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Jonathan Manning discovers rich wildlife and fascinating history on an off-road adventure in Northumberland National Park
Brough Law. Photo courtesy of Blue Lemon Films
For an electrifying few seconds, it feels as if we have a grandstand seat in a nature documentary.
A herd of red deer is running uphill, almost within touching distance of our go-anywhere vehicle, a doorless Can-Am Traxter. At first it seems as though the skittish animals have decided to make a break for it, until we come to a stop and the herd gathers around. It turns out the animals have been chasing us, aware that the off-roader has a sack of feed on its back.
Survival is tough in these wild hills of Northumberland, so any easy calories are gladly gobbled. Interestingly, during a three-hour safari of this rugged landscape, the deer are one of the few creatures to be fenced in. The rest have chosen to call this remote terrain home, including humans, who have eked an existence on these rough slopes since the Bronze Age.
The Wilson family is a more recent arrival, farming 1,700 acres in the Ingram Valley since 1949. Geographically, we’re just four miles from the Club’s River Breamish site (Brandon Ford Certificated Location is even closer). Historically, we could dig into five millennia of human settlements in these hills. Ingram Valley Farm is Historic England’s largest scheduled ancient monument, receiving protected status for its remains of prehistoric to post-medieval settlements, which have been largely undisturbed. If the buzzards wheeling in the sky above had an interest in archaeology, they could soar over the remnants of 40 ancient settlements, ranging from unenclosed hut circles to six palisaded hillforts, and more than 200 prehistoric cairns – stacks of stones made by humans).
Far-reaching views
At one of these piles of stone, our guide and driver, Patrick Norris, points out a capstone that covered the grave of an infant, whose cremated ashes were carefully consigned to a pottery urn 4,000 years ago. Archaeologists unearthed four perfectly preserved urns here, and the jars are now on display at the visitor centre café in the tiny village of Ingram. The grave is a moving reminder that parental grief must have been as acute then as it is today, given the enormous effort required to build the funeral cairn. “We might assume these were uncivilised savages, but they could not have survived in this landscape without peace, cooperation and hard work,” says Patrick.
Lines of terracing across the steep hillside offer further evidence of this cooperative approach to life, proof of sophisticated farming techniques used to grow crops, most likely barley. The north-facing slope is also an indication that the Northumberland climate was warmer in the Bronze Age than the present day. The back of our buggy is loaded with waterproof robes in case the mercury drops, and Patrick isn’t joking when he says sometimes the wind blows so hard that rain passes horizontally through the vehicle, in one side and straight out the other.
What the Can-Am lacks in doors it more than makes up for in traction, bounding up hills, through bog and over rocks with ease. Its straightforward seating arrangement and exceptional off-road ability make the tour hugely accessible, and Patrick takes pride in the fact that the age range of safari-goers stretches from seven months to 97 years. Wheelchair users and neurodiverse tourists have all been whisked across these hills in exhilarating fashion.
But it’s the stops rather than the high-octane surges that provide the real thrills, with Patrick proving to be a hugely engaging guide. Whether he’s talking about rare lichens, iridescent beetles or the perfect U-shape of a glacial meltwater valley from the end of the Ice Age, no question is too obscure or daft to receive a cheery answer.
Onwards and upwards
Gallery
Our expedition starts in a grazing pasture where cows eye us cautiously as their calves frolic. Fortunately the mighty Aberdeen Angus bulls, with gladiatorial names like El Nino and Explosion, are penned in the farmyard.
As we reach higher ground, pasture grazed by sheep and their spotlessly white lambs, gives way to tussocky moorland. Patrick cites a potential ‘Big 5’ list of species to spot, and we soon see hares scatter through the landscape, hear skylarks and curlew singing their hearts out, and watch a lapwing perform an acrobatic display. All are eclipsed by a short-eared owl, whose mottled feathers and pale underwing blend flawlessly with the smudges of moorland colour. A hen harrier, one of Britain’s rarest birds of prey, was hunting these skies just 48 hours earlier, says Patrick.
Rewind a few thousand years and bears and wolves lived here, too, although it was more likely marauding tribes that led to the construction of the hillfort at Brough Law. The settlement has a diameter of about 60m and stone rubble suggests its walls were 3.5m−5m wide, likely topped with wooden barricades. It must have been an impressive statement of power, organisation and control, with the added bonus of spellbinding views across the River Breamish to the brooding Cheviot Hills in the north.
The highest point of the farm and safari is Cochrane Pike, 1,100ft above sea level, from where we glimpse the Simonside Hills to the south, the sea to the east and The Cheviot, the highest point in Northumberland National Park, to the north. It’s a fabulous vantage point from which to admire the moorland, pine plantations and summer grasses, lifted by pockets of delicate wood anemone, indicators of the forest that once stood tall before Bronze Age axes started to clear the land.
The red deer are the final stop, a handsome connection between the farm and the wild, with the names of the stags, like the safari itself, reflecting the past and the present: Cuthbert and Garry.
Information
The Ingram Valley Farm Safari costs £85pp or £225 for a family of two adults and up to three children aged under 16.
Contact: ingramvalley.co.uk
Stay: River Breamish Club Campsite
More safari experiences near Club sites across the country
Aviemore, Highlands
Red deer, red squirrels and golden eagles may be spotted on a four-hour ‘mini-safari’ (£72pp) in a Land Rover.
Info: highlandwildlifesafaris.co.uk
Stay: Culloden Moor Club Campsite, Grantown-on-Spey AS
Dunster, Somerset
Enjoy a half-day tour (£50pp) in a Land Rover seeking out the likes of red deer and Exmoor ponies in their natural habitat.
Info: exmoorwildlifesafaris.co.uk
Stay: Minehead Club Campsite
Knepp, Sussex
Choose from butterfly, bat, bird and wild horse safaris on the 3,500 acres of the Knepp Wildland Project, where wildlife abounds.
Info: knepp.co.uk
Stay: Slinfold Club Campsite
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