Park Spinney

A lonesome pine standing tall in a much younger block of forestry.

View across Hairy Side above Derwent Reservoir.

Old Stove, including stove pipe and fuel, near Hairy Side.

Fields at Hairy Side.

View North from the road beside Derwent Reservoir.

Donald's Grave is apparently the name of this boundary stone on the south side of the minor road that runs from Kiln Pit Hill on the A68 to Blanchland, 10m east of the Coal Road (track) that leads north-west through the grounds of Slaley Hall. The stone is Grade II Listed (List Entry Number: 1045376) and is described as: "Probable boundary marker, C18th or perhaps a reworking of a more ancient stone. Gritstone. Roughly-cut monolith of trapezoidal plan, exposed height 0.9 metres. East face with incised B; north face with remains of incised design, possibly a cross within a circle; west face incised A (laid sideways) and S." See closer photo here NZ0054 : Donald's Grave near Esper Shields (detail) Local researchers think the stone may be an allotment marker from the Bulbeck Common Award (1771) which was divided between George Silvertop of Minsteracres (S) and George Baker (B), the Lord of the Manor. It has also been suggested that Donald's Grave may have originally been mapped on the north side of the road but the nature of the feature represented by the name is not specified. There are two further named stones just to the north, possibly on the same boundary: Greyhound Stone (which I couldn't find) and Hare Stone, an C18th boundary stone. All 3 stones are named on the 1st Edition 6" OS Map Northumberland, 104 (1864): Link Only Donald's Grave is represented on current large scale mapping. The Hare Stone is also Listed Grade II (List Entry Number: 1370318) said to be marked B (Blanchland) on south-west, and S (Slaley) on north-east side NY9955 : The Hare Stone near Slaley Hall The hill in the field beyond the wall is named Hairy Side.

See description here NZ0054 : Donald's Grave near Esper Shields

Looking east where the road west of Minsteracres meets the northern edge of the grid square.

Looking north from the road which runs along the north side of Derwent Reservoir. Much of the land here is rough grazing. The farm in the far distance is Wall House.

Signs at the entrance to the eastern end of Slaley Forest warn of a number of closed tracks as a diamond-shaped section of the plantation was being actively clear-cut. The noise of chainsaws filled the air, which a tractor dragged cut logs on a trailer, using a crane to lift these into stacks. A big road-legal timber truck was the other side of the logpile using its own crane to take them off again and away to become glamourous new products like fenceposts or newsprint.

A byway is shown on maps running roughly east-west for a kilometre and a half in this area of Slaley Forest, but on the ground, the line it supposedly takes is just densely planted forest. Instead, one is obliged to take a longer route via a number of SW-NE and SE-NW forest tracks such as this one, which are not rights of way of any description (though the bulk of the forest is CROW Access Land).