Introduction
This CD is to be the first in a series, providing the
opportunity to explore and experience some of the sights and
sounds of this less well known Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty, the North Pennines.
There can be no comparison with the actual
experience of being there in person, but the images, some with
accompanying sound, will let you take a virtual walk around each
of the 10 selected routes, so that you can see views at each
stage of the journey, at different times of the year, as
indicated.
When using the CD to select a walk I suggest 4
stages:
- Pick a route from the AONB
Map by clicking on one of the coloured areas -
purple or yellow. OR go to the 'Contents'
page and select your route.
- Enter the interactive map for that walk,
this gives information on distance, time needed, location of
parking and Ordnance Survey map area. Click on 'START'.
This begins the virtual walk, continue by clicking 'NEXT
IMAGE' each time.
- If you want more detail in order to do the
walk, go to the Interactive Map page for that route and
click on 'Click HERE for a printable map and route
description.' Print this out. (note: some are landscape
and so printers may need to be set for this). If you do
not have Adobe Acrobat PDF reader click HERE
to go on line for a free download.
- Go back to the Interactive Map on screen
and read your printout, as you read through the numbered stages click
on the red view arrows on screen. Many of the
photographs are intended to help with route finding - some
even have arrows to point the way.
Whilst all routes have been tested, and
checked by Local Authority personnel, descriptions can be
misunderstood and mistakes made. It is advisable to take the
appropriate map as well as clothing and safety supplies. If you
are inexperienced do not go in misty or bad weather.
Northerndales.co.uk cannot be held responsible for ground conditions or ambiguous pathways.
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THE
NORTH PENNINES
“This
country, though politically distributed among three
counties, is one and the same in all its characteristic
features. From it flow the Tyne, the Wear and the Tees
and many branches which fall into these rivers. Along
the banks of these and several other smaller streams
which fall into them are dales or valleys, cultivated
near the banks and for a short distance up the sides of
the hills, but soon cultivation and enclosure cease, and
beyond them the dark fells, covered with peat and moss
and heath; and between one vale and another is a wide
extent of high moorland, extending sometimes for a dozen
miles. In these upland tracts are no inhabited homes but
thousands of blackfaced sheep are scattered over them;
and there breed the grouse which attract the sportsmen
at the proper season of the year to this country.” (Royal
Commission into Children’s Employment in the Mines.W.R.
Mitchell. 1842)
This
topographic description of the North Pennines in 1842
could have been written today. Mention of the vast array
of flora and fauna, from valley to hill top, would help
to give an even fuller picture of this lesser known
area.
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