Whitelee Moor.

The second walk is about 5 miles and has written directions and descriptions. It takes visitors up a remote valley where, in the days of the Border Reivers, the head of a leading Redesdale family was brutally murdered and where it’s said his ghost still roams.

Jon Monks was impressed with the landscape in this part of Northumberland: “I hadn’t walked in the countryside around Whitelee before and I was staggered by the magnificent views of the Rede Valley and the sweeping views across the Cheviot Hills and the Borders,” he said.

The ground covered on these walks is rich in wildlife. Walkers can see buzzards, peregrine falcons, ravens, and, in the summer, visiting birds such as sand martins, curlews, skylarks, whinchats and stonechats.

“The one thing they won’t see is other people!” continued John Wilson. “When they get back to their cottage, there’s another wildlife treat for them: their very own ‘Springwatch’. Linked direct to the television in each cottage are CCTV cameras – one inside a barn owl nest box; another outside the nest box and a third on a feeding station where badgers and foxes come to feed. In summer, one focuses on a swallow’s nest.

“Both the Northumberland National Park Authority and the Northumberland Wildlife Trust who own Whitelee Moor have given us much appreciated support. This is a great place to enjoy a unique environment and its wildlife and we hope that by offering these walks we’ll enrich our visitors’ experience of this wonderful part of Northumberland.”