Drake Stone

The Drake Stone & Grade: Moderate Distance: 5 miles (8 km) Time: 2 hours 30 minutes Map: OS OL16 1:25000 Hills

Please use an OS map on this walk © Crown Copyright and database rights (2015) Ordnance Survey Licence Number 100022521 A Leave the Forestry Commission Car F Go through the gate, and turn right You can do Park and follow the forest track, signed following the track downhill to the road. this walk when ‘Drake Stone,’ uphill through the wood. MOD Red G Turn left onto the road, walking towards Flags are Go through the gate, and turn right to flying follow the footpath over the heather . Cross the metal road bridge over moorland (Harbottle Crags Nature Reserve, the . managed by Wildlife Trust). At G - You can make a shorter walk by B Pass through the kissing gate and turning right onto the road and heading H continue uphill along the sandy footpath, back towards Harbottle. The Forestry Shorter walk - turn right at point G and walk back to the making for the cairn ahead on the left. Commission Car Park is on the right. Car Park along the road. This walk is 3 miles / 4.8 km. I C The path splits just after the cairn. Take the left fork which leads up to the H Take the minor road on the right, signed F G Drake Stone - this is a huge Fell Sandstone ‘Park House / Harbottle. Go past Low Alwinton boulder, which local legend suggests has Lime Kiln on your left and continue uphill along Start ancient healing powers! the road passing Park House on the right. A Retrace your steps back down to where J I As the road ends follow the track straight the path split near the cairn, and turn left across the field. Cross the stile and follow the following the main path uphill then towards track downhill over the field to the woodland. C B K the right hand side of Harbottle Lake. Carry on along the track, and past a cottage Drake D Cross the stile and continue on the on the right. D Stone E path along the edge of the lake. J About 300m along look out for a foot- Please note: The bog surrounding the lake is bridge on the right over the River Coquet. dangerous with very deep water underneath it, so please keep to the footpath. Cross the bridge and keep to the path. At the Start OS Grid Ref: NT 925 049 Parking: Forestry Commission West Wood Car Park main road turn right through Harbottle village. Public Transport: Spirit Buses (www.spiritbuses.co.uk T: 01669 838349) E At the fence turn right, heading uphill towards the trees, keeping the fence on K Keep following the road out of the village Local Services: National Park Information Point: The Star Inn, Harbottle your left. Go into the woodland and keep and past the ruins of on your Terrain: Footpaths, tracks and road - short steep inclines, stiles following the footpath straight ahead, until right. The Castle is well worth looking around. Description: A lovely walk up to the ancient Drake Stone, a mythical place from where there you come out of the wood at a gate. Continue along the road back to the Forestry are stunning views over the surrounding countryside and over to the ruins of Harbottle Castle Commission Car Park which is on your left.

www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk Drake Stone The Drake Stone & Harbottle Harbottle Castle

Getting there The Star Inn & Wildlife to look out for From Rothbury: Leave Rothbury on National Park Information Point This area is a Special Area of Conservation the B6341 heading west. Go through The Star Inn in Harbottle is the village pub (SAC) designated for its heather moorland . At Flotterton Farm junction turn and National Park Information Point. The Inn and blanket bog. Plants to look for include right following the signpost to also has a small shop where you can pick and west bailey. It was built to form part of a Calluna or ling heather, cross leaved heath, ‘Alwinton’. Go through Harbottle. 600m west up some basic supplies. chain of such sites against the ‘auld enemy’ - bilberry, cowberry and sphagnum moss. of the village is the Forestry Scotland. It towers over the major medieval Birds flitting amongst the heather include Commission West Wood Car Park. highway into Scotland (Clennell Street), making wren, stonechat and wheatear whilst buzzard are it a point of strategic and tactical importance. often seen overhead. Barn owls may be seen From Elsdon: Leave the B6341 at the silently flying over the grassy fields near the hamlet of Swindon, signed ‘Alwinton’ The Drake Stone has many stories and myths castle at dusk. to the left. Follow this road through connected with it. One being that sick children Holystone and Harbottle. 600m west passed over the Stone would be cured; others In the woodlands red squirrel and roe deer of Harbottle is the Forestry Commission West tell that it is seemingly not uncommon to hear may be glimpsed. Bats roost in many of the Wood Car Park. disembodied voices coming from the Stone buildings and might be seen by the woodlands and travellers who have safely spent the night and feeding over the river at dawn and dusk. there are unable to descend in the morning! Local facilities The underlying rocks are sandstone, part of Harbottle is a lovely village situated in the Ministry of Defence (MOD) the Fell Sandstone sequence that dominates heart of Coquetdale. The single street is mid-Northumberland. They have been used Much of the land to the west of Harbottle is overlooked by the ruins of the 12th century to make mill stones, some of which are Harbottle owned by the MOD. Called Otterburn Harbottle Castle, and, the Drake Stone. The abandoned in the old quarry near the Drake Ranges they are one of ’s remotest neighbouring village of Alwinton has a pub, Stone. upland areas and have been used for military the Rose & Thistle which is also a National training since 1911. This walk is outside the Park Information Point. Controlled Access Area and can therefore Points of interest be used all year round, giving spectacular views into this remote part of the National Harbottle Castle is well worth a visit, and can Park. The 90 square miles of Otterburn be reached from the National Park Car Park. Ranges provide a realistic environment for There has been a castle on the site since c.1157 Spirit Buses training more than 300,000 NATO troops when Henry II ordered Odinel de Umfraville to Spirit buses run from Rothbury into every year. For information log on to: build a ‘strong castle’ at Harbottle. Harbottle Upper Coquetdale. www.gov.uk/government/publications/ Castle consists of a motte (mound), with east otterburn-firing-times T: 01669 838 349 www.spiritbuses.co.uk

www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk Drake Stone