We made great use of the August bank holiday and returned to Kielder Forest! Having recently visited, we made sure we took a different route so headed to the Hawkhope car park and explored the opposite side to which we did last time. We arrived around 09:00AM to try and avoid any bank holiday traffic and make sure it wasn't too busy around the lake.
The route we took was from the below website, it provides a fantastic walk of which you can chose the length. The walk is based around lots of different structures which are located within the forest, each as impressive as the other. We would highly recommend following this route!
The route follows a gravel path for as long as you can see so it makes for a less challenging walk and very accessible walk, but the views are unrivalled to anywhere else. The walk starts off lakeside and allows opportunities for the dogs to have a play in the water, then as you venture further into the walk, the path sits above the lake.
The structures (some of which can be seen in the images below) provide great target and resting points as they are nicely distanced from each other. We visited the first four structures and used Robins Hut as our mid point to turn round. The total distance we covered was 16KM, although this can be longer or shorter as you please! The architecture is impressive and provides plenty of photo opportunities.
As you walk round the track, be aware of cyclists, however the ones we encountered were very polite and slowed down and gave lots of notice to move the dogs over to the side.
Overall, we would definitely recommend visiting this side of Kielder, it was our favourite walk so far!
Parking (Taken from VisitKielder.com)
Car parking at Kielder Water & Forest Park costs £5.00 for the day - car parking tickets are available at any of the visitor centre car parks and can be used at any of the car parks within the Park throughout that day. Alternatively, if you park for one hour or under, the charge is £2.00. Monies raised from car parking fees are vital to the upkeep of the facilities within the park, which include public toilets, play areas, visitor centres, the lakeside way, MTB trails, art works and many more.
Since reopening the Park with Covid regulations in place , the following car parks are now open:
Hawkhope
Kielder Dam South Abutment
Tower Knowe
Matthew’s Linn
Bakethin Nature Reserve
Kielder Castle
Skyspace lower car park
Elf Kirk
Normal car parking charges apply.
All of these car parks, with the exception of Kielder Castle, Lower Skyspace and Elf Kirk, can be paid for in advance at www.bookwhen.com/car-parking and we urge anybody who is visiting to do so.
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