ANTHONY TOOLE discovers, during a walk in north Northumberland, an unusual link between tiny Holburn and an Iranian city.
THE link between a tiny Northumbrian village and a city on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea is not immediately obvious. Even by village standards Holburn is small, and lies quietly in the dawn shadow of Greensheen Hill, just off a narrow by-road between Belford and Lowick.
The road into the village itself gives way, after a few hundred yards, to a rough track which passes through a couple of gates, then swings north to follow the contours round a hillside.
A footpath continues on the original course of the road by following a wall uphill and, after a short ascent, levels out onto the rim of a hollow. To the north and east are the edges of a conifer forest, while to the south gentle heather slopes rise to the top of Greensheen Hill. The western lip is covered in gorse, but clearly shows the line of the dam built in 1934 to create Holburn Lake, which now fills the hollow. An island occupies the centre of the lake, around which are several areas of floating peat.
Holburn Lake: a view from the track leading to Greensheen Hill.
Despite its modest size of only 70 acres/28 hectares, Holburn Lake and the peat moss which surrounds it are listed as a site of international importance under the Ramsar Convention for the preservation of wetlands. In 1971 the city of Ramsar, in northern Iran, was the venue of an inter-governmental conference, the purpose of which was to provide a framework for action and co-operation between nations to ensure the conservation and wise use of wetland resources. Wetlands were defined as lakes, marshes, fens, peat bogs or coastal regions where water was the main factor in controlling plant and animal life. Such areas cover some six per cent of the Earth's land surface, and their importance cannot be overstated.
Wetlands are some of the planet's most productive environments; their health is essential to agriculture. They are storehouses of biological diversity and support large populations of bird, animal, reptile, amphibian and invertebrate life. Rice, the staple diet of half of humanity, is a wetland crop. Yet as a result of pollution, exploitation and drainage, they are among the most threatened ecosystems.
The Ramsar Treaty, which was the first global international treaty on conservation, was signed by 138 countries, each of which undertook to declare at least one site within its boundaries as being worthy of preservation. Out of a worldwide total of more than 1,300, the United Kingdom has listed 169 sites — more than any other country — and of these 75 are in England, all of them Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
The view north-east from Greensheen Hill, looking across to Holy Island and Lindisfarne Castle.
Northumberland has four Ramsar sites. Holy Island and parts of the coastline have been listed because of their mudflats and tidal marshes. A group of mires near the Cumbrian border, and Holburn Lake and Moss, joined the list in 1985 by virtue of their peat deposits and their importance to migrating birds.
Wildfowl dot the surface or stalk the edges of the lake at all times of year. Widgeon and teal come to roost, while small numbers of tufted duck, shelduck and shoveller breed here. Snipe, lapwing and red grouse nest in the surrounding heather and oystercatchers fly in from the coast, which is only a few miles away.
In addition to its other designations, Holburn Lake is a Special Protection Area for birds under a directive of the European Union. This status was granted because of its importance as a wintering site for large numbers of Icelandic greylag geese.
The peat bog to the east of the lake has suffered in the past from forestation, and more recently as a result of a fire. It is, however, recovering and is now home to plants such as heather, cranberry, cotton grass and the insectivorous sundew.
Holburn Lake and Moss are part of a larger nature reserve, which extends to an area of 200 acres/80 hectares and is administered by the Northumberland Wildlife Trust. It incorporates the land to the south, which includes Greensheen Hill.
A gate in the wall near the lake's southern shore opens on to a broad track which leads over a crag of fell sandstone to the trig point at the top of the hill. This is a low summit, yet it offers views out of all proportion to its 672 feet/205 metre altitude. Westward is the broad valley of the River Till, with the Cheviot Hills as its backdrop. To the east lie the coastal plains, Holy Island, the Farne Islands and Bamburgh.
Tthe fell sandstone crag near the summit of Greensheen Hill.
The track maintains this view across another, lower top and on to the edge of a forest, before losing it by turning down heather slopes towards a National Trust signpost, just where the corner of the forest meets farmland. The footpath back to the village leads for a leisurely mile along the base of the hill. However, it is worth making the short detour into the forest, for it brings the walker to a sandstone crag, at the bottom of which is the impressively large St Cuthbert's Cave.
When St Cuthbert died in 687 AD, his body lay on Holy Island for nearly 200 years. Following a Viking raid in 875, the monks of Lindisfarne Priory fled, taking the saint's body with them. For seven years they moved through northern England and southern Scotland, seeking shelter where they could. The cave below Greensheen Hill is thought to be one of their many refuges.