David Haffey's "Walks in the Cheviot hills"

One of the pleasures which comes from exploring a wonderful county like Northumberland is when you pick up a book which talks about the area and you can then see how what the author thinks about the things you see and love.
So it was with keen anticipation that we opened the newly arrives "Walks in the Cheviot hills" by David Haffey.
The 1st walk he discusses is Hethpool,Great Hetha and the Elsdon burn. An area we know a little about having spent a week in Hethpool mill.
Ok so what does he say about the walk?

1. The College valley is one of the most unspoilt in Northumberland....well we agree 100% with that.
2. There is an iron age hill fort on the summit of Great Hetha. Well we must have seen that on the map but we hadn't managed the climb....so mark that down for our next trip.
3. "The cheviot hills have one of the greatest surviving concentrations of bronze and iron age settlements in the British Isles". The one at Great Hetha dates from about 500 bc with stone ramparts surrounding a central area which would have contained timber built round houses.
4. The walk takes you down to Trowupburn at the head of Hetha burn which then becomes the Elsdon burn. Well we got half way up the burn on our last trip.....so Trowupburn will be a new place to see next time round.
5. Oh....this is interesting...he says that there is a Wych Elm here. That will be worth seeing.
6. The book then mentions the Collingwood oaks and Lord Collingwood who grew the oak trees on his estates to boost the timber stock for the Royal Navy. Each ship needed about 2,500 trees!
7. The Hethpool cottages. Well we had seen and marvelled at these.They are beautifully done.....the picture at the top of this blog shows the cottages from Hethpool mill. But he then goes on to say that they were designed in 1926 by Robert Mauchlen for Sir Arthur Sutherland in the "arts and crafts" style.We hadn't known who designed them....so that's interesting.Also with this knowledge we clicked through to Wikipedia to learn that Sir Arthur had donated substantial funds to establish the now thriving medical and dental schools at Newcastle University.

So a good start and we will read through the other walks and report back :-)