Country diary: A living fossil with a tale to tell

Winlaton Mill, Gateshead: The landscape here is vast and exhilarating, but a close look reveals a curious plant with a link to the area's coal past

When the 12th Earl of Strathmore, a 19th-century nimby who made an immense fortune from coal, refused to allow trains across his Gibside estate, the North Eastern Railway adopted an expensive alternative route via four viaducts and a cutting. After the line closed in 1962 it became the Derwent Walk Country Park, beloved by ramblers, runners, dog walkers, cyclists, horse riders and birdwatchers.

The view from the parapet of the Nine Arches viaduct, spanning the River Derwent's gorge, is exhilarating: a vibrant pointillist canvas of a tree canopy, painted with bursting leaf buds; an earthbound opportunity to see woodland from the perspective of the red kite that soared over my head this morning.