A wobbly Coast to Coast path - Rambling Pete's Way 2010
Day Three: 19th June
Weather: Overcast and cold early, with afternoon fair weather clouds….dry again!
Route: Barrowburn to Thropton - 16.1 miles with 2300ft of ascent
I woke up today, and the first thought that passed by my
tiny brain cells was….’aren’t
I made my way past the bunkhouse and cottage, up to a gate and then followed a quad bike track up the hillside towards the col between Shillhope Law and Kyloe Shin - I didn’t mind the chill, but the legs did mind the climbs. It’s so remote up here, but a delight to walk, and the bonus is that you see so much more wildlife than normal. It was very quiet apart from the breeze, but I don’t ,mind that as it eases my tinnitus by damping out the whistling in my ears. Once up on the col, I stopped for a breather and decided to head straight downhill for the sheepfold, gate and a short hop across the Usway Burn. As it’s been so dry and continued so the burn was running quite low and I had no problems hopping across. Then it was grit the teeth time and take the direct route up to the ridge of the hill that would take me up to my route to the south. Once I was up at the top the Border County Ride winds along on forestry commission tracks before running out onto the green lanes of Clenell Street – those Romans knew where to pick a good line through the hills. What a pleasure to walk on sheep grazed upland that doesn’t have the same intensity as further south. The local farmer David at the B&B told me that he has 900 sheep for 900 acres, with the net effect that the grass has plenty of time to recover and doesn’t get eaten down to its roots. There has been a fair bit of wood plantation harvesting up here and I passed by several well stocked piles of timber alongside the ride. In one of these was a wren dipping in and out of the woodpile – have a look in the flora and fauna page – it’s a bit of an I-spy with my little eye, but it is there. There were a few other varieties as well, such as snipe and cuckoos.
It was a glorious feeling striding out down this well used route, with the sun illuminating the far off hills with the Simonside Fells looming in the distance. Clenell Street took me all the way down into Alwinton, another tiny hamlet with a pub, but it was too early to partake of the amber fluid – to be honest I rarely drink in the daytime as it just makes me sluggish. Down in the valley the nature of the days walk changed to floodplains with not much up and down and my feet didn’t complain. As with much of Northumberland there were plenty of ridge and furrow still showing up in the surrounding fields. I followed the River Coquet for a little stretch along a lightly wooded path, past the village of Harbottle and it’s ruined castle - I thought about lunch there but had about a mile of roadwork, so at the top of a hilly bit I jumped over a gate and found some stone to sit on and ponder my feet. Hmmmmm nice sandwich and MARMITE crisps (they should sponsor me really) – the feet didn’t mind some fresh air either – my toes weren’t suffering too much today – it’s good stuff that compeed. After a little snack I turned away from the road at Wood Hall and made my way across country to look at ‘Lady’s Well’ near Holystone – another bit of Roman stuff apparently. Surprisingly there were ladies at the Lady’s Well having a picnic, so I didn’t interupt with any guffing or belching as I strode past…..luckily. The immediate surrounds close by the well showed lots of lumps and bumps maybe indicating an old settlement, probably associated with Holystone Priory. A study of the OS map suggests there is plenty of old history in the surrounding areas – well worth a return visit me thinks.
up the first bluff towards Low Farnham
Shortly after the well I walked through the village of Holystone
and crossed over the River Coquet to walk along the floodplain,
with the Simonside Fells directly in front of me now – tomorrows
destination as I wobble along. There were plenty of Oyster
Catchers and Redshank flying up and down the river gravels,
obviously nesting down there – again it is so dry and I hope
they don’t get caught out by any heavy rainfall – I’m not
thinking about self when I say that. I headed up out of the
floodplain to Low Farnham and another fine example of ridge and
furrow, before walking up to Wreighill Pike. I left Coqeutdale
shortly after to nip up over the hill to Thropton, and my I
wished I hadn’t. The suckling calves and their mothers were
absolutely rampant and I had to nip over a fence very sharpish
into an old plantation – so much for standing your ground, more
like trampling your ground. I came out the other side to find
that the little feckers had followed my progress around the
enclosure and were waiting for me the other side. But I caught
them by surprise and nipped across sharply to another penned in
field, and after that they got fed up with me. Ha – I was sharp
crossing the next field which took me down to a minor road away
from the maddening crowds. I walked about a mile along the road
and not much else happened after that - if I ignore the Fresian
bull and his entourage in another field – but to be fair there
was a sign saying ‘Bull in field’ and for once it wasn’t a fib….grrrr.
But as before there is always another field and the one next to
this was a freshly cropped hay meadow – a nice sweet smelling
end to the day. The field took me all the way into Thropton
where I got a lift into Rothbury, and the promise of yet another
Italian meal!
