Interview with Jon Monks from Shepherds

Interview with Jon Monks of Shepherds Walks.



Many of our visitors to Northumberland will have heard of Jon and the company he runs from Kirkwhelpington. This is where those marvellous Shepherd's walk booklets come from!



Shelagh: When did you first start work as a shepherd?

Jon: I was 20 years old when I took my first full time job as a shepherd on the Isle of Man.

Shelagh: Where did your work take you next?

Jon: Australia, more specifically New South Wales where I worked on a sheep station owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Shelagh: What were the main differences between your job back on the Isle of Man and what you found in Australia?

Jon: The scale of the Australian operations were amazing.Over there you have large commercial farms with over 80,000 sheep compared to the average of say 1,500 for a UK farm. Also when they muster the sheep ( a good Australian term) you are talking about 12 to 13,000 sheep. Back in the UK it would be very rare to have more than 1,500 to round up.

Shelagh: What is your fondest recollection from shepherding?

Jon: Helping the ewes to lamb in heavy winter weather.

Shelagh: With all your travels around Northumberland where would you recommend for remote or undiscovered places?



Jon: Windy Gyle is my favourite place. Here is the full list

1. Windy Gyle

2. St Oswald's Way (on the coast)

3. Dunstanburgh area to Embleton Bay

4. Harbottle Castle (where his Radio 4 interview was recorded



Shelagh: And your favourite 5 walks?



Jon: Windy Gyle is still top of the list but here are the others





1. Windy Gyle

2. St. Oswald's Way

3. Carriageway Drive Rothbury

4. High Style Horshoe

5. Harbottle Craggs





Shelagh: Apart from the walkers notes what else do you do?

Jon: Well we sell Mohair socks and we are developing guided walks. These walks are usually just 1 day but next year we plan to walk Hadrian's Wall over 7 days.





Shelagh: Thank you for your time and help.


Oh...and here is a picture of Jon with one of his Border Collie's

Otter tracks on the Farne Islands!

Great excitement today when we heard that otter tracks have been spotted on Brownsman Island ( one of the Farne Islands). The Island is over 3 miles from the coast and the otter left over 60 yards of tracks.

When asked about what the future held for the otter, the head warden David Steel, had this to say:

"There'll certainly be plenty of food, plenty of crustaceans and fish to feed upon, but unfortunately, unless another animal swims out here, it might have a lonely existence. "

Of course there is also the possibility that the otter will eat bird eggs :-(

This otter picture is courtesy of the BBC report.

The Bathing house - Craster - and the 2nd Earl Grey

One of the joys of working with our clients across Northumberland is looking through the history and background on many of the houses. The Bathing house near Craster has a history going back into the 19th century when it was built by the 2nd Earl Grey.With this in mind we were very interested when the opportunity arose to purchase a signature of the Earl from this period.
It's from the front of an envelope sent from Alnwick to Queensferry back in August 1816.You can see the picture below.

We hope to find out a little more about the Earl and what it was like to live in Northumberland back in the 19th century. So will keep you posted!

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 :-)