Blawearie and Old Bewick - Bliss and Bounty

This is one of my favourite places in the entire world.

I've been several times, it's about 10 minutes from where I used to live. It can be a haul up the hill, it's inaccessible enough to be exclusive but it's also on a public bridleway so although I'd love to think I'm the only person who knows about it, there are lots of people walk here everyday! But I bet most of them don't stop.

We parked at the farm at Old Bewick (inside the little square, not on the road) and headed up the left-hand path, passing the old walled reservoir on the right.

The weather was glorious! In fact, we hadn't banked on it being so glorious, and soon we were boiling hot walking with fleeces wrapped around our waists, and there was only a very slight breeze. But the views back towards the Cheviot were wonderful.

Up through the gate and keeping left, it levelled out and after a while we saw the first target - Blawearie Cairn . This was excavated by Stan Beckensall in the 1980's, and he writes about it in great detail in his book "Northumberland The Power of Place". (This moor is also one of Stan's favourite places )



In the background of this photo lies the ruined house of Blawearie, also mentioned in Stan's book, and this is where I was looking forward to going most. When viewed from across the valley, it stands out as an oasis of green grass and large trees in a landscape of heather and bracken - today it was purple and browns as the season was starting to change. (see video)
It was last inhabited during WWII.



The grass is kept short by various grazers; we saw a few with big ears running to hide in the bracken.


There are two fantastically gnarled fruit trees at the side of the house, it looked like one tree but this times of year you can tell them apart because one has yellow fruit, the other red! I think they are a small type of plum, perhaps gages? About the size of large cherry tomatoes. Whatever, they were perfectly ripe and sweet, a few had dropped and were providing a feast for insects below, including a few Red Admiral butterflies. We picked a few and we'll have some nice stewed fruit & crumbles out of them!





There is also a gorgeous horse chestnut tree, cheggies not ripe yet. Behind all this, there are large natural rock outcrops and the original occupants made it into a garden, with terracing, steps, rockeries and walls. This must have looked fantastic when it was all in bloom but actually it looks just as fabulous now.



Inside the walls of the main house, there are about 15 bee hives! These weren't here last time I was here. The honey bees will be harvesting from the surrounding heather moorland. I got close enough to investigate them, and can confirm that they were indeed very busy. (see video)



We then crossed the moor to the Rock Art - it was one of my first places to see rock art, and historically it was where RA was first recognised as being ancient.


For more pictures, visit the links set inside the text.

There's also pillboxes and a Hill Fort here but we skipped them this time, because it was starting to get misty and cooler, the sun was going down and it was time to go home. We'd spent about 4 hours here!

See, if I won the lottery......

Walking Route

Another link about Old Bewick Rock Art

Keys to the Past

Shotton Lad's notes