Search Results : northumberland

Feb 082014
 

On a day like this, with strong sunshine and blue skies pouring across Northumberland, there isn’t a more welcoming range of hills in these islands than the Cheviots. Bosomy, rounded and dressed in brilliant green and purple, they seem to beckon, especially to walkers. First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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In the farming hamlet of Akeld, just outside the regional capital of Wooler, stands a bastle, a rare reminder of a savage history. These old fortified farmhouses with their tiny windows, ‘upstairs’ doors and walls many feet thick date from the days when the Scottish Borders were aflame with cattle-thieving and murderous feuds. Back then, any man who wanted to live would barricade himself and his family into the upper floor of a bastle and hope to see out a siege.

Above Akeld a winding path led us away through bracken and heather across the hunched back of White Law. We dipped into a hollow, then climbed past the circular foundations of ancient beehive huts to the summit of Yeavering Bell. This high and handsome hill is the king of the north Cheviots, its knobbly brow encircled by a great wall – once ten feet thick, now scattered – and crowned with a cairn.

Up there we sat, catching our breath and savouring the view – the chequerboard plain stretched north at our feet, a steel-blue crescent of North Sea, and the rolling heights of Cheviot as they billowed away south into the heart of the range. Then it was down from the peak and on through the bracken to find the broad green road of St Cuthbert’s Way striding purposefully through the hills.

The hard rock outcrop of Tom Tallon’s Crag rode its heathery hilltop like a salt-brown ship pitching in a russet sea. We passed below the crag, then followed a grassy old cart track into the cleft of Akeld Burn. Suddenly all the birds of the air seemed to be flying about us – meadow pipits in undulating flight, kestrels and sparrowhawks hanging in their hunting stances, and a raven flapping with a disdainful cronk! out over the northern plains before us.

Start: Akeld, near Wooler, Northumberland, NE71 6TA approx. (OS ref NT 957297)

Getting there: Bus service 267 (havant-travel.info), Wooler-Berwick
Road – Akeld is on A697, 2½ miles west of Wooler. Park carefully beside green – please don’t obstruct entrances!

Walk (6 miles, moderate, OS Explorer OL16. NB: online map, more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk): Walk through farmyard; up track (blue arrow/BA). Pass to right of Gleadscleugh cottage (952290); through next gate; in 100m, right over stile (950288; yellow arrow/YA). Follow path, bearing right up left rim of stony Glead’s Cleugh*. Follow YAs on posts for 1¼ miles over White Law (943290) and down to stile and gate in fence under Yeavering Bell (932290). Path up to saddle to right of summit; at wooden palette marker (931294), left on path to summit cairn (929293). Follow path half left off summit, though scattered stone wall (928292); here fork right (YAs, ‘Hill Fort Trail’) to St Cuthbert’s Way/SCW at stile (923287). Left, following SCW for 1 mile. Pass Tom Tallon’s Crag; through gate in wall (933278); in 300m, at near corner of conifer plantation, turn left off SCW through gate (935277); follow track to Gleadscleugh. Right (951289, BA) on track to right of house; zigzag across burn; on by wall; follow yellow arrows to Akeld, passing bastle (958294) on your left.

* NB Cottage is Gleadscleugh, valley is Glead’s Cleugh, as written!

Lunch: Picnic

Accommodation: Red Lion Inn, Milfield, Northumberland, postcode (01668-216224; redlionmilfield.co.uk) – cheerful village pub with rooms.

Info: Wooler TIC (01668-282123); visitnorthumberland.com

Berwick-upon-Tweed Walking Festival, 5-7 April: 01669-621044; berwickwalking.co.uk

www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk visitengland.com

 Posted by at 01:52
Sep 072013
 

The granite cross of the Flodden Monument stood tall against a blue sky where white clouds were billowing like gunsmoke.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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The image struck forcibly as we looked south to the long slope of Branxton Hill, across the valley bottom where nearly 60,000 Scots and English clashed 500 years ago. Fourteen thousand men were hacked and piked and bill-hooked to death in just two hours. The Battle of Flodden, fought on 9 September 1513, resulted in the wiping out of virtually all the nobility of Scotland – including the country’s dashing and intelligent king, James IV.

An excellent Battlefield Trail explores the site. Down the slope in the valley bottom we gazed up at what suddenly seemed a steep rise to where the Scots army had arrayed itself along Branxton Hill. How easy it must have looked to the Scottish pikemen as they started their charge downhill – a quick hop across the valley and they would be in among the English, as their king had wanted and expected ever since they had crossed the River Tweed a fortnight before.

But weeks of torrential rain had turned the innocent-looking valley to a treacherous sucking bog of mud. The 18-foot pikes the Scots carried were worse than useless; the English wielded 8-foot billhooks that chopped up both the pikes and their carriers. The valley became a slaughterhouse, and ten thousand Scottish nobles, knights and men – including my own ancestor, Sir John Somerville of Cambusnethan – died in an orgy of killing.

From the battlefield we walked a slow circuit through this rolling Border landscape – long shallow ridges of corn and pasture, farmsteads like tiny townships, and the handsome 18th-century mansion of Pallinsburn in a swathe of beautiful parkland. Sunlight poured down on us, yellowhammers wheezed in the hedges, and all seemed right with the world. It was strange to come out of the Pallinsburn trees and find oneself looking over once more at the granite cross on its ridge, the broad sweep of Branxton Hill beyond, and the fatal slope down which the flower of Scotland had charged to destruction in the quagmire of the killing fields below.

Start: Flodden Field car park, Branxton, Northumberland, TD12 4SN approx. (OS ref NT 892374)

Getting there: Branxton and Flodden Field are signposted off A697 at Crookham, between Milfield and Cornhill-on-Tweed

Walk (6 miles, easy, OS Explorer 339): Follow track to monument (890372). Ahead to hedge; left and follow ‘Battlefield Trail’/BT to bottom of slope; through gate; left to next gate (892370); right uphill (‘Viewpoint’) to notice board; left to road (897369, BT). Right along road for 150m; left through hedge and gate (BT), anti-clockwise round field to cross stream (899373). On over crest with hedge on right; at bottom, through gate (898375); right along hedge. At field end, right through hedge, left along track. At field end, over stile (902377) and through trees. Cross stile; across field to top left corner (904377) at Mardon. Left down lane to road (901381). Right round bend for 200m; pass Inch Cottage; left over stile (903382, ‘Inch Plantation’). Follow hedge to gate (904383, yellow arrow/YA) into wood. Leave wood by stile (904384); up slope to cross stile; ahead to gate onto A697 (904387).

Right for 150m (take care!); left (‘Crookham Eastfield’) along road to farm. Left between barns (908391); half left across 2 fields (YA); through gate; right (902391) along Pallinsburn House drive. Pass house; in 400m drive bends left (894391, YA), then right through gate. In 300m track turns left through Cookstead farm to reach A697 (890384). Right for 200m (take care!); left (888384, ‘Branxton’) down side of Crookham Westfield farm; over gate, down track to fence; left to corner of field (890379). Right over footbridge and stile, to road on left side of house (890378). Left up road; right at top (893375, ‘Flodden Field’) to car park.

Refreshments: Blue Bell Inn, Crookham (01890-820789; bluebellcrookham.co.uk)

Accommodation: Collingwood Arms, Cornhill-on-Tweed, postcode (01890-882424; collingwoodarms.com) – classy, extremely comfortable, relaxed atmosphere.

Battle of Flodden anniversary: flodden1513.com; flodden.net; The Battle of Flodden – Why & How by Clive Hallam-Baker (pub. Remembering Flodden Project)
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

 Posted by at 01:04
Jan 052013
 

The low-rolling Northumbrian hills enclose Elsdon in a loose embrace. First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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The plain and dignified stone houses of the ancient community stand scattered round their big diamond-shaped village green, which lies complete with a circular pound for stray animals (Elsdon was a famous stop-over for cattle drovers on the long road south) and the broad and handsome Church of St Cuthbert (the monks who were carrying the saint’s body away from Holy Island and its Viking marauders rested here over a thousand years ago).

As we set out across the sheep pastures on a brisk morning, yet more bloody and stirring Border history looked down on us from the stark stone battlements of Elsdon Tower, a grim pele or stronghold built when Scots and English raided each other and their own compatriots in a wild and lawless medieval era. Times have changed, however. We found a couple of contented coppers sitting outside the Elsdon Tea Rooms in the shadow of the pele, drinking tea and yarning with the owner.

Near Folly Farm a big brown hare leaped up almost under my boots and went away like a miniature racehorse, its long black-tipped ears erect as it sped off. We pulled up for a breather and to admire the blotchy tan-and-cream waves of heather and moor grass along the spine of the distant Simonside Hills. Frisky bullocks were cantering together in the fields at Fairneycleugh, and horses in red winter coats stood companionably nose to nose down at Soppit Farm.

This mid-Northumbrian landscape is all open country, big pasture fields, sedgy moorland and dark conifer blocks sitting together in a pleasing blend. You stride out more vigorously and breathe the clean air more deeply in such surroundings. Whomever the owners of Haining farmhouse may be, they are making a superb job of restoring their stone field walls, and they have planted a wide new woodland of native species – alder, rowan, willow, hazel, cherry and hawthorn.

Above Haining we crossed the ragged little knoll of Gallow Hill, looking down on a memorable view of Elsdon laid out below with the far-off Cheviot Hills standing grandly on the northern skyline. A notice board at Hillhead Cottage, warning of an application to build a clutch of wind turbines six times the height of the Angel of the North on pristine Middle Hill just alongside, was a sharp reminder of the views we can lose through simple lack of vigilance. It was a sobering thought to carry down the hill and back to Elsdon.

Start and finish: Village car park, Elsdon, Northumberland (OS ref NY938933).

Getting there: Elsdon is signposted off A696 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Jedburgh) between Kirkwhelpington and Otterburn.

Walk (6 miles, easy, OS Explorer OL42):
From car park, left into Elsdon. Cross ladder stile between Bird In Bush Inn and Elsdon Tea Rooms (936933, ‘The Folly’); ahead over fields (stiles, yellow arrows/YAs). In 3rd field, steer right of reservoir with mast to junction of tarmac lanes at stile (926940). Ahead (fingerpost) up drive past The Folly; in almost ½ mile, left off drive (920944; fingerpost) to Fairneycleugh farm. Go through gate across track (917940). Left down grassy track to Soppit Farm (920934, blue arrows/BAs), then on through trees to cross B6341 (922932, fingerpost) and on to Haining (YAs). Keep right of farmhouse; at yellow arrow post (925927) right for 50 m; left (YA) uphill through plantation on grassy track. Cross stile (926920). Left (BA) to cross road. On (fingerpost, ‘Hillhead Cottage’) over Gallow Hill (931919), keeping wall and fence close on left. 650 m after crossing road, go through gate (933919) and follow wall on right to Hillhead. At waymark post (939919, BA) go right; in 50 m, left through gate; cross cottage drive; through gate ahead (YA) along fence on left and through gate (940918, YA). Aim half right for Lonning House; cross next stile with 2 YAs; follow right-hand one towards Lonning House. Cross road; on down farm drive (943921, YAs). On across stable yard beside house (944921, YAs). In field beyond, aim diagonally left between electricity poles, descending to cross stile into lane at West Todholes (945925). Right to East Todholes. Just before farmhouse, left over ladder stile (946926, YA); in 50 m, at post with 2 YAs, keep ahead, descending beside plantation and through gate (946928, YA). Left along fence, follow YAs to cross Elsdon Burn (943929) and bear left. Aim for the corner of the fence on your left; turn 90o right here (941929, YA), aiming a little away from fence on your right to cross ladder stile in a bend of the stone wall far ahead (940931). Aim ahead for Elsdon Tower to return to car park.

Refreshments in Elsdon: Bird In Bush PH + B&B (01830-520804; Tues-Sat evenings, Sun from noon); Impromptu Tea Rooms (01830-520389); Coach House Tea Rooms (01830-520061)

Middle Hill Wind Turbines: middlehillactiongroup.com

Info: Alnwick TIC (01665-511333); visitnorthumberland.com
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

 Posted by at 02:40
Jul 282012
 

It was a fantastically blowy morning over the Northumbrian moors.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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The night before, safely tucked up in a cosy bed at High Keenley Fell Farm high on its ridge, I’d heard the gale roaring like a monster in the larches and over the farm roofs. But down here in Allendale Town, sheltered in the cleft of its deep green dale, the wind was sounding more of a continuous, mighty sigh in the racing heavens over Allendale.

Up on the fellside to the north of the compact little town, I looked over to a great rise of stone-walled fields topped with broad dun-coloured moors and the upraised fingers of a couple of industrial chimneys. It’s all sheep and cattle around here now, but back in the day Allendale Town was a noisy, two-fisted settlement of 6,000 people, most of them employed in the lead mines up on the moors. The chimneys poured out noxious and toxic sulphur fumes, brought through nearly a mile of stone-lined flues from the dale’s big smelting mills. Allendale’s lead business all came sliding to a stop in the late 19th century, and these days you couldn’t find a quieter dale in these lovely northern hills.

Late-flowering cowslips and milkmaids danced crazily in the wind as I followed the hillside path past Housty and Stone Stile farms towards Catton. The spine-tinglingly poignant bubble of curlew calls came from the fields, and I caught a flash of white as the stout wading birds with their long down-curved bills settled themselves among the sedges with an ecstatic shiver of sabre-shaped wings.

Catton lay silent around its village green. In the fields beyond, fat lambs ran riot, one actually prancing on top of its mother’s back as she lay imperturbably chewing the cud. Below Old Town a bridge crossed the shallow, peat-brown River East Allen in its sheltered little gorge. Before following the riverbank path back to Allendale, I paused, leaning on the parapet and watching two white-breasted dippers bobbing on midstream stones while a flycatcher swooped out, up, over and back to its branch above their heads with a beak full of insect fodder.

Start & finish: Allendale Town square, Northumberland NE47 9BD (OS ref NY 837558)

Getting there: Bus 688 (Hexham-Allendale)
Road: Allendale Town is on B6295 between A69 (Hexham-Haydon Bridge) and A689 (Stanhope-Alston)

WALK (7 miles, moderate, OS Explorer OL43. NB Online map, more walks: christophersomerville.co.uk): From Allendale town square turn left (Hexham direction) along main road (pavement). In ¼ mile, cross Philip Burn (841562); in 50 m, right up side road by ‘Dene Croft’. In 100 m, left up walled path, (842564; fingerpost ‘Housty’); in 100 m, left over ladder stile (fingerpost). Follow yellow arrows/YA across fields to Housty. Keep left of house and over stile (836572; YA); follow drive to road (834575). Right for 200 m; left (836576; fingerpost ‘Stone Stile, Catton’). Skirt left of barn, over stile (YAs); bear half-left down field; through gate (833577; no YA). Bear right through next gate (no YA); bear left down to cross wall by stone step stile; cross Catton Burn footbridge (832578). Bear right up wall; in 100 m, left over ladder stiles, through fields and farmyard (YAs) to road in Catton (829577).
Right; in 50 m, left by ‘Catton 2000’ stone seat, down lane. Cross footbridge (827577; YA) and follow green lane (YAs) for ½ mile, past Pasture House to cross road (818578; fingerpost). Turn right through gate (fingerpost ‘Old Town, Bishopside’; YA) across field above Struthers; then follow wall (step and ladder stiles) for ¼ mile to Old Town (814579). Through yard (YAs) and on across fields (YAs, stiles) to road (812581). Turn left downhill; descend Colliery Lane to cross River East Allen at Oakpool bridge (808577). Turn left (fingerpost ‘Allendale Town’); don’t bear right up waymarked field path, but keep ahead past front of Oakpool Farmhouse and on along track, then path, on right bank of river, over footbridges, through house garden at Bridge Eal (818573, YAs) to turn left across river on B6295 by weir (831566). Turn right along left bank (fingerpost ‘Allendale Town’), sticking close to river. In 1 mile, opposite cricket pavilion, bear left up walled lane (836560) to road; left to town square.

Refreshments: King’s Head PH, Allendale (01434-683681); Forge Studios tearooms (01434-683975; allendaleforgestudios.co.uk)

Accommodation: High Keenley Fell Farm (01434-618344; highkeenleyfarm.co.uk) – very comfortable, good food and stunning view

Information: Hexham TIC (01434-652220); visitnorthumberland.com
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

 Posted by at 10:39
Jan 082011
 

'I made out, approaching across the sands, a slow black dot (which) resolved itself into a Ford car. This indomitable thing, rust red, its mudguards tied with string, splashed and slithered towards me; and at the wheel was a handsome young girl with blue eyes and a soft Scots voice … So we splashed over the sands to Lindisfarne.'
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Alas, the famous salt-rusted taxis of Holy Island that so entranced the ultra-romantic H.V. Morton in 1927 are long rotted to pieces. But romantics of all kinds and conditions can do as I did this blowy day on the Northumberland coast – hoist their footgear and follow the ancient pilgrim path barefoot over the wide tidal sands. Tall rough poles mark the straight way, and there are barnacle-encrusted wooden refuge towers for foolish virgins to clamber into if beset by a rising tide.

The ribbed sands felt cold to the sole. Bladder wrack crunched underfoot. It was a good long hour’s walk. The green sandhills and huddled village of the island seemed to draw no closer until the last moment. But this was a heavenly way to cross to Holy Island, or Lindisfarne, to give it an older and lovelier name.

Holy Island village is still partly a fishing community, mostly for crab and lobster these days. Creels lean drying against house walls in the narrow lanes. People come to Lindisfarne for its peace, its small-scale beauty and for its remarkable monastic history. St Aidan of Iona established Lindisfarne’s monastery in the 7th century. St Cuthbert became its hermit Bishop and saintly icon. The ‘most beautiful book in the world’, the illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels, was crafted here. The little island off the Northumbrian coast kept alive the flickering light of Christianity during the Dark Ages; and when Holy Island was reoccupied after the Norman Conquest (the monks having fled Danish raids in 875AD) a wonderful new monastery was built here.

Lindisfarne is full of marvels. Wind and weather have sculpted swirling shapes in the red sandstone walls of the church, whose ‘sky arch’ springs 50 feet in the air, seemingly unsupported. Down by the harbour old herring boats, sawn in half and upturned, make fishermen’s huts. Lindisfarne Castle rides the basalt knoll of Beblowe Crag like a tall ship; Sir Edwin Lutyens redesigned it for drama, and Gertrude Jekyll laid out the walled garden ablaze with colour.

Inland, the humps of the Cheviot Hills began to fade under rain. The island’s strollers vanished into the tea shops, and I was left alone to walk the north shore dunes, savouring wind and showers, the barking of pale-bellied brent geese newly arrived from Svalbard, and the eerie singing of seals on the sands.

Start & finish: Holy Island causeway car park, Northumberland (OS ref NU079427)

Getting there:

Fly Easyjet (www.easyjet.com) to Newcastle from London Stansted, Bristol, Belfast City. Train (www.thetrainline.com; www.railcard.co.uk) to Berwick-upon-Tweed (10 miles). Bus service 477 (www.perrymansbuses.co.uk) from Berwick. Road: Holy Island is signed off A1 between Belford and Haggerstone.

Website version

Walk: (10 miles including sands crossing, 3½ miles island circular; easy; OS Explorer 340): From car park follow causeway, then pilgrim route posts, to Chare Ends on Holy Island (NB see below!). Follow road to Priory ruins (12648 – signposted). Return to Market Square; between Crown & Anchor and Manor House Hotel, follow path to shore. Left round harbour; on to castle (detour to Gertrude Jekyll’s garden – 136419). Continue on coast path, past The Lough and National Nature Reserve notice. Follow path to left along line of dunes for ½ mile to meet fence at NNR notice (129433). For island circular, left through gate, ahead to village. For sands crossing, keep ahead for ½ mile; bear left (122433) with causeway on right, to rejoin posts at Chare End.

NB: Causeway is impassable 2½ hours either side of high tide. Tide times posted both ends of causeway; or visit www.lindisfarne.org.uk.

Lunch: Plenty of options in village

Holy Island Accommodation: Manor House Hotel (01289-389207; www.manorhouselindisfarne.com); Crown & Anchor (01289-389215; www.holyislandcrown.co.uk); Ship Inn (01289-389311; www.theshipinn-holyisland.co.uk)

More info: Berwick-upon-Tweed TIC (01289-330733); www.lindisfarne.org.uk; www.visitnorthumberland.com; www.ramblers.co.uk; www.satmap.com.

 Posted by at 00:00
Oct 232010
 

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Redesdale runs south from the Scottish border at Carter Bar, a beautiful broad valley bounded by rolling green grazing country and criss-crossed by Roman roads. West Woodburn lies in a dip, right on the River Rede, and the Romans’ highway of Dere Street comes barrelling through it between one crest and the next. The houses of gold and black stone form a guard of honour for the road, to which the village owes its existence and prosperity.

On a bright windy morning I set out up Redesdale from the Bay Horse Inn. On the eastern outskirts of West Woodburn stands Cherry Trees, a solid stone-built house with tiny windows and the outline of an arched doorway in its thick walls – evidence of its former role as a bastle, a farmhouse fortified against rogues and thieves during former lawless times on the Scottish border. Big, thick and forbidding weren’t the only building styles in past eras hereabouts, though. The 18th-century East Woodburn bridge, by which I crossed the river, was as slender and graceful in silver-white stone as any Italian Renaissance masterpiece.

Farms and former farmhouses line the banks of the Rede. I passed through broad meadows bright with buttercups, groves of gnarled old silver birches and pastures where the corduroy seams of medieval strip farming still showed through the grass. Yearhaugh, Halls Hill, Hole Mill, Dykenook: they lay like beads on the string of the bridleway I was following. As I reached the road under Monkridge Hill, I was aware of a hollow banging noise a great way off, like a demented giant kicking his way out of a tin shed – the big guns firing on the Otterburn ranges over the hills to the north.

You wouldn’t walk down a rural road for pleasure in most parts of the country these days, what with crazy drivers in ‘fat cars’. But the back road to East Woodburn is a different kettle of fish entirely. Traffic-free, fringed with meadowsweet and tormentil, it’s a genuine pleasure to walk.

Under jagged Darney Crag I came to a superb viewpoint over Redesdale – East and West Woodburn lying in two grey huddles at the bottom of the dale, a glimpse of the river curling there, scattered farms, and a long skyline of shallow steps and ridges. I could cheerfully have stood there all day, just staring and whistling to myself.

 

Start & finish: Bay Horse Inn, West Woodburn, NE48 2RX (OS ref NY 893868)

Getting there: On A68, between Corbridge and Otterburn

Walk (6 miles; easy; OS Explorer OL42): Leaving Bay Horse, right along road; in 50 yards, right along lane. Pass Braewell Nursery; in 50 yards, left over step stiles (898871; ‘East Woodburn Bridge’) across 2 fields to cross East Woodburn Bridge (901876). Left (‘footpath’ fingerpost). In 300 yards river bends left; ahead here through gate (blue arrow/BA), and follow bridleway (BAs) around Yearhaugh, past Halls Hill (left of house) and Hole Mill to reach Dykenook and road (902895). Right for 2 miles to East Woodburn. Cross road (907868, ‘Ridsdale’); continue uphill. In 100 yards, right through gate; aim for corner of fence; same line to gate (904864); green lane to A68 (898860). Right for 100 yards. Cross A68 (take care!); go through double garden gates by house. Bear right through plantation, through gate (BA); down field by wall to barnyard. Down left side of barn; far right corner of next field; through squeeze stile (894865); left into West Woodburn.

NB: Online maps, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk.

Lunch/accommodation: Bay Horse Inn (01434-270218; www.bayhorseinn.org).

More info: www.wildredesdale.co.uk; www.ramblers.co.uk; www.satmap.com.

 

 

 Posted by at 00:00
Sep 042010
 

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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A fantastically blowy morning in Northumberland, with a light milky fret over the vale of the River Till. Across the sunlit farmlands the Cheviot Hills stood up proud on the southern skyline, rounded and bosomy, fold behind fold, an eye-catching patchwork of green and orange. Climbing the country lane from Doddington up to the moors, I kept turning round for another stare.

A noble view; perhaps that was why our distant ancestors chose Doddington Moor as the site for so many of their stoneworks. Practical ones such as field enclosures and settlements, ritual creations in the form of stone circles, and most notably a scatter of mysterious cup-and-ring markings, rounded depressions the size of a tea-cup surrounded by a doughnut ring, gouged in the surface of flat rocks. Northumberland is rich in cup-and-ring sites; and Doddington Moor is one of the best places to find them.

I followed a hill track past Wooler Golf Club, and on past a congregation of droopy-horned bullocks who jostled up to stand and stare like rude young men in a pub. The path led me around a vast field of oats that sung and hissed in the wind, and then by map, compass and the pricking of my thumbs to stumble suddenly on a fine cup-and-ring marked rock, a sandstone slab dimpled with man-made hollows that looked east towards the coastal hills. Was it sited here to face the rising sun? There’s no telling now; but the slab still holds its power and presence.

Harebells trembled in the wind, which fought me like a foe past the tattered, seething firs of Kitty’s Plantation. ‘Stone Circle (rems. of)’ said the map, and here it was: a big rough king-stone the size of a man, crusted with lichens and deeply grooved by rain and weather, lording it over a circle of recumbent stones. Once again, no why or wherefore; once more an unqualifiable potency in this high bleak place.

I followed an escarpment path, smacked and elbowed by great blasts of wind. Before descending into Doddington village once more, I sheltered by lonely Shepherds Cottage on the brink of the moor and tasted that mighty Cheviot prospect to the full. Whoever lives here is monarch of what must be one of the finest views anywhere in Britain.

Start & finish: Parking place on B6525 in Doddington, Northumberland (OS ref: NT 999324).

Getting there: Bus Service 464 (Wooler – Berwick-on-Tweed) – www.glenvalley.co.uk

Road: A697 to Wooler; B6526 to Doddington. Parking for 3 cars just beyond foot of lane marked ‘Wooler Golf Club’.

Walk: (4 miles, moderate, OS Explorer 340): Climb lane. At ‘Welcome to Wooler Golf Club’ notice, ahead along dirt road for 3/4 mile. Left through gate (NU 016334; ‘Weetwoodhill’); path south to crossing of fences (015327). Through gate; left over stile; left through gate; aim for right corner of plantation to find cup-and-ring stones in 250 yards, beyond lip of slope (018327). Return to cross stile; left past Kitty’s Plantation (013322) and stone circle (013317) to reach gate (012313). Don’t go through; right by fence for 350 yards. By gate (009313), bear right uphill on track. Left along escarpment to fence. Descend to cross stile; path to Shepherd’s House (005316). Don’t follow track behind house; keep ahead on path along escarpment, soon aiming for large farm below. Cross stile (001320); yellow arrows downhill to lane. Left into Doddington.

NB: Last section from 012313 (gate beyond stone circle) is through thick bracken. This walk is for confident walkers with map, compass, GPS.

Online maps, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch: Picnic

More info: Wooler TIC, The Cheviot Centre, 12 Padgepool Place (01668-282123); www.visitnorthumberland.com

www.ramblers.org.uk; www.satmap.com.

 

 Posted by at 00:00
Jan 092010
 

A light dusting of snow over Hadrian’s Wall, with the Whin Sill cliffs riding west from Housesteads, an iron-coloured tsunami breaking into the white wintry sky. Once I had topped the dolerite crags beside the wonderful old Roman fort, an answering wave stood in view over the moors beyond the crags – the low dark billow of Wark Forest, filling the northern skyline.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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As I came clear of the sycamores on Housesteads Crags, the Whin Sill ran before me, a rollercoaster of sheer cliffs, with the snow-crowned strip of the Roman Wall standing proud as it has done for two thousand years. Down in a dip under Cuddy’s Crags I crossed the barrier that denoted the outer limits of Roman civilization, and struck out north along the Pennine Way into the barbarian badlands. Now the Whin Sill showed its harsher aspect as I looked back, pale green columnar crags in a dinosaur spine a hundred feet tall.

Sedgy and ice-crusted, the Pennine Way straggled towards the forest over rough grazing where blackfaced sheep stared before bolting. Out east beyond Broomlee Lough rose the King’s and the Queen’s Crags, outcrops of the Whin Sill where Arthur and Guinevere quarrelled over a game of catch – if legend can be believed. Once in Wark Forest, crags and moors were shut away by the dark, timeless shade of a million white-powdered conifers.

It wasn’t long before I was out on the wide moors of Haughton Common, scratching my head for a sight of the footpath. Bless the fabulous freedoms of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act! Haughton Common is all Access Land these days – anybody’s to wander over at will. I set a course along Crow Crags, then plunged and crunched across the moor towards the beckoning clump of trees around isolated Stell Green farmhouse on its lonely crag. The delight of tramping the whitened farm drive towards the bared teeth of Sewing Shields Crags, with the prospect of a final mile beside the Roman Wall towards a gold and silver sunset, brings a retrospective rush of pleasure even as I write.

Start & finish: Housesteads car park, Hadrian’s Wall (OS ref NY 714684) – £3 all day (coins)

Getting there: Rail (www.thetrainline.com) – nearest station Bardon Mill (4 miles);

Bus (01424-322002; www.hadrianswallcountry.org) – Hadrian’s Wall Bus AD122; Road – A69, Newcastle-Carlisle; at Hexham, A6079 to Low Brunton; B6318 Chollerford-Housesteads.

Walk (8½ miles, moderate/hard, OS Explorer OL43): Left along Hadrian’s Wall from Housesteads Fort for ½ mile; at Cuddy’s Crags, right on Pennine Way (781686; white acorn symbols, yellow arrows) for 1½ miles by Cragend (782700) and ladder stile near East Stonefolds (780707) into forest. In 300 yards (781709; ‘Haughton Green’ fingerpost), ahead off Pennine Way to Haughton Green cottage (788713). Ahead (‘Lonborough, Fenwickfield’ fingerpost) for 100 yards; left across stream; follow yellow arrows to leave forest (791717) onto Haughton Common (Access Land: choose own path!). Follow top of Crow Crags for ½ mile to sheepfold among trees (778722). Aim a little right (due east – boggy! Some streams to ford!) for ⅔ mile to Stell Green farmhouse, in tree clump on ridge (808722). Follow farm drive south for 1½ miles to Hadrian’s Wall at Sewing Shields (811703); right to Housesteads.

NB Conditions: Boggy ground on Pennine Way; trackless across Haughton Common! Wear waterproof legwear. If inexperienced on open moorland, keep this walk for fine weather.

Online: Maps, more walks at www.christophersomerville.co.uk.

Lunch: Twice Brewed Inn on B6318 (01434-344534; www.twicebrewedinn.co.uk)

Accommodation: Carraw Farmhouse, Military Rd, Humshaugh, Hexham (01434-689857; www.carraw.co.uk).

Housesteads Roman Fort: www.english-heritage.org; www.nationaltrust.org.

Info: www.hadrians-wall.org; www.visitnortheastengland.com;

www.visitnorthumberland.com

 Posted by at 00:00
Apr 182009
 

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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The folk of medieval Upper Coquetdale were famously tough – and they needed to be. The wild cleft in Northumberland’s Cheviot Hills lay at the frontier where Scotland and England collided. This was debatable land, a lawless country. Here Scots battled Englishmen, hot-headed Border lords hacked and slashed each other in bloody ‘frays’, and the masterless cattle bandits called reivers cut the throats and broke the heads of all who stood in their way. Jane and I pictured the mayhem as we wandered the green triple ramparts of the Roman forts and camps at Chew Green, built in these remote hills two thousand years ago at the orders of Governor Julius Agricola, a man who would have brooked no law-breaking whatsoever.

Two great marching camps overspread the slopes of Chew Green, with a fort incorporated and a couple more strongholds as part of the complex. We followed the green road the soldiers built, part of the mighty highway of Dere Street that arrowed from Eboracum north to the shores of the Firth of Forth. Subject to ambush, cold and overstretched, often soaked and always on the lookout, how the Roman conscripts must have grumbled and groused on their long marches at the outermost margin of civilization. Today it was the curses of a pair of Pennine Way walkers that floated on the Cheviot winds as they limped up Dere Street, bruised and blistered of foot, towards the Scottish border on the last day of their 270-mile ordeal. ‘Lovely day!’ I carolled as we caught up with them on the Border fence. ‘Luck t’you!’ they snarled back – or something like that.

A side path led off east over the rounded backs of The Dodd and Deel’s Hill, with the deep valley of the young River Coquet out of sight in its cleft below. It was a wonderfully exhilarating march, a cold wind out of Scotland bowling us along, with far views across bleak treeless hills whose pale grasses seethed and raced as if stirred by invisible spears.

Down at Buckham’s Bridge we dropped onto the valley road and turned back past the lonely farmhouse of Fulhope where half a dozen farmers had gathered to dip their sheep. A quad bike on the steep slope above carried a shepherd and an ancient collie, while the junior dogs crouched and raced at shouted commands: ‘Left! Left! That’ll do!’ The sheep wheeled and scampered in a panic, the shape and direction of the flock skilfully managed to funnel them down to the dipping bath.

Back at the car park we met a squad of soldiers, doubling up the lane at the end of some ferocious exercise on the hills. The lad in the rear – he couldn’t have been more than 17 – was wincing with every step. ‘Hop in,’ I said, opening the car door. He grinned, sheepishly, and hobbled on after his mates. Julius Agricola would have recognised the spirit.

 

Start & finish: Chew Green parking place (OS ref NT 794085)

Getting there: A1, B634 to Rothbury; B6341 through Thropton; in 2 miles, minor road to Alwinton; follow ‘No Through Road’ up Upper Coquetdale for 12 miles to Chew Green. Walk (6 miles, moderate grade, OS Explorer OL16): From Chew Green Roman camp, follow Pennine Way/Dere Street to Border fence (791096). Right on path to The Dodd (797098), then bridleway over Deel’s Hill (804102) to Buckham’s Bridge (824107); right along road to Chew Green.

NB – Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Otterburn Ranges information: 01830 520569; www.otterburnranges.co.uk

Lunch and Accommodation: Rose & Thistle, Alwinton (01669-650226; www.roseandthistlealwinton.com)

More info: Rothbury National Park Tourist Information Centre (01669-620887; www.visit-rothbury.co.uk

 

 Posted by at 00:00
May 062020
 

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1. St Ives and Zennor, Cornwall
11 miles; OS Explorer 102

The outward leg from St Ives is one of the finest stretches of the South West Coast Path, a beautiful westward run of heath-covered headlands, granite cliffs and rocky coves where seals bob and fulmars wheel. Wild thyme lends a bitter-sweet fragrance to the grassy banks. Opposite the village of Zennor the coast path swings out onto Gurnard’s Head, a wild dragon-headed promontory with sheer cliffs that fall to sea-sculpted caves where the waves crash and boom. At Zennor, St Senara’s Church is home to the mermaid of Zennor, stiff and stark after 600 years as a carved bench end.

The homeward path follows the old Corpse Road footpath through the fields. This former route for bodies to be borne to Christian burial passes through a farming landscape that remembers its Bronze Age origins in the tiny size of the fields and the immense sturdiness and thickness of their walls. Each field is linked to its neighbour by a Cornish stile, a row of four or five well-spaced bars of granite set over a pit. It forms a grid barrier that baffles cattle and sheep – but not the sagacious local pigs, apparently.

Start/finish: Porthmeor Beach, St. Ives, TR26 1TG, (OS ref SW 516408)
Directions: SW Coast Path to Zennor; return by field path via Tremedda, Tregerthen and Wicca to Boscubben (473395); then Trevessa (481396), Trevega Wartha, Trevalgan (489402) and Trowan (494403) to Venton Vision (506407) and St Ives.

2. Corton Denham and Cadbury Castle, Somerset
7½ miles; OS Explorer 129

Not just a stroll through the green lanes and hills of south Somerset, this is a walk in the ghostly presence of King Arthur. The Macmillan Way lies just west of Corton Denham, and takes a northward course with an enormous view over a wooded vale leading to Glastonbury Tor, the summit tower a tiny pimple at the apex. The long line of the Mendip Hills closes the vista, with the green wedge of Brent Knoll 25 miles away in the west.

A clockwise loop around the mellow stone houses of Sutton Montis, and you follow the old greenway of Folly Lane across the medieval ridge-and-furrow to South Cadbury, tucked in the lee of Cadbury Castle’s great ramparted hill fort. A stony cart track climbs through the Iron Age ramparts to the wide, sloping summit of the hill. Did King Arthur, the ‘once-and-future King’, ever feast here with his warriors and his treacherous queen? An excavation in 1966-70 brought to light the foundations of a great aisled feasting hall, built in the early Dark Ages at the crown of Cadbury Castle. And spectral riders still sally forth from the fort at midnight, local stories say, their horses shod with silver that flashes in the starlight.

Start/finish: Corton Denham, Somerset DT9 4LR (OS ref ST 635225)
Directions: From Middle Ridge Lane (opposite church) footpath west to Corton Ridge (626224). North (Monarch’s Way) for 1 mile to road at Kember’s Hill (629241). Footpath through Sutton Montis to meet Leland Trail/LT (620252). LT to South Cadbury; right (632256), then right again, up to Cadbury Castle. Return to road; right; 100m past Crang’s Lane, path (633249, yellow arrow/YA) south to Whitcombe Farm and road (631237). Path below Corton Hill (‘Corton Denham’) back to Corton Denham.

3. Kingley Vale, near East Ashling, West Sussex
3 miles; OS Explorer OL8

Every summer I look forward to a lazy walk in warm sunshine, up the track from West Stoke car park and round the waymarked circuit of Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve. It takes all afternoon to stroll these three miles, because Kingley Vale’s preserved chalk grassland is made for lingering and looking. It’s composed more of flowering plants than of grasses, a tight-packed sward rich in thyme and marjoram, with scabious, harebells, pink centaury, bird’s foot trefoil and dozens more species attracting clouds of blues, coppers, argus, browns and other butterflies.

By contrast, the sombre yew grove that colonises the steep east-facing slope on the west edge of the reserve seems barren of all life except that of its ancient occupants. This great grove, protected on its chalk slope, is a rare survival. The yew crowns are a green so dark it is almost black, but once in among them you find that their limbs are pale, brittle and twisted, like dried muscles. How old are these sombre, knotted trees? At least 500 years, but some of them are old enough to have seen druidical worship. Some could already have been standing many centuries at Kingley Vale when the upstart Romans came invading.

Start/finish: West Stoke car park (OS ref SU 825088), near East Ashling on B2178 near Chichester.
Directions: Through kissing gate; follow track north to kissing gate into NNR. Bear left on footpath just inside fence; follow uphill for 1/3 mile to yew grove on right (819105). Continue along waymarked path to make clockwise circuit of reserve.

4. Alfriston, Jevington and the South Downs, East Sussex
8½ miles; OS Explorer 123

Some walks just grab you so hard that you know you’ll be back to enjoy them again and again. I can never get enough of this beautiful circuit of East Sussex villages in the shadow of the South Downs.

Alfriston’s houses and inns are rich in carved timbers. On a sunny day the village lies in bright brick reds, acid greens and indigos. A flinty track runs east to pass below the Long Man of Wilmington, an ancient giant two hundred feet tall, his outline cut out of a chalk downland slope. A rutted woodland path leads on to Folkington, where pioneer celebrity chef Elizabeth David lies in the churchyard under a gravestone carved with aubergines, peppers and cloves of garlic. Then you head south on a snaking track to Jevington with its thousand-year-old church tower built like a fortress against Viking marauders. A Saxon Christ adorns the wall, victorious over a puny, wriggling serpent.

Crossing the downs on the homeward stretch, one marvels at how a corner of countryside with such a vigorous and bloody history – Viking and French raids, coastguard battles with the smuggling gangs, Second World War bombs and doodlebugs – has settled to a tranquillity as smooth as the applewood smoke rising from Alfriston’s chimneys into the blue Sussex sky.

Start/finish: Alfriston, East Sussex BN26 5UQ (OS ref TQ 521033)
Directions: Downland track east via Long Man of Wilmington (542034); Wealdway path via The Holt (551040) and Folkington church (559038) to St Andrew’s Church, Jevington (562015). South Downs Way west to Holt Brow (553019); Lullington Heath NNR via Winchester’s Pond (540020) to Litlington (523021). Left past Litlington church; just before Plough & Harrow PH, right (523017 – ‘Vanguard Way’) to Cuckmere River; right to Alfriston.

5. Latimer, Chenies and the Chess Valley, Bucks/Herts border
7 miles; OS Explorer 172

Of all the gorgeous walks within easy reach of London, this one never palls in any season. From Chalfont & Latimer tube station (Metropolitan line), Bedford Avenue and Chenies Avenue lead north into West Wood, where the Chess Valley Walk trail descends to cross the River Chess in its beautiful green valley under the neat estate village of Latimer. From here it’s a clockwise circuit, following the Chess Valley Walk above the shallow, winding river. ‘Mr William Liberty of Chorleywood, nonconformist brickmaker’ (died 1777), having refused a church burial, lies by the field path with his wife Alice in a brick-built tomb. Further on, you can buy a peppery, crunchy bunch of watercress from Tyler’s farm, before reaching Church End where astonishing 14th-century paintings adorn the village church.

Back across the River Chess, the Chiltern Way leads across lush wet pastures, then through woods of hornbeam and cherry to Chenies village. History lies thick on the great Tudor mansion of Chenies; and in the adjacent church generations of Russells, Dukes and Duchesses of Bedford, lie entombed. From here you follow a ridge path back to Chalfont, with glorious views across the Chess Valley.

Start/finish: Chalfont & Latimer tube station, Bucks, HP7 9PR (OS ref SU 997975)
Directions: Bedford Avenue; Chenies Avenue (996976); at Beechwood Avenue (996981), ahead into West Wood. Follow Chess Valley Walk downhill to leave wood and cross road (999985), then river (000986). Right to cross road (004987; ‘Chess Valley Walk’/CVW, fish waymark). Follow CVW for 1¾ miles to road (031990); on Sarratt Church (039984). Chiltern Way west to road (021980) and Chenies (016983); west via Walk Wood and West Wood to return to station.

6. Dunwich and Dingle Marshes, Suffolk
6¾ miles; OS Explorer 231

A perfect encapsulation of the moody magnetism of the Suffolk Coast. Dunwich was a great trading port whose churches, hospitals, squares and houses were utterly consumed by the sea. A path leads up to the solitary curly-topped headstone of Jacob Forster, still clinging to the cliff edge, the last relic of the church of All Saints that toppled to the beach in 1922.

The Suffolk Coast & Heaths Path runs north through copses of old oak and pine trees. Grazing marshes, dotted with black cattle, stretch away towards the long straight bar of the sea wall. Soon you are in among the great reedbeds of Westwood Marshes where tiny bearded tits bounce and flit through the reeds, trailing their long tails low behind them and emitting pinging noises like overstretched wire fences. There’s no view whatsoever of the nearby sea, just a haunting feeling of country walked by many, but known by very few.

Once across the Dunwich River, you top the shingle bank. Here is an instant switch of view and perspective, out over a slate grey sea and round the curve of the bay, as you follow the pebbly beach back to Dunwich under its sloping cliff.

Start/finish: Dunwich car park, Suffolk, IP17 3EN (OS ref TM 478706)
Directions: Ship Inn – St James’s Church and Leper Hospital (475706) – Bridge Farm (474707; ‘Suffolk Coast Path’/SCP). Little Dingle (475717) – Dingle Stone House (476724) to Great Dingle Farm (483730). Follow SCP arrows through Westwood Marshes to footbridge (495742, SCP) to shingle bank; right to Dunwich.

7. Lakenheath Fen, Norfolk/Suffolk border
7¾ miles; OS Explorer 228

All the famed dampness and richness of unspoilt Fenland are perfectly caught in this walk around Lakenheath Fen nature reserve. The path from Hockwold-cum-Wilton is by way of Church Lane, Moor Drove and the sluices and banks of the Little Ouse River, heading west into the reserve via its excellent Visitor Centre.

It’s hard to credit that this green and fertile fen landscape was intensively farmed carrot fields not so long ago. Dug out, planted with fen vegetation and provided with plenty of water, it has burst into life. Various waymarked trails lead through the reserve, with the Main Circular Trail as the spine. Otters thrive here, bitterns boom in spring among the reedbeds, kingfishers and water voles scud about. Cranes are nesting for the first time in centuries. Marsh harriers hunt the reedbeds and ditches on long dark wings, sailing the air with effortless mastery. Along the trail, detours lead to hides with privilege viewpoints over meres where great crested grebes perform their elaborate courtship rituals.

At Joist Fen the walk bears right to follow the bank of the Little Ouse back to Hockwold. A bunch of lucky cattle graze here, up to their chins in the lushest grass in East Anglia.

Start/finish: Hockwold-cum-Wilton, Norfolk IP26 4NB (OS ref TL 735880)
Directions: Church Lane; Moor Drove East (734876); cross sluice (731870); right along riverbank to B1112 (724868). Left; in 300m, right to Lakenheath Fen Nature Reserve Visitor Centre (718863). Follow Main Circular Trail/MCT (white arrows/WA) clockwise as far as Little Ouse river bank (698861). Right (Hereward Way) for 2 miles back to B1112 (724866). Left (take care!); retrace steps to Hockwold.

8. Purton and the Ships Graveyard, Gloucestershire
6½ miles; OS Explorer OL14

The River Severn comes down through west Gloucestershire in great wide loops, slowly broadening into its estuary. Boats that ply the river are few and far between these days, and the skeletons of some old Severn craft are one of the features of this fascinating walk.

From Brookend near Sharpness, field paths run north across the swell of the land to the tiny village of Purton on the edge of a big bend in the Severn. Through the village runs the long silver streak of the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal, dug across country at the turn of the 19th century to bypass some of the most difficult and dangerous bends of the river.

Dozens of old coal and cargo boats were brought here to Purton at the end of their working lives and rammed into the soft mud of the Severn’s east bank, to stiffen it and protect the adjacent canal against the fierce sweep of the tides. It’s a poignant walk back to Sharpness among the ribs and sternposts, tillers and rudders of these former river queens. And Sharpness itself is a fascinating rarity, a working river port where cranes clank as they unload cement and fertiliser from rusty old sea-going boats.

Start/finish: Brookend, Sharpness GL13 9SF (OS ref SO 684021)
Directions: Footpath north across fields for 1½ miles to Purton (682042). Cross canal; past Berkeley Arms PH (691045). Riverside path joins canal towpath (687044). Detour right along riverbank through Ships Graveyard, then canal towpath into Sharpness. Cross canal (670030); ‘Severn Way’ up steps; ahead past Dockers’ Club (671029) to road. Left across left-hand of 2 swing bridges (673029). Ahead to road (677026); right (‘Sharpness’). Left beside Village Hall (674021 – fingerpost); paths via Buckett’s Hill Farm to Brookend.

9. White Horse and Wayland’s Smithy, Oxfordshire
6 miles; OS Explorer 170

If you want to savour the deep history and mythology of these islands, you can’t do better than tramp the ancient Ridgeway across the chalk downs of Oxfordshire. Start from Woolstone, tucked in below the hills, and follow the field paths southwest via Knighton and Compton Beauchamp. From here you glimpse the White Horse that was cut out of the chalk turf high above some 3,000 years ago, still beautiful and enigmatic in her disjointed, futuristic form.

From Odstone Farm a sunken track leads uphill to reach the Ridgeway, already ancient when the White Horse was made, a rutted upland thoroughfare curving with the crest of the downs. Turning east along the Ridgeway you soon come to a remarkable monument, the great Neolithic long barrow of Wayland’s Smithy, its huge portal stones and grassy mound surrounded by a ring of tall old beeches. Wayland was a blacksmith in Norse mythology, and local tales say he’ll shoe your horse if you leave it overnight along with a silver coin. You don’t have to be a New Age devotee to sense the power and presence of the far past here.

A long mile along the Ridgeway brings you to the White Horse herself, and a descent down a steep breast of downland called The Manger to reach Woolstone.

Start/finish: Woolstone, Faringdon, Oxfordshire SN7 7QL (OS ref SU 293878)
Directions: cross Hardwell Lane – Compton House – just before Odstone Farm, left up Odstone Hill – left along Ridgeway. Wayland’s Smithy – detour to Uffington Castle and White Horse – continue on Ridgeway for ½ mile – left (308864) – Britchcombe Farm – cross B4507. On for ½ mile – left (308880) – path to Woolstone.

10. The Stiperstones, Shropshire
5 miles; OS Explorer 216
The Stiperstones stand stark and jagged. These quartzite outcrops rise from a heathery ridge at the northern end of the Long Mynd, Shropshire’s great whaleback of a hill. They are the focus of some of the most bizarre folk tales and superstitions in these islands.

The Shropshire Way leads up and past the Stones, heading north across heather moorland where cranberries make scarlet splashes of colour. This upland heath is carefully preserved for its wildlife value, with cowberry and crowberry among the great swathes of purple heather. You pass Cranberry Rock and Manstone Rock to reach the largest outcrop, the Devil’s Chair. When mist envelops the Stones, the Devil is in his Chair, waiting for Old England to sink beneath the earth. Impossible to tell how all these Gothic notions gained ground, but they lend the Stiperstones a very peculiar aura.

Views from the ridge are superb over the Shropshire hills and woods, east to the long green bar of Wenlock Edge, west as far as the borderlands of Wales. From Shepherd Rock a steep grassy path leaves the hill, descending steeply Past old lead-mine workings to Stiperstones village far below. From here a lower track leads back below the Stones, hard-edged and ominous along the eastern skyline.

Start/finish: Bog Centre car park, Stiperstones (OS ref SO 355979)
Directions: Shropshire Way from road (362976) past Cranberry Rock (365981), Manstone Rock (367986), Devil’s Chair (368991). From cairn just before Shepherd’s Rock (374000), steep descent to Stiperstones village (363004) and Stiperstones Inn. Return to Bog Centre via 361002, 359999, 361996 and lane parallel to the Stiperstones.

11. Kinder Edge, Derbyshire
9 miles; OS Explorer OL1

A hugely popular walk, and deservedly so. This is the ultimate memorial hike, commemorating the crowd of left-wing, working class youngsters from the industrial sprawls of Manchester and Sheffield who in 1932 initiated an incursion known as the Mass Trespass onto the privately owned moorland of Kinder. Some were imprisoned, others vilified. Without the impetus of their bold action, we wouldn’t have the right to roam over wild upland country that we enjoy today.

From Bowden Bridge near Hayfield you head north above Kinder Reservoir, looking across the valley to the long upstanding line of crags that form Kinder Edge. A steep climb beside the beck in rocky William Clough leads to the peat bogs of Ashop Head, where gamekeepers with sticks tried and failed to stem the mass trespass of 1932.

From here it’s a long and exhilarating stride south along the Pennine Way at the very edge of the gritstone escarpment, with magnificent views to Manchester and the distant hills of Wales. Across the watersplash of Kinder Downfall, and on to where the homeward path turns west off the Pennine Way at ancient Edale Cross and starts its descent down the long, long lane to Bowden Bridge.

Start/finish: Bowden Bridge car park, Hayfield, Derbyshire, SK22 2LH approx (OS ref SK 049870)

Directions: Continue up road. At Booth Sheepwash cross river (051876); in 100m, take path (yellow arrow). In 250m, left to reservoir gates; up cobbled bridleway on left. In 300m, left (054882, metal ‘bridleway’ sign) up to gate. Right (‘Snake Inn’) for 1½ miles (White Brow, William’s Clough) up to Ashop Head (065900). Right on Pennine Way along Kinder Edge for 3½ miles. Beyond Edale Rocks where PW turns left for Edale, right (081861) through gate; lane for 2¾ miles down to Kinder Road and car park.

12. Muker and Keld, Swaledale, N. Yorkshire
6½ miles; OS Explorer OL30

A classic walk in the Yorkshire Dales from the picture-book village of Muker. An old road, stone-surfaced and stone-walled, leads up the sloping fellsides. It heads northwest through sheep pastures to skirt the big open rise of Kisdon Hill before dropping gently down to Skeb Skeugh ford and the huddle of grey stone houses at Keld. I remember, many years ago, stumbling into Keld after a miserable day of rain and mist on the Pennine Way, and the bliss of a cup of tea and a pair of dry socks there.

From Keld the homeward path crosses the River Swale at the hissing waterfall of East Gill Force. A little further on and you pass tumbledown Crackpot Hall, undermined by subsidence in the lead mines of Swinner Gill. This is a sombre spot, resonant with history, a maze of spoil heaps, arched stone mine levels, and the precarious hillside trods or tracks of the miners.

It’s a remarkable contrast, walking south from these dolorous ruins above the fast-rushing Swale, down into the delightful green lushness of Swaledale and the stone-walled sheep pastures around Muker.

Start/finish: Muker, Richmond, N Yorks DL11 6QG (OS ref SO 910979)
Directions: Up lane by Muker Literary Institute. Forward; up right side of Grange Farm (‘footpath Keld’). Follow lane; then ‘Bridleway Keld’ (909982) up walled lane for ½ mile. Cross Pennine Way/PW and on (903986; ‘Keld 2 miles’) along bridleway to ford and B6270 (892006). Right into Keld. Right down lane (893012; ‘footpath Muker’). In 300 yards, left downhill (‘PW’) across River Swale, up to waterfall. Right (896011; ‘bridleway’) for ½ mile. 150m past stone barn, left (904009) to Crackpot Hall; path into Swinner Gill, to fingerpost (911012) opposite mine buildings. Sharp right (‘Muker’) to ford beck (911008); follow track down Swaledale for 1 mile. Cross Swale (910986); meadow path to Muker.

13. Cronkley Fell, Upper Teesdale, Durham Dales
7 miles; OS Explorer OL31

For its wonderful flowers and birds, this is my favourite springtime walk of all. You set off from Forest-in-Teesdale to cross the River Tees near Cronkley Farm. The peat-brown Tees comes charging down its rocky bed, roaring loudly and rumbling the stones as it races by. The valley meadows are full of nesting birds – lapwing, redshank and curlew – each with its own haunting cry, the very voice of spring in this wild place. Snipe go rocketing about the sky, divebombing with a drumming rattle of outspread tail feathers.

From Cronkley Farm the Pennine Way climbs southward to meet the old lead-miners’ road called the Green Trod. Turning west along this grassy broad track, you are soon in flowery heaven up on the nape of Cronkley Fell. Tiny white flowers of lead-resistant spring sandwort flourish in abandoned mine workings. Higher up you find the real jewels of this rugged, enchanting valley – tiny, delicate Teesdale violets, miniature bird’s-eye primroses as shocking pink as a starlet’s fingernails, and royal blue trumpets of spring gentians.
A picnic pause to contemplate the forward view over the basalt crags of Falcon Clints, and you descend through pungent-smelling juniper bushes to turn for home along the brawling Tees once more.

Start/finish: Forest-in-Teesdale car park, near Langdon Beck, Co. Durham DL12 0HA (OS ref NY 867298)
Directions: Right along B6277; in 100m, left down farm track via Wat Garth, to cross River Tees by Cronkley Bridge (862294). Follow Pennine Way (PW) past Cronkley Farm, up rocky slope of High Crag and on along paved track. In 500m, left across stile (861283). PW bears left, but continue ahead uphill by fence. Through kissing gate (861281); in 100m, right along wide grassy trackway. Follow it for 2 miles west across Cronkley Fell (occasional cairns). Descend at Man Gate to River Tees (830283); right along river for 2½ miles. At High House barn (857294), half-left across pasture to Cronkley Bridge; return to car park.

14. Mellbreak, Mosedale and Crummock Water, Lake District
6 miles; OS Explorer OL4

This delectable circuit offers all the delights of Lakeland in one go – a steep (but not too steep) fell, a little-visited side dale, and a gorgeous lakeside stroll back to one of the best pubs in Cumbria.

From the Kirkstile Inn a country road runs south. A little way past Kirkgate Farm a path heads off, straight up the northern face of Mellbreak. The fell looks tremendously steep; but in fact the path is clear once you’re on it, and with a bit of zigzagging and a modicum of hard breathing you’re on the top of this rugged mini-mountain almost before you know it. The view is one of the finest in the Lake District – north across the Solway Firth to the distant hills of Galloway, east to the pink screes of Grasmoor across Crummock Water, south to the magnificent humpy spine of Red Pike, High Stile and High Crag.

Gaze your fill; then drop down west into green and silent Mosedale, boggy and orchid-spattered. ‘Dreary,’ opined Alfred Wainwright. For once, the Master was wrong. Head south along Mosedale, round the end of Mellbreak, and finish with a glorious stroll north up the side of Crummock Water with a feast of fells all round.

Start/finish: Kirkstile Inn, Loweswater, Cumbria CA13 0RU (OS ref NY 141209)
Directions: From Kirkstile Inn, south on lane past Kirkgate Farm for ½ mile. At gate (139202), up through trees, then to foot of scree (141199). Bear left; zigzag steeply up to Mellbreak’s northern summit (143195). Forward for 500m to dip and fork in path (145190); bear right, steeply down to path in Mosedale (141186). Left (south) for ¾ mile to gate in fence (146175); down to track by Black Beck (146174); left (east) to Crummock Water. Left (north) to north end of lake. Bear left (149197) to wall (148199); follow to Highpark Farm (145202). On to cross Park Bridge (145205); fork left to Kirkstile Inn.

15. Holy Island, Northumberland
10 miles, OS Explorer 340
NB Causeway and Pilgrim Path are impassable 2½ hours either side of high tide. Tide times posted by causeway; also at lindisfarne.org.uk

Pilgrims have been crossing the sands for a thousand years to reach Lindisfarne or Holy Island,  monastic retreat of the 7th century hermit bishop St Cuthbert. The pilgrim path to Lindisfarne, marked out by tall poles, diverges from the causeway road to cross the murky sands. It’s a squelching walk, windy and redolent of salt mud and seaweed, passing a long-legged refuge tower for unwary travellers caught by the incoming tide. Often you can hear the eerie singing of seals on the distant sands.

Once ashore on Holy Island, the little village with its great red sandstone monastic ruins is fascinating to explore. Down off the southwest corner lies tiny, tidal Hobthrush Island, with the sparse remains of an ancient chapel marking the site of the cell where Cuthbert sought even greater privacy.

A circular walk round Holy Island by way of Lindisfarne Castle on its dolerite crag and the nearby garden laid out by Gertrude Jekyll, and then back along the pilgrim path to the mainland, savouring the solitude of this vast expanse of tidal sand under enormous skies.

Start/finish: Holy Island causeway car park, Northumberland (OS ref NU079427)
Directions: Follow sands route (post markers) to Holy Island. Right to village and monastery. Walk anti-clockwise round island: harbour, castle, Gertrude Jekyll’s Garden (136419), The Lough, path west beside dunes. At gate by NNR notice (129433), left down track to village, or ahead for ½ mile, then left (122433) to causeway and sands route.

16. Worm’s Head, Gower Peninsula, South Wales
4 miles there-and-back; OS Explorer 164
NB Causeway is accessible for 2½ hours either side of low tide. Tide times at tides.willyweather.co.uk. Please don’t venture as far as Outer Head between 1 March and 31 August – nesting birds!

Norsemen named Gower’s double-humped promontory ‘wurm’, meaning dragon or serpent, and Worm’s Head does resemble a massive green monster heading out to sea. This is a wildly exhilarating scramble, spiced by the knowledge that you have to get your tide timings right. If you don’t, you’re in good company – Dylan Thomas once got himself marooned here.

From the National Trust car park at the western tip of the Gower peninsula you follow the cliffs out to the rough and rugged causeway crossing. There are blennies and crabs in the rock pools, and canted blades of barnacle-encrusted rock to cross before you can scramble up onto Inner Head, the middle section of the promontory. A path leads among pink flowerheads of thrift to the square wave-cut arch of the Devil’s Bridge, across which you make your way (but not in nesting season) onto the furthest hummock, Outer Head. Here kittiwakes, fulmars, guillemots, razorbills and puffins fill air and sea with their cries, flights and incredible guano stink.

Start/finish: Rhossili car park, Gower (OS ref SS 415880)
Directions: Walk ahead past National Trust information centre, following track and descending to cross causeway. Follow path round south side of Inner Head, across Devil’s Bridge (389877), round south side of Low Neck, out to Outer Head.

17. Llyn Bochnant and Cwm Idwal, Snowdonia, North Wales
6½ miles; OS Explorer OL17

Cwm Idwal is justifiably one of the most popular spots in Snowdonia – a readily accessible, highly dramatic bowl of crags cradling the dark lake of Llyn Idwal. Just above in a hidden valley lies another lake, Llyn Bochlwyd, far less frequented, from which you descend into Cwm Idwal by a steep and beautiful path.

The trail starts from Cwm Idwal car park (on A5 between Capel Curig and Bethesda) up a stone-pitched track. After 400m you leave the crowds behind, forking left onto a path that climbs the steep chute of Nant Bochlwyd beside a tumbling stream. Up at the top under the grim crags of Glyder Fach lies Llyn Bochlwyd, in a silent hollow of bilberry and grass. A spot to sit and savour before skeltering down the precipitous path to Llyn Idwal far below. Look out hereabouts for the white bib and harsh rattling chirrup of the ring ouzel, a mountain blackbird rarely seen.

A path circles Llyn Idwal, running high up under the crags of Glyder Fawr. Among the big boulders here grows starry saxifrage, delicate and white, and the miniature green blooms of alpine lady’s mantle, a lovely carpet of mountain flowers.

Start/finish: Cwm Idwal car park, Nant Ffrancon, LL57 3LZ (OS ref SH 649603)
Directions: Up stone-pitched path at left side of Warden Centre. In 350m path bends right (652601); ahead here on stony track across bog; steeply up right side of Nant Bochlwyd to Llyn Bochlwyd (655594). Right (west) on path for 400m to saddle (652594); then steeply down to Llyn Idwal (647596). Left along lake. At south end take higher path (646593) slanting up to boulder field; take care fording torrent at 642589! At big 20-ft boulder (640589), go right down side of boulder; left across rocky grass to homeward path (640590), steep in places.

18. Creag Meagaidh NNR, Inverness-shire, Scotland
8½ miles; OS Explorer 401

A classic there-and-back walk among the Scottish mountains, rising up a flowery glen to a hidden corrie. If you’re longing for the day you can take a picnic out among the hills again, squirrel this splendid walk away in your wish list.

Creag Meagaidh National Nature Reserve car park lies on the A86 between Spean Bridge and Kinloch Laggan. A trail marked with otter symbols leads past buildings and up steps to a sign for ‘Coire Adair’, the start of the walk up the bow-shaped glen. At first the path runs among woods of young birch, alder and oak. The boggy hillsides are dotted with heath spotted orchids, the hair-like stems and bright blue flowers of insectivorous butterwort, and purple blooms of wood cranesbill.

Once beyond the trees, mountains hem you round, the Allt Coire Adair burn tumbles down its snaky bed, and the path rises gently across open moorland tufted with bog cotton. At the top of the glen you surmount the hummock of a glacial moraine, and a prospect opens down onto the little glassy lakelet of Lochan a’Choire under a curving wall of black cliffs, lonely, wild and utterly silent.

Start/finish: Creag Meagaidh NNR car park, PH20 1BX (OS ref NN 483873)
Directions: From car park follow red trail (otter symbol). In 500m pass to right of toilets/buildings (479876). Follow path on the level, then up steps; fork right at top (474879; ‘Coire Ardair’) on clear stony path for 3 miles to Lochan a’ Choire (439883). Return same way.

19. Hermaness, Isle of Unst, Shetland
5 miles; OS Explorer 470

One of the most dramatic springtime walks I know, and certainly one of the remotest, Hermaness is a place apart. This blunt headland forms the northernmost tip of the Isle of Unst, itself the most northerly island in Britain. You set out literally from the end of the road, climbing a well-marked path that circles round the headland. The first inhabitants you meet will be the bonxies or great skuas, big clumsy gull-like birds that defend their nests and fluffy chicks by screaming and flying at you – though a stick upheld will deflect them.

It’s a rugged welcome to Hermaness, but this is a rugged place of bog, tiny lochs and tremendously craggy cliffs. The dramatic showpiece suddenly appears as you breast the rise and look down over a line of enormous sea stacks, great canted blades of rock jutting out of the sea. Their sheer dark slopes are whitened by the tens of thousands of gulls, fulmars, kittiwakes and guillemots that circle restlessly far below. Rumblings, Vesta Skerry, Tipta Skerry, Muckle Flugga with its stumpy lighthouse, and the little round button of Out Stack – these are the full stops that top off the mighty travelogue of Britain.

Start/finish: The Ness parking place, Burrafirth, Isle of Unst (OS ref HP612147)
Directions: From Ness parking place at end of road, follow marked circular path (green-topped posts) round Hermaness. Allow 2-3 hours. Remote, windy, boggy and slippery underfoot: dress warm and dry; walking boots. Take great care on cliff edges. Bring binoculars and stick. Information leaflets in metal box at start of path. NB: Great Skua (‘bonxie’) dive-bombs during chick-rearing season, generally late May until July, coming close but rarely striking. To deter, hold stick above head. Please avoid Sothers Brecks nesting area, May-July.

20. Slieve Gullion, Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland
5 miles there-and-back; OSNI Discoverer 29; walkni.com

Slieve Gullion rises over South Armagh, a kingly mountain, a great volcanic plug that dominates the landscape for miles around. This is a mountain of myth and legend, with a sensational 100-mile view from the summit as a reward for the not-very-demanding climb.

From Slieve Gullion Forest Park car park (signposted on the Drumintee Road between Newry and Forkhill) there’s a well-walked trail (‘Ring of Gullion’ waymarks) rising in stages via forest roads and tracks, clockwise round the southern slopes of Slieve Gullion. In a couple of miles you bear right at an upper car park, a short steep upward puff that lands you on the south peak of the mountain.

The prospect is simply sublime. A great volcanic ridge of hills encircles the mountain, with views beyond as far as the Mourne Mountains, the Antrim hills, the billowy Sperrins, and the green and brown midland plain running south to the tiny silhouettes of the Wicklow Hills beyond Dublin, a hundred miles away.

Explore the Neolithic passage grave on the peak, then picnic by the Lake of Sorrows. But don’t touch the enchanted millstone that lies half-submerged there. It might bring forth the dreaded magical hag, the Cailleach Beara, and you wouldn’t want that.

Start/finish: Slieve Gullion Forest Park car park, Drumintee Road, Killeavy, Newry, Co. Armagh BT35 8SW (OS of NI ref J 040196)
Directions: From top left corner of car park, left up path through trees. In ¼ mile join Forest Drive (038191), up slope, then level, for ¼ mile to ‘Ring of Gullion Way’ post on left (035190). Right up drive, past metal barrier; left uphill for 1½ miles to car park (018200). Beyond picnic table, right at white post, steeply uphill. South Cairn (025203) – Lake of Sorrows – North Cairn (021211); then return.

 Posted by at 15:30