Glitteringstone, Cartington and Cragside

Lucky noticed a couple of bijoux Tumps just a bit North of Rothbury so, we saddled up the knipemobile, collected Dawn from her new pad by the docks and hurtled off towards the Coquet.
After a bit of a tussle involving a pork pie, a rhubarb and cherry cake thingy and a very steep ginnel or snicket leading from the toon centah up onto the moors, we discovered some rather nice heathery lumps with lots of ancient cairns,  dog walkers and a cracking view of the Simonside hills just to the South.


First was the heathery Tump Glitteringstone. This has lots of ancient cairns, a trig and what appears to be a stone cist of the kind once used to hold the cremated remains of Somebody Very Important.


After a relaxed kind of lunch in a sunny spot we progressed on  newly shorn paths through the heather and along old tracks up the beetling slope to Cartington Hill. This has a long summit ridge with three ancient cairns, the highest being the furthest North. We had relaxed break #2 at the Southerly cairn which also had some comfy bilberries to lay around on. And a nice all-round view. Lucky celebrated by rolling about then having a lovely snooze.

We headed back towards Rothbury, diverting into the grounds of Cragside, the country seat of the Billy Armstrong who built new types of artillery for the British army, various cruisers and battleships for the Austro-Hungarian fleet  and probably the entire Japanese navy which went on to upset the Russians big time by sinking their fleet.  he was, apparently an all-round good egg too (glossing over the serious weaponry) and Cragside was the first house in Britain to be lit by hydro electricity


Delights of the Cragside grounds include lakes, huge (and when I say huge, I do mean Huuuuuge) trees, a modern hydro-electric generator based on an archimedes screw, a closed cafe, tearoom and toilet, an iron bridge, Cragside house, a tree sculpture involving a pagan-type green man sorta thing, woodland walks and a water wheel used for pumping water to the formal gardens.

Our wander ended with a short trespass through somebody’s yard to get to the main road which lead in turn to a nice ramble by the River Coquet back to Rothbury.
All good, clean fun and I have to report that the bakery in Rothbury does excellent pies and cakes. Nom nom.
Nine miles altogether. Worra nice walk.