Walking in the Simonside Hills

The Simonside Hills were a special place for our ancestors and for many people still are. Part of a range of sandstone hills that run up the centre of Northumberland between the Cheviots and the sea, these hills present a wide variety of countryside for the walker to explore. Running between Coquetdale and Redesdale, to the east the Hills end in the Simonside Ridge, a famous landmark of crags and rocks. To the west, the landscape gradually changes from moorland to rough farm pasture while in the centre the wooded bulk of Harwood Forest dominates. Here, in this varied landscape, mankind has left many reminders of his presence through the ages. From the Stone Age to the 1940's, there are the remains of habitation and of conflict. Join the author as in a series of nine walks he discovers this special countryside.