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.
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
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