Banchory Veterans' Hill-walkers

Sunday morning and Stewart had to leave us to head home and prepare for his big day representing AberNecessities ( www.abernecesseties.co.uk ) at Holyrood Palace. He subsequently sent us this photo from that day: Three options were available for the walk today. Rob was keen to drive down to Hadrian's Wall (about an hour away) but the rest of us didn't fancy spending two hours in the car, especially with the England - Slovakia match on TV at at 5 pm. Ken initially favoured a local hill walk but most of the rest of us preferred to take the relatively short drive to Craster for a coastal walk, so 6 of us headed east while Rob went south. Two cars - Dave and Gordon - parked just outside Craster where this sign showed some of the local attractions and walks: We started off walking away from the village - Ken had notions to see Howick Hall ( https://howickhallgardens.com/ ): Not a National Trust property and we knew dogs wouldn't be allowed in the house but we hoped to be able to...

Saturday morning and, with Jeb now here, we were up to our full complement of 8 for the ridge walk on the Simonside Hills. Ken had indicated there was an optional shortcut for those - like me - who might perhaps struggle a bit with the climb. I accepted Ken's suggestion with alacrity and was joined by Gordon and Rob. The remaining 5 set off at 9:30 and we planned to meet up at what Northumberland National Parks state is the official start of the route at the Forestry Commission's car park. Gordon, Rob and I arrived there a little early so we thought we would take a walk up to see the remains of the hill fort, thinking we would still be able to see the others as they came over the first hill. Like most ancient hill forts, there is little left to view: The town in the distance is Rothbury As the 3 of us made our way back down to the car park, we still hadn't spotted the other 5 - until a few minutes later when we saw a group of 5 leaving the car park and heading up the next h...

Friday was originally scheduled to be the ridge walk on the Simonside Hills but a combination of the weather forecast for high winds and the fact that Jeb wouldn't arrive until Friday evening led to a late switch so we did the St. Oswald's Way instead. Crossing the bridge in Rothbury we took a left turn up the slight gradient and set about looking for the Way which starts off near an old railway line. We had been led to believe that this was largely a riverside walk so we took a path that seemed to lead us down that way. We should have listened to the friendly farmer's wife who told us that this path was pretty overgrown. She was right - after fighting our way through heavy undergrowth thick with nettles, we decided to backtrack and, in so doing, experience even more stinging sensations. Those of us wearing shorts suffered the most but even some in long trousers were stung through the fabric. We found the correct route and the railway line high above the river but there was...

This was the 15th year since we began these walking weekends back in 2010. One year - 2021 - was missed due to Covid but Ken, our leader, has attended all 14 others. Dave and I have been on 11 each and Gordon and Ian Sharp 10. This year we had a new recruit - Rob D, who had briefly met up with us last year in the Lake District. He became the 16th person to be on one of these weekends, bringing the aggregate attendees over the 14 years to exactly 100. Car sharing has been the norm in the past but this year various factors meant that all of us travelled to Northumberland for Day One in our own vehicles - not exactly eco friendly. Ken had, as usual, done meticulous research and checked the tides, which were in our favour and we could cross the causeway over to Holy Island - Lindisfarne. We weren't the only ones to take advantage - the large main car park was packed almost to capacity when we arrived. Jeb had car problems and allied to a desire to attend a friend's memorial wouldn...