New season of geo-walks to start

This includes a series of geo-walks over the Easter period, with the first on Saturday at 10am with an introductory walk at Cocklawburn Beach starting from the parking area on the rise just south of Cocklawburn Beach.

Northumbrian Earth has been chosen to run the Community Geology project for the Heritage Lottery funded Peregrini Lindisfarne Landscape Partnership Scheme which, along with work with the Northumberland Coast AONB and the Berwick Walking Festival, means that Northumbrian Earth will be offering a much greater range of events this year including the opportunity to explore and learn about the geology in more detail.

Ian said: “This has been a good year for Northumbrian Earth in its first year of full time operation and I am really pleased to have the opportunity, not only to offer a lot of activities but also to be able to work collaboratively within the Peregrini Lindisfarne scheme to explore the relationship between geology, archaeology, archiving, biodiversity and more. This gives a really exciting mix of activities for the local community to get involved in.”

Ian will be working with Linda Bankier who is running the Community Archive Project and Richard Carlton who is running the Community Archaeology project.

Together they will be running a series of events ranging from geo-walks exploring the landscape around archaeological digs to an event exploring the different uses of maps for archival purposes and to understand the geology and landscape.

The first of these activities will be focussing on Cocklawburn, as the area not only has a fascinating geological history, but through exploitation of limestone, coal, clay and iron has a rich industrial heritage.

This Saturday’s walk will introduce the various aspects of Cocklawburn’s geology and heritage and during the year subsequent walks will look in more detail at particular aspects of its geology and all it connects to.

These later walks will also be complemented by short skills sessions where you will have the opportunity to learn some of the geological techniques used to understand the pre-history of the coast.

Alongside the Pergerini Lindsifarne events, Northumbrian Earth is continuing to run geo-walks at locations outside of the Peregrini area for the Northumberland Coast AONB. There will be two of these over the Easter period; the first on Easter Monday 28th March, which will explore the Whin Sill between Craster and Dunstanburgh starting at 10am by the Tourist Information Centre at the Car Park entrance in Craster. The second, on Wednesday 30th March explores some of the huge forces which have fractured the rocks beneath our feet at Howick starting at 2pm at the parking area on the bend by Seahouses Farm near Howick village.

Upcoming events include a series of walks led by Northumbrian Earth for the Berwick walking Festival. This includes a circular walk around Lindisfarne, and exploration of the Whin Sill around Bamburgh and a couple of the legs of the “Top to Sea” trail walking all the way from the summit of the Cheviot to the Sea in Berwick.

Northumbrian Earth will also be working with the Flodden 500 project on Saturday 28th April to help deliver a day exploring the geology and landscape that underpins the battle and the events leading up to it.

For more information about all of these events go to northumbrianearth.co.uk and have a look at http://www.peregrinilindisfarne.org.uk/ for more information about the Peregrini Lindisfarne Scheme. Go to http://www.berwickwalking.co.uk/ for more information about the Berwick Walking Festival and to book onto the walks. Please note the Berwick Walking Festival Walks are popular and for the “Top to Sea” walk series in particular places are becoming scarce.