Walks 49 what’son

Mark Reid Walking Weekenders 2014 Peak District, Yorkshire Walks Barnard Castle, Dales, Lake District & Snowdonia Boldron and Egglestone Abbey walkingweekenders.co.uk Bridge, an ancient packhorse bridge (small stream beyond the Walk information with low parapets to allow laden stile). After the stile, bear Distance: 10.5 km (6.5 miles) horses to easily cross. This is a slightly left alongside the Time: 3 hours delightful spot, with wooded pastures hedge on your right (leaving Maps: OS Explorer OL 31 beside Thorsgill Beck. To the south of the road to curve away), and Parking: Pay & Display car parks in Paddock Beck is the historic follow this hedge all the way the centre of Barnard Castle. Athelstan’s Well, protected by a stone to reach a stile/gate at the Refreshments: Various in town. wall. This well is said to have never end of the field (end of the How to get there: Follow the A67 run dry, and was possibly used by the hedge on your right). After north from the A66 or west from monks of nearby Egglestone Abbey the stile/gate, head Darlington to reach Barnard Castle. as their water supply. Note the many diagonally right across the Terrain: Field, riverside and ridge and furrow medieval field middle of the field to reach woodland paths, with short stretches systems all around Boldron, as well a stile in the far right of road walking. There are many as the numerous narrow field strips corner (beside Thorsgill stiles to cross, and several streams separated by ancient hedgerows. Beck). Cross the stile and Caution: Paths are very muddy. This walk on alongside the walk is not suitable for dogs or stream to quickly reach the people with dodgy knees as there are The walk narrow Paddock Bridge countless stiles, a couple of sharp From the Market Cross (or Butter (packhorse bridge) across drops to the river’s edge through 1 Market) at the bottom of the the stream. Cross the bridge dangerous footbridge). Cross the Thorsgill Wood and alongside the Market Place, head down along The and walk straight on stile then turn immediately left River Tees, plus a couple of fallen Bank then, at the bottom of The alongside the fence/trees on alongside the fence/woods, up quite trees to negotiate. Take care walking Bank, follow the main road bending your left, passing the a steep bank then, at the top of the on the roads. Stepping stones across sharp right along Bridgegate passing enclosed Athelstan’s Well bank, head diagonally across the the streams are slippery when wet. beneath the castle ramparts then (with its wrought-iron middle of the long field to reach a over the bridge across the River Tees. pump) and on to reach a stile in the far right corner that leads After the bridge, cross directly over stile just to the right of the stone boundary on your left heading across onto a road. Turn right along the Points of interest the road (take care) and head along barn at the end of the field. Cross the two large fields (drainage ditch road and follow it down to join the ARNARD Castle is a the enclosed path opposite just to the stile and bear slightly right across separates the two fields), then follow banks of the River Tees, over Bow delightful old market town of right beside the Bridge End sign, the field (houses of Boldron ahead) the fence/boundary as it bends round Bridge (packhorses bridge adjacent wide streets lined with marked by a signpost. Follow this and through a squeeze-stile (two to the left then round to the right to to road bridge) then on passing B elegant Georgian and enclosed path up passing between upright stones set in fence/trees), reach a small gateway (waymarker) beneath the ruins of Egglestone Victorian buildings, with older houses to emerge onto Low Startforth after which bear right through a gap just to the right of the corner of the Abbey. Continue along the road buildings dotted in between. The Road. Turn left along the road and in the fence/hedge on your right plantation. Head through the passing Abbey Mill (house) leaving dramatic ruins of Bernard Baliol’s follow it through Startforth then, as (stile), then continue in the same gateway, and continue straight on the abbey ruins behind for a further 12th Century castle rise above the you reach the high stone walls of direction (towards Boldron) to cross alongside the plantation on your left 300 metres to reach a road junction wooded banks of the Tees. The Baliol Low Startforth Hall, follow the main another stile just to the left of the (field to your right) for 300 metres (traffic lights) where you turn left family became very powerful during road bending round and gently up to treehouse. After this stile, walk (plantation becomes wooded ravine over Abbey Bridge. the 12th and 13th Centuries. In 1282 the right. Continue up along the road straight up the middle of the field to of Thorsgill Beck) to reach a small Devorguilla, the widow of John to reach the top of the village, where reach a gate at the top that leads gap in the hedge on your left that Immediately after the bridge take Baliol, founded Baliol College at you follow the road to the left towards between the houses to emerge in the leads into the woodland (waymarker 5the footpath to the left (signpost Oxford, while their son, John, Boldron to soon reach a fork beside centre of Boldron beside the quoits post – be observant), 100 metres Teesdale Way) and follow the path became King of Scotland in 1292. the school. Head to the right up along pitch. before the hedge/fence on your left slanting down across the wooded Their fortunes soon declined, as he the road for 100 metres to reach turns sharp right in front of you. riverbank. The path soon levels out was defeated in battle by Edward I of another road junction, where you Turn left along the road and follow Follow the path to the right down and leads on across the wooded England in 1296, and their castle and head through the squeeze stile in the 3it to reach the end of the road and through the woods to soon reach riverbank to reach a kissing-gate at estates were forfeited. Ownership of wall to your left just after the road on the last of the houses, where you Thorsgill Bridge across Thorsgill the end of the woods. After the gate, the castle passed to the Earls of your left. head through the small gate to your Beck along the Old Road. head straight on keeping close to the Warwick, then in the late 15th right (signpost). Walk along the field-edge/wooded riverbank on your Century it passed to Richard III. It After the squeeze-stile, head up enclosed path for 30 metres to reach As you reach the Old Road, turn left across a number of fields then remained in royal hands until 1603. 2across the field alongside the field- another gate, where you cross the 4right up the bank (steps) through passing to the left of the water The castle played an important part edge on your right (walking parallel stile to the left just before it. After the woodland then down to soon join the treatment works along a wide path in the defeat of the Northern Earls to the road), over a stile across a stile, walk straight on across two new road (B6277), marked by a (still with the River Tees on your left) who rose up against Elizabeth I in fence then up to reach a gate just to fields, passing to the right of the signpost. Cross directly over the road to reach a gate at the end of the 1569. It had several further owners the right of Startforth Hall Farm. roofless barn then just to the right of (take care) and follow the narrow treatment works. Head through the before it passed into the hands of Sir After the gate, carry straight on up the house in the middle of the field, path down through the woods to gate and bear slightly right across Henry Vane in 1630. across two fields alongside the field- after which continue straight on quickly re-join the banks of Thorsgill the field passing to the right of a This walk is all about bridges. edge/road on your right and through across several fields (indistinct Beck. Follow the clear streamside roofless barn and through a gate just Below the ramparts of the castle narrow squeeze-stiles, then continue track) for 400 metres to reach a gate path with Thorsgill Beck on your left beyond, after which head straight on stands a 16th Century bridge over the straight on across the next larger in the fence across your path, with a heading down through Thorsgill across the field alongside the field River Tees, although there has been a field (still alongside the field-edge) large barn 100 metres to your right Wood for 1 km, to eventually reach a edge/riverbank on your left to join a crossing here since the earliest times and passing a gate and signpost on and Street Side Farm further across footbridge across the stream. Cross lane at Demesnes Mill Farm. Follow as a Roman Road came this way. This your right (opposite the entrance to your right beside the A66. Head the footbridge then carry straight on this lane straight on between the bridge marked the historic boundary track towards Wyse Hill Farm) and through the gate (very muddy) and along the path (stream now on your houses then across the playing field, between the counties of Yorkshire continue along the field boundary to then bear right across the field to right) to soon reach a stile over a and pass beneath the metal height and Durham, and lay outside of quickly reach a stile that leads into a reach a stile over the fence on the fence at the end of the woods barrier and follow the road straight ecclesiastical jurisdiction and so plantation of young trees. Follow the other side of the field. Cross the stile (Egglestone Abbey just ahead on to emerge back in Barnard Castle. illicit marriages once took place on enclosed path straight on between then turn immediately left to quickly through the trees – the footpath Turn right back up The Bank in the the bridge. Just to the north of the road and plantation to soon reach reach another stile, after which walk directly to the Abbey is unavailable town centre. Boldron lies the narrow Paddock a stile that leads back out onto a field straight on alongside the field at the time of writing because of a Mark Reid Countrydiary Birdwatch AK tops the league table of trees has spread through FTER the influx of our first spring smuggling eggs and received a suspended that support biodiversity, with over Britain with chiffchaffs last week, a sprinkling of prison sentence. 6,000 emails found during O 300 insect species feeding on its remarkable speed. A other classic early migrants has the raid were examined and revealed foliage. But in early spring another tree – Invasive, non- now appeared. They include lesser black- involvement with a ring of other collectors sallow – takes centre stage as a vital food native species tend backed gulls back mainly from the in Scotland, Sweden, the United States and source for insects that are emerging from to get a bad press, Mediterranean and North African coasts, Australia. hibernation. with grey squirrels a blackcap at Hetton and wheatears in the Police in Scotland followed up the lead The catkins of sallow, pictured, also known and Japanese North Pennines. On Tuesday sand martins from Durham and convicted an Inverness as pussy willow and goat willow, are knotweed acquiring a were as close as Fairburn Ings, Yorkshire, man of possession, and he was sentenced coming into flower now and, unlike other particularly bad so we can expect them at any time. to 220 hours of community service. Now a catkin-bearing trees such as birch, alder reputation for the damage that they do to The arrival of these visitors marks the court in central Sweden has convicted and hazel, they depend on insects to native species, but so far everything about start of the breeding season and, three more members of the ring on similar ensure their seed production. There are the tree bumblebee invasion seems to be inevitably, the old but, fortunately charges. One was jailed for 12 months and separate male and female sallows and they good news. It arrived at a time when many declining problem of illegal egg-collecting. the others fined the equivalent of £3,800 need a go-between to carry out pollination. of our native bumblebees were in steep This hangover from the Victorian era and £1,100 respectively and ordered to pay The females produce green, spiky catkins decline, and it has turned out to be a very came to the fore locally last spring with costs of over £3,000. Perhaps, there’s a while the males bear masses of golden effective pollinator of wild flowers and the mass theft of little tern eggs, lesson there in toughness for our courts. stamens, but both produce nectar that crops. It nests in holes in trees, and has a threatening the future of the important Now police in Finland are investigating provides a timely energy source for queen very long season of activity, foraging in colony at Crimdon. Although a reward was further links in this complicated affair. bumblebees and butterflies like the spring on cold and windy days and offered, no-one was caught. remaining active well into autumn. This The cases reveal an international trade in comma, small tortoiseshell and peacock Now a new report from the RSPB has the eggs particularly those of rarer that are coming out of hibernation now. useful invader, which has ginger and black fur and a white tail, is now well shown how local events can have species. For example, black-throated diver Sallows are one of the best places to look established in our region, and sallows are international repercussions. It all began eggs seized in Durham and clutches of for tree bumblebees, an interesting new humming with them. back in 2009 when police seized 2,000 eggs crane eggs in Scotland, had been stolen species that first arrived here from from a collector at Low Willington. He from nests in Sweden. Phil Gates continental Europe about a decade ago and later admitted keeping, trading and Ian Kerr