Harwood Gate to Rothbury – 7 January 2023
Our first walk of 2023 is from the Harwood Forest area to Rothbury although only one of the routes is heading for the woods. Harwood Forest is a huge, (8,720 acres) conifer plantation located to the south of Rothbury in North Northumberland and is managed by Forestry England. The forest occupies moorland north of the east-west Morpeth to Elsdon road and extends north to the Simonside Hills; it measures some 6.8 miles (11 kilometres) north-to-south and at its widest is 4.3 miles (7 kilometres) east-to-west. While a lot of the conifer plantations have been felled it still makes for an impressive walk down the rows of Sitka spruce trees.
Although Rothbury is one of our top destinations in Northumberland with a total of 10 visits we have only walked these routes twice before, the last time being in 2017. The 10.5-mile route is starting from Harwood Gate and heads roughly north before skirting the western edge of the Fontburn Reservoir. The route then heads northeast towards the farm at Blueburn and then crosses the access road to Simonside near Lordenshaws before heading towards Whitton and the finish at Rothbury.
The 10-mile route is the one that goes through Harwood Forest. It starts at the entrance road for the village of Harwood and then follows the line of St Oswald’s Way to Coquet Cairn. Here the route leaves the forest and turns northeast and continues to follow St Oswald’s Way, heading towards the access road to Simonside and then down towards Hillhead Road and into Rothbury.
Our final route is a 7.5-mile walk that starts to the north of Harwood Forest and heads along a minor road towards Bickerton then follows a footpath to the south of Caistron Lakes before heading along the southern edge of the Simonside Hills and then turning north to Hillhead Road and into Rothbury.
So with three different routes to choose from, there may be one you would like to do. If so you can get in touch with us from our Contact Page and you can download the walk descriptions below and the GPS routes here.
The image for this post was taken on a walk from Harwood Gate to Rothbury in January 2010.
