• Date walked: 23rd May 2020
• OS Map: OL42 – Kielder Water & Forest
• Start/finish point: NZ 052 987
• Distance: 9.3km
• Elevation gain: 321m
• Hills Climbed: Simonside (430m)

This was a good few weeks ago now, so I thought a brief ‘photo report’ might be the order of the day. This was one of several walks closer to home during lockdown, before we were able to head to the bigger hills. I’m embarrassed to say this was my first time in the Simonside Hills, but as I’m sure is the case for many of us, it was good to discover beauty spots almost on the doorstep.

It may be of interest to others that the tree felling shown in one of the photos below, just as we had descended from Simonside, meant the path marked on the OS map heading south at NZ 021 987 (and so the path we hoped to use to make the walk a larger circular, meeting St Oswald’s Way) was non existent, and the ground very difficult to negotiate. In the end we returned to the good track and went back in a figure of eight.

Do take time, when back at Lordenshaw car park, to investigate the cup and ring marked rocks in the area. This part of the world is steeped in ancient history, and they are bound to set the imagination going…