Ashholme Common, Wallaces's Crags, Northumberland.
[10.3 km] Thu 09 May 2013

NY 6897 5834

It’s always interesting visiting an area I’ve not walked over before. Last year I explored the Snope Common area and today I plan to investigate Ashholme Common to the north. To the east of the terrace of houses at Ashholme I found a good lay-bye, left the car and headed back west along the lane in a strong southerly wind. I reached Quarry House which had a ‘for sale’ sign on it. Looking through the window it hadn’t been occupied for a long time but was reasonably intact. One of the back rooms had an old upright piano or organ in it.

 On the descent to Kindle Burn and above Towsbank Wood is a site entrance and old mine bogey with ‘Tows Bank Colliery – Semi Anthracite’ painted on it. Some men were working by one of the sheds so I walked over to have a word. One knew quite a bit about the mine and said it was working up to about 1992, which is much later than I’d have expected. I continued along the road then at the bottom of the next descent turned left up the track towards Snope Common. I hadn’t been going long before I came to ‘John’s Cabin.’ It is a well maintained wooden cabin which seems to be exactly as described. There was nobody home so it may be a weekend retreat. I continued up the track for about a mile before taking a gate on the left which is an access to a faint track. Through an old quarry area I came to my first objective which was a stone windbreak.

 It isn’t shown on the map but is clearly visible on Google Earth. It was still in good condition. My next call was an old sheepfold, which is shown on the map. It seemed to be the basic square stone enclosure with a taller structure at one end. It was probably originally a place for the shepherds to stay while up on the moor. I then followed the fence line across very boggy ground to Wallace’s Crags. The description of crags is an exaggeration as they are no more than a strip of exposed rocks a few metres above the moor. Over Little Black Pike the ground improved only to deteriorate rapidly as I approached the main wall to the north. The wall was mostly collapsed with a wire fence running parallel. I crossed it to head NW back to the road. The first part was incredibly wet but the going became drier as I approached the road.

Low level manoeuvres