Our drawing of the route, over road and path data from OpenStreetMap. It shows where the walk goes and what it goes through. It is not a survey and not a navigation aid — carry OS Explorer on the hill.
Seven miles and 350 metres of climbing in three and a half hours, from the prehistoric rock art at Lordenshaws along the sandstone crags of Simonside and Dove Crag with the Cheviots laid out to the north, returning on forest tracks. Start at the Lordenshaws car park off the Rothbury to Great Tosson road, free with about 25 spaces and full by mid-morning at weekends, with no verge parking on the narrow lane. The forest tracks on the return are a good off-lead run, but the heather ridge is grazed and holds ground-nesting curlew, red grouse and merlin, so the National Park’s Take the Lead campaign asks for dogs on leads on the open moor, and the crags drop away abruptly on their north side.
Five miles and 220 metres of climbing in two and a half hours round Lord Armstrong’s Victorian pleasure ground, past Tumbleton Lake, under the house and along the two Nelly’s Moss lakes on rhododendron-lined tracks. Start from the main car park inside the Cragside estate off the B6341, which is large and free to National Trust members and included in the admission charge otherwise. Dogs are welcome everywhere outdoors here including the formal gardens but must be on a lead at all times, which the Trust puts down to the crag drops, the roe deer and the red squirrels; water bowls and dog bins are provided and dogs may ride the free shuttle bus.
An Iron Age hillfort with cup-and-ring carved rocks on the moor below Simonside, a short walk from the roadside car park. Open, rough moorland with sheep on it in most months and no facilities of any kind. Leads on, as the national park asks across its grazing and nesting ground.
Three flat miles in an hour and a half along both banks of the Coquet, downstream to the narrow rock gorge called the Thrum and the restored mill above it. Start from the free Cowhaugh car park beside the river at the bottom of the town, which has around 40 spaces and is the best parking in Rothbury; the terraces above are metered. Level riverside grass and woodland where a dog can be off the lead, with easy access to the Coquet for a swim in the shallow reaches, though the gorge itself is deep and fast and best avoided, and the far bank crosses a grazed haugh.
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