Park at the Lordenshaw car park. If approaching from the B6342 south of the Simonside hills the road to the parking is almost single track in places with soft verges so take care when passing other vehicles.
(S) Walk across the car park to a signpost for Lordenshaw hill fort. There is an app you can download onto your phone which provides information about rock art.
(1) Follow the grassy path and go left at the split. This will take you to the Main Rock and Horseshoe Rock, then you can walk back to explore the hill fort, the burial cairns and Channel Rock. When you have finished head back to the car park.
(S) Cross the road and take the well-maintained footpath and steps, passing an information panel about the Simonside Hills.
(2) At the fork in the path, go right.
(3) At the post, ignore the path on the right going down, this is your way back. Instead, keep on going up on the path to Dove Crag. Follow the path down a little and back up to Old Stell Crag which is a complicated jumble of boulders. Continue to the top and on to another rocky cairn which has a small crag below it. The path passes a stagnant pool, which is there in all but the driest of weather, and dead over to a cairn at the top of Simonside Crag. This section has great views over to Rothbury.
(4) Descend the path/steps to a junction with a forestry track.
(5) Turn right and follow the track for a short way. Keep a look out for a post on the left and a small path through the heather.
(6) At the post, turn left and descend. At the time of writing this section of the forest has been cut down and there are a few old branches and roots to step over. This section can also be muddy but the wet parts are easily bypassed. You will see another obvious forestry track on your right cutting across the hillside. Your path descends to this and crosses it.
(7) At another post leave the forest track and descend through woodland, passing through a gap in an old stone wall and descending further to a junction with another forestry track. This track borders the forest and the farmland.
(8) Follow the track for a short way to an obvious gate on the left with a yellow arrow. Go through the gate an follow the grassy path over the edge of the field. Cross one wall via wooden steps and cross a second gate via a stile. At this point, Burg Hill is immediately below you and is marked by some gorse bushes on the south side facing you. The path follows the wall on the right but the fence shown on the Ordnance Survey map has been taken away so you can follow the grassy track over the field directly to the fort.
(9) The north side of the fort is steeper than Lordenshaw and would have been a good defense. The old embankments and ditches are still visible. Below you and to the right is Great Tosson.
Retrace your footsteps back to (8)
(8) Go through the gate and turn left following the track down and around a bend. Take the right-hand fork and continuing uphill at the bend. The track bends again and brings you to a wide junction.
(10) Take the left-hand fork, the forestry track contours the hillside, passing a mobile phone mast. Shortly after the mast, the track splits again.
(11) Take the right-hand fork and head uphill once more, soon you will see the Simonside hills ahead of you. Head up the track to a junction.
(12) At the junction, turn left and follow another forestry track which starts to narrow. Keep a lookout for a marker post and a small path on your right.
(13) At the post, turn right and follow the smaller path uphill towards the shoulder of Dove Crag. The path will bring you back to the path you started out on at (3)
(3) Turn left and follow the good path/steps back to the car park.
