A Northumberland river running from the Cheviots down a green valley past Rothbury and Warkworth to the sea at Amble
Coquetdale is one of the quieter valleys in the north, and the river is its spine: fifty-five miles from the Cheviot watershed near the border, out through the hills at Alwinton and Harbottle, down past Rothbury and on to the sea at Amble. It is a good salmon and sea trout river, fished hard in season, and the upper valley runs through the army’s Otterburn training area, so red flags and firing times matter up there.
The lower river is the easier day out. Warkworth sits in a tight loop of the Coquet with Warkworth Castle on the neck of it, and a boat still ferries people across to the hermitage cut into the rock on the far bank. Brinkburn Priory stands alone in a wooded bend a few miles upstream, one of the best-set monastic churches anywhere.
Canoeing the Coquet is popular in decent water. Alnmouth Station is the nearest train to the lower valley, about four miles from Warkworth.
