Additional information
Terrain
- Forest track and clear paths, no stiles
Landscape
- Forest
Dog friendliness
- Well-behaved dogs can run free in forest
Parking
- Large pay-and-display car park near visitor centre
Toilets en route
- By car park
About the walk
The Grove, sited in a clearing by the confluence of the Euden and Spurlswood becks and surrounded by some of the oldest trees in Hamsterley, was home to the Surtees family, who farmed here and used the estate for hunting. One of the family, Robert Smith Surtees (1805–64), created the character John... Jorrocks, a fox-hunting cockney grocer who became Master of the Foxhounds. Surtees's popular articles appeared regularly in the New Sporting Magazine and in the novel Jorrocks’ Jaunts and Jollities. Durham's largest forest Since the Forestry Commission purchased the estate in 1927, the area has been planted with commercial timber, filling the Bedburn and Ayhope valleys and extending across the spur of high moorland separating Euden and Spurlswood. Hamsterley Forest has become Durham's single largest plantation and extends over more than 5,000 acres (2,025ha). Sitka spruce, larch and Scots pine climb the steep hillsides, but among the plantations are large areas of broadleaved trees that include some 62 acres (25ha) of oak wood, part of which was planted to commemorate the coronation of George VI in 1937. A home for wildlife Initial criticism suggesting that the large areas of monoculture would decimate wildlife has waned and, three-quarters of a century on, the forest has become an ever-changing and important feature of the landscape. The cycle of planting, re-growth and harvesting of different tree types creates a mix of environments that wild plants, insects and animals can exploit. Bat boxes have been placed in some areas to encourage these furry, flying mammals to nest, for although the abundance of insects means that there is plenty to eat, sites for bats to roost and nest are limited. In the streams, you might see dippers, bobbing among the rocks and disappearing beneath the water in their search for insect larvae. Keep a look out too for kingfishers, unmistakable with their bright blue and orange plumage. In autumn, you may see leaping salmon as they migrate upstream to breed. Go quietly through the forest and you may come across red squirrels or roe deer. As the walk begins to turn back across the spur of Hamsterley Common, it follows the course of an old drove road overlooking meadows down to a bridge spanning Ayhope Beck. Above the stream are the ruins of Metcalf's House, which was an old coaching inn standing beside a moorland road between Barnard Castle and Wolsingham.
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