A-Walking: Rothbury Circular via Simonside

Each of our three walks on Sunday, 22nd September, took place in the Coquetdale area of Northumberland. All of the walks started from and finished in the lovely town of Rothbury.
 
The A-Walk was led by Peter Cull (pictured below). There were ten walkers in the group. The route took in Thropton, Great Tosson, Simonside and Lordenshaw. It covered a distance of 14.1 miles and involved a total ascent of 2200 feet.
From our drop-off location in the centre of Rothbury we headed west along the north bank of the River Coquet. At {NU 051 015} we left the river and climbed up towards Brae Head {NU 044 025} and then used Physic Lane to drop down into Thropton - where we crossed the River Coquet. Continuing on a southerly bearing, we made our way to Great Tosson and then had a good climb up over Windy Crag in order to reach our lunch-stop location at {NU 023 000} near Chester Hope. We had some good views from here.
 
After our lunch-stop, we continued in a southerly direction - making our way through the forest to reach the foot of the Simonside Hills. We now had another good climb up onto the top of Simonside. Because the weather and visibility were so good, we had some tremendous views from the high ground. Moving off in an easterly direction, we next visited Old Stell Crag and Dove Crag before stopping for an early tea-stop at the cairn on The Beacon {NZ 045 986}.
 
Following our descent to the road at Lordenshaw car par, we made our way to Lordenshaw and continued our easterly trek to arrive at Lee Siding. From here we followed a minor road to Brockley Hall, East Raw, Butterknowes and West Raw. At this point we turned onto a north-westerly bearing and followed a footpath, on the south side of the River Coquet, that took us back to Rothbury - where our expedition ended.
 
Many thanks to Peter for leading the walk.
 
A selection of some of the photos that were taken during today's walking expedition can be seen by clicking on the pink button below:
 

Credits:
Many thanks to Phil Barker for taking the photographs.
 

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