The walking bug

The final day of the walking festival and we take a different driving route, through Otterburn and Elsdon and the Grasslees Valley to the forest car park at Harbottle.

I have not seen midges like this since I was last in the midge capital of the north, Kielder. They pile into the car as we try to get our boots and waterproofs on as quickly as we can. We are despatched up the hill to the relative safety of the edge of the wood, where we have our pre-walk introduction once everyone has arrived.

We head off on a moorland path on the margin of the wood. Midges continue to be a problem despite the Avon lady’s attentions. However, I am soon distracted by the taste of the ripening bilberries.

Today’s walk is looking at some of the archaeological interest in Coquetdale and, after a short detour to Moss’ Cairn, our main place of interest is the Drake Stone. We are told of the healing properties of the stone and how sickly babies were passed over the stone in a bid to absorb the energy concentrated at this hotspot in the landscape. How they got the babies up there remains a mystery – 1,2,3…catch! However, Tomlinson tells us that “Harbottle is an exceptionally healthy place….. and mortality among children is almost unknown”.

My chakra lady from yesterday tells me more about the ley lines which have been mapped around the stone – it turns out she also teaches divining.

We look at some of the evidence of extraction of millstones from the mounds surrounding the Drake Stone, before heading on to Harbottle Lough, described by David “Dippy” Dixon as a “lonely eerie tarn in the hollow of the hills”.

We take lunch sitting on various rocky outcrops by the the lough, listening to the boom of the guns on the ranges, which have been active all week.

Refreshed, we head back into the wood – fairly boggy in parts and with slippery tree roots underfoot – before emerging on the “Coal Road”. Now used by the military to transport their heavy stuff, as witnessed by the extra-wide cattle grids – this road used to be maintained by the settlements along its route. Thus a stone by the road is marked “A” for Alwinton on one side and “Bid” for Biddlestone on the other.

As the Coal Road joins the present day road into Alwinton, we spot a field filled with common and spotted orchids.

Over the bridge – pedestrians only, as it is being strengthened this summer and is closed to traffic – we head past Low Alwinton Cottages to view the lime-kiln, then on past an angling lodge belonging to the late Jean Muir’s husband, which is allegedly furnished in the Muir tartan.

And then back into Harbottle village as the rains come down again. It is the end of our week and we say goodbye to our trusty guides Alison and Martin, who both ask me whether the Office Walker has got the walking bug for good?

Pedometer: 10,135 (final count – 85,552 steps, or something like 45 miles)