Allen Banks is one of our favourites as the scenery is always beautiful regardless of the time of year. The variation of a tarn, a wooded valley, a beautiful river and it’s bridges makes a wonderful walk. It’s a great place to visit.
The start
We chose to do the walk the opposite way round to usual. So, we started by crossing the bridge to the east side of the River Allen and walking upstream. As we entered the woods, we took a path off to the left. This leads to The Tarn in Morralee Wood.
The Tarn
The Tarn is always a lovely place to visit and often you will have it to yourself, as we did. The water can be very still, giving lovely reflections of the surrounding trees. We were even lucky enough to see deer.
After following the path along the rocky, steep sided valley by Morralee Woods we emerged onto a path next to a flat pasture.
Plankey Mill
Plankey Mill is the location of an old mill and has also been a popular place for camping for many years. It is also the place to cross the river back to the west side. There have been several bridges here over the years but they have all gone. We used the nice new modern one. There is a walk around Briarwood Banks but we didn’t do that walk today.
Back to the start
The last leg of the walk was along the west side of the river. Some of us took a route up the side of stream, along to the Summer House and then back to the car park.
Hope you all enjoyed the walk. See you next time.
Julie and Martin x
If you enjoyed the Souter Lighthouse to South Shields walk, why not take a look at our other walks.
Gallery – Allen Banks
