Eastnock and Whitlees

About trip

Distance: 6 miles, Minnimum Time: 2hrs 15mins, Difficulty: Moderate, Description: For hundreds of years in the Middle Ages, Elsdon was at the centre of some of the most lawless land in England. It was the capital of the remote Middle March - one of three Marches or protective areas set up in 1249 to protect the border lands. Local historian G M Trevelyan wrote that Elsdon was ‘the capital of Redesdale when neither Scotland nor England existed.’ The chief threat to the area was from the reivers or mosstroopers - bands of marauders, mostly from north of the border, who carried out raids on local farms, burning the crops, destroying homesteads and, above all, stealing cattle, sheep and horses. Such was the seriousness of these raids that they influenced the design of the village. Its wide green, more than 7 acres (2.8ha) in area, was used to pen animals during a raid, and the entrances to the village were shut off. Tower and Castle. Another important reminder of those anarchistic days is the Vicar’s Pele at Elsdon, just by the church. A square, defensive tower that could be easily defended, it was probably built in the 14th century, and rebuilt in the 16th and 18th. Its walls are up to 9ft (3m) thick. Lewis Carroll’s grandfather, later the Bishop of Ossory, lived in the tower from 1762 to 1765. The remains of earlier defences are a highlight of the first part of the walk. What are known locally as Mote Hills are the spectacular remains of a motte-and-bailey castle. Sitting on the steep banks of Elsdon Burn the castle has a lower area - the bailey - surrounded by a deep ditch and bank, while the tall hill behind - the motte - once supported a timber castle. Put up by the de Umfravilles in the 12th century, Elsdon Castle had a short life - in around 1160 the family moved its headquarters to Harbottle, and left Elsdon to slumber. The walk takes you from the village to the tiny farming hamlet of Hudspeth, which shares its name with a county in Texas, and up the slopes of Landshot Hill before descending to the hamlet of Landshot and on to the farms of East and West Todholes. From Elizabethan county records, we know that in January 1582 Thomas Routledge of Todholes issued a complaint against Kinmont Armstrong of Canonbie, in Galloway, who he claimed had stolen ‘40 kine, 20 sheep, and 1 horse, value 300 pounds sterling’ in a reivers raid. Follow the Medieval Wall. The return to Elsdon, which offers good views of the village and the Mote Hills, is partially along a decayed medieval stone wall, once part of the outlying village defences. Look out, back on the Green, for the figure of Bacchus above the door of one of the cottages, which was originally an inn. While you're there: Visit Harbottle Castle, just across the moors. The de Umfravilles moved here from Elsdon. It has fine earthworks, and the remains of part of the 13th-century curtain wall. The keep was rebuilt in 1545 and you can still see some of the oval gun loops in them. What to look out for: The Emperor moth has been seen on the moorland around Whitlees. You may also spot the brown, woolly caterpillars which then turn bright green with bands of black as they get older. The female adult moth has grey wings with a spot like an eye on each wing which it uses to startle would-be predators. Where to eat and drink: Elsdon’s Bird in Bush Inn is a traditional country pub which serves evening meals from Tuesday to Saturday, and Sunday lunches. (Children are welcome at reasonable hours and dogs are allowed in the bars.) The Impromptu Café in the old school house near the Vicar’s Pele Tower also offers homemade produce and refreshments. Directions: Walk away from car park, passing the village hall and toilets on the right. Go through a gateway and climb up the lane past the Mote Hills. Pass the house and cross gravel to a gate. Cross the small field and go through the next gate, then head half right to go through a gate near some trees. Follow the path up a sunken lane, then along the field-edge to reach a gate. Go through the gate and turn left over a cattle grid. Follow the metalled lane through farm buildings and down to a row of cottages. Opposite them, turn right in front of a barn, cross a stream and go through a gate. Go through the field with a bank on your left and, at the top of the rise, bear left across the bank, making for a gate in a crossing wire fence. After the gate, bear half left crossing several ditches to the left-hand end of a crossing wall. Turn left over the stile and continue with the wall on your right. There are wide views of Redesdale from this section of the walk. After about 0.25 mile (400m), turn right to go over a ladder stile, then bear left across the field towards the corner of the plantation ahead. Go over the wall on a waymarked stile. Keeping the trees to your left, pass a waymarked post. Cross a wall at a stone stile and head straight across the field in the direction of Eastnook farm, behind the trees. Pass a waymarked post and go over a stone stile. Continue ahead down the field, in line with the telegraph poles, and over another stile on to a narrow lane. Turn right, down the road, and follow it through a gateway into Harwood Forest This huge plantation of sitka spruce and lodgepole pine was planted in the 1950s on the sandstone of the Simonside Hills. In the open areas you may see purple moor-grass, sheep’s fescue, wavy hair-grass and soft rush, as well as heather. Don’t be surprised if you see a wheeled sledge pulled by huskies in the forest: the Siberian Husky Club uses it for competitions. The lane passes the houses at Whitlees. Near by is a bastle house - a fortified farmstead - probably dating from the 16th century. It is built of very large rough stones, and seems to have had a ground floor, where animals were kept, and a low upper living floor. When built, it would have been sited on the open moorland. Follow the lane through a gateway and past farm building to the cattle grid. Cross the cattle grid, then immediately turn right, signed ‘East Todholes’. Cross the stream and go through a gate, then cross a second stream. Follow the wall on your left-hand side to a ladder stile by pine trees. After the stile, bear half left to go round the right-hand side of East Todholes farm and cross a stile on to a lane. Follow the lane past the next farm and up the hill to join a road. Turn right and, in a short distance, cross a stile over the fence on your right. Head half left, down the field to reach an old wall. Follow this downhill towards Elsdon, bending right, then left at a fence to go over a stile. After another stile, bear right to a footbridge, then left to another. The path eventually brings you to a larger footbridge near the village.