Under the RADAR
On a Northumberland holiday with the family, Wednesday 12th August, was solar eclipse day. Persuading teenage children to bend to your walking will, can be difficult but we achieved this small summit, despite the flies and the scratchy gorse and heather. The way up was shortish but so so sweet even though conditions for this rare event were not ideal. Some height was needed, staring at the sun is not best practice, in any event, but on this cloudy evening, it was the hill itself that redeemed the visit and provided the spectacle.
One might have a vague awareness of the seat of power of the Percy family, with the physical imposition of Alnwick Castle. Likewise, the threat of Scottish raids experienced in the medieval north might be perceived in the remains of a town wall but the bulk of this walk is defined by another boundary. I take the opportunity to get to grips with the changing land use and power that this represents.
Alnwick is a major town in the area with fairly good bus connections north and south. If you start in Alnwick town centre, you'll have no need of transport to get to the crags.
I had hoped to get to the Cheviots but the trip had become a bit shorter and the coast had become a more attractive prospect. We'd managed a section near Dunstanburgh but this is a very easy walk, close to base. We started at the Youth Hostel but you could easily begin in the beating heart of Alnwick, from Bondgate Within. The original town wall would have run from the remaining Bondgate Tower, along Hotspur Street, Green Batt and Tower Lane. Follow this line into Dispensary Road, as we inadvertently did. Turn left into Windsor Gardens and right into Howling Lane.
'Hotspur' was the celebrated Sir Henry Percy. It was left to his son to inherit the title of the 2nd Earl of Northumberland as Harry led a whirlwind life and died before he could inherit. He made short work defending the kingdom from the Scots and the French, was captured, then ransomed, supported Richard II and then his usurper, fell out with Henry IV before dying in battle against him, buried, exhumed, posthumously beheaded, quartered and stripped of his titles, all by 1403. The Percy family were subsequently big landowners as far south as in parts of Sussex, including Petworth.
Turn left into Lower Barresdale and take a right, near the top of the rise to enter a green area, the other side of Wash Burn. Cross northwest to the other side of the field and then travel west on a footpath that soon is seen to follow the line of a substantial wall. You will cross the Stocking Burn and ascend steadily.
The wall sits alongside Hulne Park and marks peak Percy land acquisition and a final evolution of the Northumberland Forests and deer parks. We have Hugh Smithson, 1st Duke of Northumberland to thank for wrestling control of the land for Pleasure Grounds and by the third Duke and with a lot of land wrangling, the 1854 Hulne Park Wall was built from Stocking Gate or Forest Lodge, up to the peak on Alnwick Moor.
At about 155 metres and a herd of cows you pass through a gate and enter the access land. Clear of the trees, the appearance of the 'golf ball' radome at the remote radar station at Brizlee Hill was surprising, as was the purple heather. Another wall that meets the top of the hill, follows the line of Red Side. We stopped just on the other face and were joined by some intrepid club runners. The sky darkened. Whether the dimming of the sky was due to the sun coverage or the increasing cloud cover, it is difficult to say but shafts of light sprayed down into the Aln valley. The swifts tackled the evening insects. Aside the obvious universe-level happenings, the view was and is very fancy and worth the climb. Deducing that this one-time event was over, we were on our way.
Follow the wall down now to Cloudy Crags Drive and go south. You walk just below the equally notable rocks. This represents an outcrop of some extremely-weathered marine and deltaic sandstone deposits. These were laid down during Dinantian and early Namurian times, in the Northumberland Trough (if that means anything to you). It's not good for climbing because it's too fragile but its swirling formations must have been significant to ancient man and probably once covered in so-called cup marks. It would be a bit worn down, by now.
Continue down the hill to the junction where you turn left. Take the next footpath in on the left, around the tip at Little Birkey Hill and join the B6341 back towards town. You can join the bridleway to Herds House, for a further detour and rejoin the road at the Shepherds Rest Inn. The remaining Clayport Bank will take you back to the civilsation
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