Top 4 Lakes around Horsley

Blink and you’ll miss the entrance to the car park after you come off the roundabout

Pretty quiet lane, heads southwest to Corbridge or can swing up across the Military road to Matfen

lovely pond full of wildlife

Popular country park. Nice to see so many people out enjoying the weather.

Stargate Ponds and Bewes Hills is an area reclaimed from former quarrying and opencast activities. Good palce for walking the dog and spotting a wide variety of birds in the undergrowth and feeding on the ponds

Stargate Ponds and Bewes Hills is an area reclaimed from former quarrying and opencast activities. The grassland supports breeding birds such as skylark, grey partridge and meadow pipit. Important insect populations include butterflies like the aptly named dingy skipper, this butterfly flies from mid May into June and thrives in areas with birds-foot trefoil and areas of bare ground. Another special insect of the bare sandy ground is the green tiger beetle, which can be seen on warm sunny days in early summer. Other grassland insects you may find include the small heath and wall brown butterflies and in mid summer thousands of burnet moths can be seen nectaring on plants like the field scabious and lucerne. In areas of gorse, linnets and yellowhammers may nest. Green woodpeckers are often seen flying up from feeding on the many anthills present. Around the ponds and ditches dragonflies like the common darter and migrant hawker can be seen along with emerald and common blue damselflies. Bird life on the ponds usually includes little grebe and mute swan with kingfisher seen occasionally.

The Pond is a lovely place to feed the ducks and the walled Gardens were laided in the 18th century and contain a lovely Cafe housed in the original 19th century glasshouse which once grew fruits for the local Bradley Hall as well as a Gift Shop

Really nice surface for cycling but beware and be considerate to the many walkers