The Hareshaw Linn Project

This project started in 1996 and arose from a Village Appraisal which highlighted the need to improve the footpath through the Hareshaw Linn, a local woodland owned by Northumberland National Park Authority on the edge of the village of Bellingham.

Originally built in Victorian Times, the path crosses the burn on six bridges and allows easy access along the attractive wooded valley to a 30ft waterfall at the end of the trail.

The National Park Authority also identified additional work required:

• the dam at the base of the Linn, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, which once supplied water to power the Hareshaw Iron Works in the 1830s and 1840s was in need of urgent repair and consolidation by archaeologists
• the Linn, a Site of Special Scientific Interest designated for its rare ferns and lichens, needed woodland management work to maintain areas of habitat in which these species survive