Kielder capers

Kielder viaduct with skewed arches

We drove midweek up to Kielder castle and

village, intending to climb

Deadwater Hill behind the village. However disaster struck in the form of forgotten boots (mine!), and hill tracks in these border uplands being muddy, boggy and rocky we were obliged to lower our sights. A couple of tourist trails leading from the castle seemed more suitable for my Merrill sandals. First up was the Duchess Trail, so named because the 2nd Duchess of Northumberland liked to take her pony and trap over the pack-horse bridge at the back of the castle to amuse herself when the menfolk were away at the guns. (The castle is a former hunting lodge.)

The trail led down to the Kielder Burn. A wooden fence with observation holes gave on to another feeder, but it was the sight of a red squirrel that thrilled, scampering away before we could get out the camera.

Shortly after this the trail crossed the Duchess' humpbacked packhorse bridge, continuing on into the conifer plantations beyond before returning to the castle. These trees were planted in the 1930s from saplings brought from Aviemore in Scotland, to ensure our self-sufficiency in fuel in the event of another war. Kielder forest is the biggest man-made forest in Europe. Its conifers are often dark and sterile but this being september the forest was home to many fungi, including the beautiful but poisonous red and white fly agaric, the archetypal gnome home.

Fly agaric

After lunch we headed east to Bakethin reservoir, this time through broad-leaf woods of birch, beech, rowan, oak and hazel. The sunshine broke through the canopy and dappled the forest floor. We came upon Kielder viaduct, which took the trains of the Border County Railway across the North Tyne. The perspective of its 'skewed' arches, built at an angle to give a line of least resistance to the waters below, would challenge the artist. The path climbed up to the top of the structure, and we paused to admire the view of the castle and Deadwater Hill behind it. Closer to, a peacock butterfly enjoyed the warmth of the viaduct's lichen-covered sandstone blocks. The railway had been built to carry local iron ore and coal but its economic viability was always shaky and once these were mined out passenger and light freight were not sufficient to keep it open. The line closed in the 1950s. Nowadays a pedestrian trail runs the length of the old track along the North shore of Kielder Water.

Bakethin reservoir, a nature reserve, glimmered in the afternoon sun. It flows over a weir into Kielder water at its eastern end. Both reservoirs were the result of the flooding of the upper Tyne in 1982. A swathe of purple loosestrife stood by the water's edge and banks of bulrushes were visible on the south side of the water. Four cormorants preened themselves mid-lake, and two horses grazed the banks next to the trail, probably part of a targeted grazing programme to improve meadowland.

When I first visited Kielder, the surrounding hillsides had a raw, bare quality, with little variation of flowers and birds. Now nearly thirty years on continual improvement of the habitat has attracted greater diversity, including the return of the osprey and goshawk.

Peacock butterfly on the viaduct

Purple loosestrife next to Bakethin reservoir

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