‘Few coastal stretches feel this elemental’

We continue our bid to get readers to walk 1,000 miles in 2020 with Mark Rowe’s depiction of the drama of Northumberland

ITelegraph Travel and Country Walking magazine have joined forces to encourage Britons to discover more of the UK by clocking up 1,000 miles on foot this year. To tell us where you’re walking

in 2020 and to get involved,

use #walk1000miles

or visit walk1000miles.

co.uk

’ve walked the Northumbrian coast between Craster to Low Newtonby-the-Sea in a T-shirt and shorts on Valentine’s Day, I’ve walked it in the first week of May while wearing thermals, I’ve walked it with a dog and, one warm summer’s evening, I found myself, absurdly, tiptoeing through dozens of toads as they hopped their way to the shore.

And I’ve always walked it company of birds.

Few stretches of the British coast feel quite so elemental to me as these three miles; there’s no clutter, no signage and your view is the same as it was in the 14th century – tilting, cattle-grazed fields that slide gently down to the North Sea.

And while my favourite walk from Craster has no hills – of which Northumberland has many – it otherwise comprises a bit of everything a good walk in the county should: stunning, elemental landscapes with big skies, volcanic remnants, a battered castle and a fine pub.

The castle, Dunstanburgh, is surrounded by tough whinstone rock – a kind of primordial magma – and its crenulated battlements and turrets, now 600 years old, resemble a broken, battle-dented crown.

On the castle’s secluded north façade, columns of whinstone plummet nearly 200ft to the sea. The drama continues as you walk around the magnificent, mile-long crescent of Embleton Bay. Where the bay gives way at its northern limits, you reach Low Newton. Here, on the sands of Newton Haven, summer evenings see the spectacle of hundreds of common toads feeding on grubs, sandhoppers and flies.

Low Newton was designed in the shape of an open square, with creamwashed cottages set around a green, looking out to sea. The Ship Inn (shipinnnewton.co.uk) here is a contender for the best-positioned pub in Britain and has its own brewery.

To return to Craster, I usually take a slightly inland route, walking behind the pub to the still freshwaters of Newton Pools. These inland tracks have their own drama, for they lead to the scattered remnants of further volcanic activity in the form of “heughs” (a local word for a rocky escarpment). Perpendicular whinstone columns stick out like broken teeth from mounds smothered with bright yellow gorse. Northumberland is rarely cosy, but it is always uplifting.

in

the

Crabtree & Crabtree offers a collection of hand-picked properties across Northumberland.

The Gate House in Horncliffe sleeps four and costs from £311 for three nights. Dogs welcome

(01573 226711; crabtreeandcrabtree.

com).

The Walls, Berwick, is a delightfully restored Georgian town house with views over the River Tweed. B&B from £190 for two nights

(01289 330233; thewallsberwick.com).

The Sill at Hadrian’s Wall YHA near Housesteads is

one of the newest and best youth hostels in the

country. It is great for families. Four-bed room from £90 per night (0800

0191700; yha.org.uk).

The official tourist website (visitnorthumberland.

com/stay) has a comprehensive list of accommodation options, from self-catering to

B&Bs and hotels.

Distance: Six miles; OS map Explorer 332 Alnwick and Amble

Route: From Craster, head north, hugging the coast and walking along the path through dunes at Embleton Bay to reach Low Newton. To return inland, head for Newton Pools, walk between dunes and the golf course and past a grain tower and follow a path through the heughs back to Craster.

If you walk just one stretch of Hadrian’s Wall, make it the bite-sized chunk around the Steel Rigg escarpment. Expect vistas over a stark landscape bisected by the wall itself and the substantial remains of Housesteads Roman Fort. Linger at Sycamore Gap, named for the tree catapulted to fame in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Distance: Eight miles

Map: Explorer 43

Route: From Steel Rigg car park, head north for 100 yards then turn east for Hotbank Farm. Keep the plantation to your left, cross the Pennine Way and walk through another plantation. Descend through a sheepfold and bear west to Housesteads. Pass Milecastle 38, and follow the Hadrian’s Wall trail back to the car park.

The ridge of Simonside Crags sits at 1,375ft, high above the town of Rothbury. It can be a magnificently eerie place, with outcrops and overhangs of sandstone rock, their contours chiselled by the weather. These were once used as Bronze Age burial tombs. After a stroll through thick conifer forest, this circular walk emerges on to the Ravensheugh escarpment and one of the farthest-reaching views in the whole of Northumberland National Park.

Distance: Six miles

Map: OS 332 Alnwick & Amble

Route: From the

Forestry Commission car park at Simonside, simply follow the red marker posts through the woods and above the skyline. About a mile from the start, look out for the signpost to Little Church Rock, where ancient cup rings have been hollowed into the stone.

A wild, empty quarter, at Otterburn you can walk for hours in solitude amid internationally rare upland hay meadows. This walk tracks the infant River Coquet, cuts through military training land and circumnavigates the stern brow of Yearning Law.

Distance: 12 miles

Map: Explorer OL16

Route: From the car park at Buckham’s Bridge, follow a metalled track for two miles before taking the track to the south of Tindale Law to rejoin the road, now walking anticlockwise. At Blindburn Bridge, take the path north-west uphill, contouring around Yearning Law to a meeting of paths where you turn south-west back to the road and return to the car park. Check first as the military often conducts live firing here

– don’t worry, if this is the case then all roads are closed.

This elemental walk can be completed while the tides close the causeway that connects lonely Lindisfarne to the mainland. Its coastal edges feature a dramatic castle perched on a crag, a 12th-century priory and storm-battered beaches. To check safe crossing times go to holyislandcrossingtimes. northumberland.gov.uk

Distance: 11 miles

Map: Explorer 340, Holy Island & Bamburgh

Route: From Beal, walk along the causeway road to the island village. Follow the country lane “Straight Lonnen”. After three quarters of a mile, continue into the national nature reserve and follow white poles through the dunes and grass. At Coves Haven, make for the white triangular obelisk near Emmanuel Head, then south along the Waggonway past the lake and walled garden to the castle before returning to the village and back to Beal.

This hike ascends Humbleton Hill, a misshapen lump moulded from ancient lava flows. From the summit, you have superb views of the vast floodplain of the River Till. Curiously, while the summit is most definitely in Northumberland, look south and you are staring at Scotland – this is one of those places where the border is almost straight from north to south.

Distance: Five miles

Map: OL16 The Cheviot Hills

Route: From the car park near Brown’s Law (west of Wooler), follow the waymarked fingerpost signs for St Cuthbert’s way through woods and then open ground. After climbing Humbleton Hill, return to the path and head west for half a mile before turning south in front of Scald Hill to return to the car park.

Perched on a lump of volcanic rock 164ft above the North Sea, Bamburgh is one of the most iconic castles in Northumberland. The coastal views of the Farne Islands as you make for Budle Bay are superb. Budle Bay itself is gorgeously horseshoe-shaped and the dunes are fun for families.

Distance: Four miles

Map: Explorer 340 Holy Island & Bamburgh

Route: Bamburgh village green, cut inland (north) in front of the castle, past the golf course. Follow the dunes and narrow tracks down to the sea until Budle Bay opens up. Explore the southern and western shores of the bay, then retrace your steps. Pass the Grace Darling museum (currently closed) in the village: the eponymous young heroine was involved in a dramatic rescue of shipwrecked sailors.

The formal gardens and wilder secluded areas of Allen Banks (named for the River Allen that runs through it) were laid out by their Victorian owner, Susan Davidson. Her legacy is a network of woodland walks above and around the river that are fantastic for wildlife and views of Northumberland National Park.

Distance: Six miles

Map: Explorer OL43

Route: Leaflets and routes are usually available from the National Trust car park at Allen Banks and can also be downloaded at nationaltrust.org.uk. Follow green waymarkers through the estate, and take in Plankey Mill and Staward Gorge before retracing your steps.

At 1,873ft, the eerily named Deadwater Fell is one of the highest peaks in Kielder forest and reached on a track that passes delectable burns and mossdraped trees. From the summit, you feel you might topple into Scotland as you survey one of the largest tracts of emptiness in the Border region. This is a “no intervention” area, with no grazing by sheep or cattle, it is slowly developing into truly wild land. Distance: 13 miles

Map: OL42 Kielder Water and Forest Route: The trail to Deadwater Fell from Kielder Castle is well way-marked with red posts and signs. Don’t confuse these with the red mountain bike trail signs. Returning to Kielder village, head along the southwestern shores of the reservoir to Rushy Knowe for views across the water.

Berwick is easy on the eye, with cobbled streets boasting evocative names such as Foul Ford, while the graceful Georgian houses along Quay Walls are dominated by a beautifully restored custom house. It is the only example of bastioned town walls in Britain (with good reason, it changed hands between England and Scotland at least 13 times). It also captivated L S Lowry, whose work here form a sizeable part of his oeuvre. Distance: Four miles

Map: Download the Lowry Trail leaflet at images.visitberwick.com/ routes/lowry-trail/lowry-leaflet.pdf Route: The Lowry Trail is supported by 18 prints of Lowry’s pictures in situ, overlooking places he depicted, such as the narrow alley of Sally Port or

The Stanks, where he painted a football match. Cross the Tweed to stroll along Spittal beach.