Day 6 - Cragside House and Gardens

We decided to take another day off walking the route. We had originally thought we would visit Cragside House and Gardens in Rothbury at the end of the walk, but after realising it is closed on Mondays we had to change our plan.



Cragside, now owned by the National Trust, was once home to Lord William Armstrong. Armstrong earnt his money in the field of mechanical engineering in Newcastle. He applied the use of hydraulics in cranes and moving bridges and later became involved in gun making and building warships.

Cragside was originally built as a holiday home and later extended to become his main residence. It was the first house to be powered by electricity, generated using water power.





The estate is extensive, with several miles of paths and tracks joining the different areas - rock gardens, pinetum, valley gardens, formal gardens and the network of lakes used to generate hydroelectric power for the house.

We walked up to the Nelly Moss Lakes via the Labyrinth. Here we sat on one of the many benches around the lake side to have our picnic lunch.


After lunch we continued around the lake and down through woods to reach the house. We spent over an hour touring the inside of the house. It was full of innovative features, including several labour saving inventions for the kitchens - a hydraulic rotisserie and a dishwasher. It also had a passenger lift, again powered using a hydraulic ram.

From the house we took the path down to the power house and through the pinetum to reach the formal gardens, with the dahlia walk in full bloom.









The formal gardens were immaculately maintained and full of colour. It was a haven for bees and butterflies with buddleia and insect houses dotted around.








The Italian terrace has only been reinstated in the last few years. It has a lovely combination of floral borders, wooden framed enclosures and a central pool. Lillies here provided bold colours and intense scent.






From the upper terrace there were great views over the garden and across the Coquet valley to the hills beyond.




We returned to the house zig-zagging up through the rock gardens.





We only saw a fraction of the grounds, despite covering over 6 miles whilst walking around the paths. This is somewhere that we will definately return to.

We headed down in to Rothbury for our evening meal.



32.Queens Head, Rothbury - 6:30pm

Lovely bar with a very smart restaurant. Great food and service.




We left Rothbury as the sun set over the Cheviots.