Coquetdale & Rothbury Forest Area : Introduction To The Study Area
Lordenshaws 
Blagdon Burn
Area 2 lies to the south of the town of Rothbury within the parish of Rothbury Forest. At its northern extent is Garleigh Moor with Simonside itself and the high ridge of the Simonside Hills to the west.
Area 2 reaches a maximum altitude of 400m at Croppy's Hole just to the south of the summit of Simonside. The southern and eastern boundaries are on the lower lying ground around Blueburn and Blagdon Burn Farms. The landscape is characterised by sandstone hills forming a wide arc of high ground.
The broad plateau summits undulate in a series of ridges with north-west facing scarp slopes. Sandstone boulders and craggy outcrops break through the surface in many places. Thin sandy soils support a semi-natural heather moorland and acid grassland with some areas of wet mire.
The upper slopes of the hills provide semi-improved grazing, which in place has reverted back to rough pasture, within a pattern of large rectilinear open fields interrupted by shelter beds of coniferous woodland.
Immediately to the west of the survey area is Harwood Forest, a vast area of coniferous plantation. The lower slopes provide improved grazing with some broadleaf cover, particularly along minor stream courses.
The Simonside Hills Site of Special Scientific Interest covers an extensive area with fine examples of heathland vegatation and several rare species. Also important are the damper areas of 'flush' and mires, with purple moorgrass, bog myrtle and sphagnum moss. The hills are formed of Carboniferous Fell Sandstone, which is a thick sequence deposited in the carboniferous period about 300 million years age. Within the Rothbury Forest area, being almost wholly quartz-sandstones, the outcrop forms barren, heathery, moorland hills (Taylor, 1971, 52).
The survey area is defined by three contiguous land holdings: Lordenshaws to the north, which includes Garleigh Moor and, to the south and east of the Simonside ridge, Blue Burn and Blagdon Burn.
