio is it?)

Still we pressed on and walked up to the main fountains and the top, at which point it started to hail (weather HAD started off reasonable). It faired up a bit and we had a look around the main walled garden.

This then led us through a planted area of trees and flowers below.

We had heard lots about the "Poison Garden", and waited in a queue to visit this as it is kept locked and you are escorted around in a tour like fashion.

Don`t touch anything, Don`t wander off, though to be honest a lot of the plants there are common everyday plants that you may well have in your own gardens - be aware!!

It was quite interesting and informative though, did not realise that Ricin could be made so easily!



We decided after this we had seen most if not all the garden and visited the cafe for eats. After burgers and chips we left and headed towards the castle - just a few minutes walk away.

The castle was OK, we had a look around the living areas, including a rather large library full of very old books, a rather grand dining room and a small dungeon (quite a contrast there!)

You can walk around parts of the castle wall, and there are small museums and exibitions dotted around to hold your interest. For kids there was an area where they can dress up in medieval type costumes, fight with toy swords and that sort of thing, as well as a hall of mirrors type maze and revolving effect that makes you very dizzy.

We had a final look around, waited a while to possibly have a go at the archery, but this was taking too long to wait (and there was only one person doing it!), so we left.

From there, we walked into town, just a few minutes walk. Had a general browse of the shops, and then headed back and home to Marmic cottage and Rothbury.


Our Marks out of 10 for this attraction : 6.5/10

Northumberland Day 3: 10th May Hadrians Wall at Walltown

Monday:Walk 2 - Hadrians Wall at Walltown (8 Miles) 4 hours
(Pathfinder Guide: Northumberland Walk#18)

Weather: Cloudy with some sunny spells

The journey from Rothbury to Walltown Quarry car park was about an hour.
Some interestingly named hamlets along the way; "Once Brewed" and "Twice Brewed"!

Large car park with gift shop and more important facilities - £3 all day to park.

We headed off at 11:15 to the back of the car park where a very defined path (tourist path!) led us to a fairly steep bank up onto Hadrians Wall itself.





There we followed the wall for about 2 miles with plenty of up and down gradients over rough grassy/rocky terrain. Certainly a reasonable workout for us anyway!

The views were okay, but it was the historical interest of the wall itself that was at the forefront of our minds. There were occasional tourist information descriptions at several turrets which are all numbered on the OS map. (45a, 43b and the like). There was then quite a steep descent crossing a defined path at the bottom (a path that we would take later, crossing over our outward route). This was followed by a steep ascent and stone "steps" in the grassy bank to the wall top again.




The route then levelled and led to a farm which we passed through and onto a very defined track which turned back towards the start parallel to the wall and "The Vallum" or defensive ditch. This roadway is part asphalt, part stoned/gravelly and went on for about 2 miles. Lunch was taken along here and the air had definitely chilled, making the tomato soup very welcome! We moved on quickly to warm up.

We turned north to cross our original path and took a diversion, as the suggested route would take us right past some rather large, angry looking cows with calfs (having experienced certain angry cows in the Lincolnshire wilds, we took the cowards way out and lived to walk another day!)

The diversion was not too far away from our intended route, just a little "off piste" with some off-roading and extra muddy boots in the process.

We rejoined the route, waved to the cows, and pressed on.

Many fields and stiles later we approached a farm with a dog that appeared to be rather loud and excited by our presence. Still we pressed on through the farm, the dog, yapping and circling us many times till it was most probably dizzy, and we exited over yet another stile. Fortunately the dogs bark was worse than its bite.

After about another mile across various undefined tracks across fields (looking for the various yellow trail markers on stiles, and following satmap!), we came to a burn and crossed via stepping stones.

Now we could see yet more cows, and they appeared to be obstructing the actual road up way ahead. Perhaps we were not heading that way?

No, we were!!

We approached carefully, thought about hopping over a stile to avoid, realised we could not go that way, and pressed on through the group of cows (literally). Was okay, a little "movement" and general grumpiness with us, but we made it to the cattle grid and over. We waved them good-day. Susan had heard somewhere that you should try and make yourself look bigger than the bovine bullies so she held her walking poles over her head (and would happily have waved her rucksack over her bonce too if necessary), no idea if this makes any difference but it made her feel better ;)

We thought the hills were finished with, but the final surprise was a hike uphill to the finish and eventually the car park.

Finsihing at 15:15, we took 4 hours. A quick rest and then the drive back to Rothbury.

Quite a good energetic walk, not particularly the views, but seeing and "feeling" the wall and its history. Susan would have enjoyed it far more if not for the cows - one bad experience really does put you off them!

Our Walk Score : 7/10

Northumberland Day 2 9th May: Above Rothbury Walk

Sunday:Walk 1: Above Rothbury (5.9 Miles)
(Pathfinder Guide Northumberland Walk # 13)

Weather: cloudy with sunny spells

Sunday: We set off from Marmic Cottage around 10:15 and headed for the riverside (near to the bridge in the village).
From here you can access down to the grassy river side.
Unfortunately our intended route was cut short as the path along the riverside was closed. We diverted back into the village and rejoined our route where we would have exited the river path after maybe half a mile or so.

We did mange to spot a lone fisherman in waders though, giving you an idea that the riverside part would have been nice as a start to the walk.

We headed through Rothbury, crossed the main road at the approach to another bridge over the river, and headed right up "Beggars Rise". A long, slow plod uphill on a path, and then a diversion right up a VERY narrow track between two houses (See pic below). This led us through hilly woodland and opened out into more open countryside to Brae Head.

The views back across the valley were pretty good, though we did not get any good pictures of this and the river winding through the countryside. The picture above shows the general view around Brae Head further into the walk.

After several miles of admiring the views, we headed into more woodland areas and eventually Primrose Cottage, where we decided to rest and eat our packed lunches and the obligatory tomato soup.

The path onward from here returned back through woodland (we took a right path in error here, though the Satmap soon confirmed our error, before we headed off too far in the wrong direction!).

The correct path, opened out into flatter scrub and narrow sandy paths (seen on the other

picture above), which went on for about another mile or so.

The return to Rothbury was then along narrow paths and tracks between houses, giving a good view of Rothbury rooftops as we descended back down to the start point.

A reasonable short-ish walk with nice views over Rothbury and generally physically undemanding, taking us 2 and a half hours.

Our Walk Score: 6.5/10

Northumberland : Rothbury Marmic Cottage

Our accommodation for the week was "Marmic Cottage" in Rothbury.

Rothbury is a small town about 12 miles west of Alnwick, and is quite a good central base for walking in Northumberland as Hadrians Wall, the Cheviot hills and the coast are all within an hours drive or less.
Lovely place and can definitely recommend it - although they did seem to have a thing about ringing the church bells on a frequent basis!

The property was very clean and quite modern inside with fully equipped kitchen, bathroom with shower cubicle and a bath, and two bedrooms. The lounge area was a reasonable size and had Satellite TV, DVD player and stereo, and small library of books and DVD`s.

Cost was about £340 for the week (Saturday to Saturday), and it was located in the centre of Rothbury. The cottage was the perfect size for the two of us and all our walking gear(!) but the second bedroom is only a single so perhaps not suitable for more than three.

Rothbury itself has a few shops including Co-op convenience store, chippy and couple of cafes, an Indian restaurant/take-away, and a couple of pubs, plus butchers, post office etc. We drove to Alnwick for our main shopping for the week as there is a Morrisons and Sainsburys there (needed to stock up on Heinz tomato soup for our pack-ups!).

Right, now for the walks.....

Northumberland May 2010 Day 1

Saturday: Northumberland May 2010

Day 1 - 8th May 2010 (Sat)

We set off around 09:30, via A1,
straight up to Seahouses for a fish and chip lunch. Seahouses is a small harbour village with good views up the coast to Bamburgh Castle and trips out to the nature reserves of the Farne Islands (Never been on these trips, maybe next time!)

Around 13:30 we carried on a bit further north past Bamburgh Castle and rejoined the A1 after a while for a trip to Holy Island.

The important thing here, is that access to the island is via the Lindisfarne Causeway and can only be made during a lower tide "window". We had looked up the tide times from the website before the trip and Saturday was the best day for us to go based on this. See Link Below:

http://holy-island.info/lindisfarnecastle/2010/

The access road itself is very good (better than expected) and parking was found in a large car park from the main roadway, and a short walk into the town.

What is there on the Island?

Lindisfarne Castle is a short walk away (10-15 mins) through a small harbour area and a path leading to the castle in the distance. The weather was not so pleasant though as it was quite cold and windy. There is a shuttle bus operates also, for those that do not fancy the walk.

We walked around the area but did not pay to go in the castle, instead walking back to the town and looking around a few local shops. Mainly of the gift shop type, though one in particular caught my interest as it sold many, many malt whiskys, which were begging to be purchased and of course drank!

There were lots of sheep!!

Once back to the car park we left and headed to our accommodation for the week - Marmic Cottage in Rothbury.