mhodnett

Last updated 00:00, Friday, 21 December 2007

A COMBINATION of footpaths create this fascinating circular walk in Northumberland National Park, which is full of interesting things to experience and punctuated by a fine old inn and several very nice tea shops where you can warm up and indulge.

Try out sections of two of the trails, walk the Wall, discover an unexpected castle and a see how the national park has brought a former Victorian quarry back to nature for everyone to enjoy. There’s something for everyone.

At this time of year there is a special bonus because one of the points on the walk is the pretty village of Greenhead, whose annual Christmas tree festival takes place on December 7-9 at St Cuthbert’s Church with trees imaginatively decorated by many schools, clubs and businesses.

There is also a Christmas farmers’ market on the Sunday morning if you want to make a day of it, with the Greenhead Hotel serving real ales and great food. The Old Forge tea rooms also provides excellent food, with the biggest, most delicious home-made cakes ever.

The route

(A) Park in Greenhead. The first lap is an easy half mile. From the telephone box, walk along Station Road to the gate at the end and take the footpath to the right, marked for the Pennine Way and Thirlwall Castle. At the path’s end, go through the wicket gate and turn right. Cross the footbridge and follow the Tipalt Burn upstream to Thirlwall Castle(B).

The name ‘Thirlwall’ means ‘gap in the wall’, and refers to the place where the Tipalt Burn breaks through the ridge on which Hadrian’s Wall is built. In the 1330s John Thirlwall quarried the stone to build a stronghold. After the Union of the Scottish and English Crowns in 1603, Border strongholds became redundant and by the 1660s, the Thirlwalls had moved to Hexham where the land was more fertile.

Thirlwall Castle estate was sold to the Earl of Carlisle in 1748 for £4,000 for its land and the castle fell into decay. In 1999 the national park authority acquired a 99-year lease on Thirlwall Castle and 10 hectares of adjacent woodland to conserve the building and make it accessible for future generations.

It retains several of its original features including turrets and a dungeon and strange myths of hidden treasure still cling to the site. Thirlwall Castle is a scheduled ancient monument and Grade I listed building. It is located within the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site, adjacent to the Tipalt Burn which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

This year the Northumberland WI planted 90 trees and erected a seat by the burn to create a tranquil woodland and place of contemplation.

If you are doing this walk between Easter and the end of October, Thirlwall Castle tea rooms offer excellent farmhouse teas at the farm next to the castle.

(C) From the castle go down the mound and cross the burn turning left on to the Hadrian’s Wall path (also the Pennine Way). Walk east, following the line of the northern vallum – the ditch and dyke system that allowed a cordon sanitaire for the movement of Roman troops either side of the Wall.

Keep going for a kilometre until you come to a road, turn right for a few metres and enter Walltown via the car park on your left. There are visitor facilities and a café here which is open at weekends and fine weekdays in the winter. Try its hot chocolate with whipped cream – perfect for the cold weather.

Walltown is a reclaimed Victorian quarry, now a national park recreation site with easy-access paths and waymarked trails through native woodland, lakes and meadows where wildlife flourishes. For 100 years from mid-1800s Walltown was quarried for hard rock from the Whin Sill underlying Hadrian’s Wall, leaving a big hollow in the landscape surrounded by tall crags.

Walltown Crags, which you can climb up to, is an excellent place to see how Hadrian’s Wall was built on the natural scarp face of a great wave of volcanic rock, making it an awesome sight from the north.

When you are ready to leave Walltown, turn left out of the car park and cross the road to (D) the Carvoran Roman Army Museum, which is well worth a visit between Easter and October to see a unique collection of replicas and real artefacts illustrating what life was like for the Roman soldiers.

A waymarked style in the stone wall around the museum takes you on a path across the fields back to Greenhead.

Alternatively, you can walk a bit further down the road to the Hadrian’s Wall cycle path – a hard-surfaced trail that runs parallel to the Wall back across the Tipalt Burn and along the path to Greenhead.

You can download a map and guide for this walk from www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk (rangers’ favourite walks in the ‘visiting’ section).

You can also do the walk the other way around, starting at Walltown, which has ample parking facilities. Please follow the countryside code: stick to the footpaths, shut gates, take litter home and keep dogs under close control, especially when walking through farmland with livestock.