Northumbrian Stories

From Salisbury, I walked out of town and took the Portway, part of a Roman road later used as a Medieval track, up to Old Sarum, the original ancient settlement of the area.

It was lined with berry-laden hawthorn, blackberries past their best, rosehips, and flowering ivy, and humming with insect life, but I didn't see another person on it.

#Salisbury #OldSarum #RomanRoad #AncientPaths #OldWays #Hedgerows #ThePortway

Took myself away from staring at a computer screen and wrangling websites to walk the hound. Beautiful blue and gold evening, looking towards the Cheviot Hills. A January wind, but the promise of spring around the corner.

#Northumberland #Photography #Landscape #CheviotHills #NorthCountry #January

Since I think my original post about this place got lost in my server move, I'm redoing it for #WaterfallWednesday.

This is the Hen Hole, far into the Cheviot Hills, at the head of the remote College Valley. A deep, craggy cleft in the side of Cheviot itself, where the wind blows the water backwards up the fall, peregrines swoop above the cliffs, and fairy music emanates from cracks in the rocks.

The story goes that a hunting party once rode up from Kirknewton, on the trail of a white stag. The stag led them a dance all the way up the College Valley before disappearing between the crags of the Hen Hole.

There, the party became transfixed by the sound of beautiful music. Bewitched, they followed it into a deep crack into the hill, and were never seen again. The only survivor was an elderly farmer on an old nag, left behind by the hunt, who came up behind just in time to see the last of his fellows disappear into the hillside.

#Northumberland #Waterfall #CheviotHills #Folklore #Folktale #Fairytale #Legend #Landscape @folklore

I see Cows of Mastodon and Sheep of Mastodon, but is there any place for #GoatsOfMastodon ? These are part of the wild #Cheviot population, taken on Dere Street, the #RomanRoad running deep through the hills. #Northumberland #ScottishBorders

The Henhole, deep in the Cheviot Hills. Where waterfalls blow backwards, peregrines fly overhead, and fairy music drifts out of the hills.

It's said that once a hunting party chased a white hart all the way up the College Valley, only to be entranced by the beauty of the music and disappear forever underground.

#northumberland #folklore #folkstories #northumbrianstories #storyteller #fairytales #fairylore #lore #strangetales #cheviothills