Redesdale Goat

Seamlessly leaping from Catcleugh Shin to Black Cleugh below, is the Redesdale Goat Sculpture, one of Northumberland's newest art installations of perhaps one of its oldest inhabitants.

Created in response to the culmination of the five year Revitalising Redesdale Project which, in my mind, has successfully identified and defined the unique nature of this quiet but spectacular corner of Northumberland. The project's work has helped highlight much of the previously unseen, unknown history and heritage of the area and has helped to enhance and conserve Redesdale's natural and cultural heritage.

The Border boardwalk is easy to reach from Carter Bar and is a short, and incredibly splendid walk towards this piece of work by Northumbrian artist and blacksmith duo Stephen Lunn and his daughter Ashlee Donaldson, who work out of their forge in Red Row.

At a first glance, the area could seem bleak and barren. Looking east northeast you can make out the inhospitable tops of Hownam Law, The Schil, The Cheviot, Windy Gyle and Bloodybush Edge, the canted crust between Scotland and Northumberland, but it's the minutiae of life here that makes the environment alive and keeps us all breathing.

Lunn and Donaldson's piece is a suggestion of a goat. It's a whisp of a thing. In some lights and angles, it's not even there. I like that. It's reminiscent of the actual Cheviot Goats that blend in with their earthy, shaggy coats, and though not small in stature, keep closely routed to the ground.

Sometimes they are seen in larger herds and sometimes, a singular shadow through the pines or on a hill scree is all that is glimpsed. I like that art can mirror this impermanence in the landscape. It doesn't have to be a big, bold bronze to make its point. Thanks Paul Buxton for these close encounter goat pictures.

Once you're aware of the goat, you can catch a glimpse as you curl the bend to Carter Bar in your car. If you don't spot it, and I took my gang as a surprise visit, it's not immediately accessible to the human eye. There has been some discussion of this factor, but it's something which appeals to me. I think it can be hard to reach a balance between art and landscape.

Some pieces just look incongruous in a space, and it could seem that the harsh steel and silvery glints are just not at home in this earthy, hilly vista. However, I like the slightness of the goat. I like the fact that upon the approach you need to narrow your eyes to see it. I've had a lifetime of driving through Northumberland and trying eagled eyed to glimpse the goats.

Nothing in nature is given, just like the critically endangered freshwater pearl mussels that make up the goat's beard and which cling to the metallically concentric circles of the pools in which its feet are steeped. Our dog Wren was entranced while Roman kept a weary distance in case it leapt to life!

A huge success for the Revitalising Redesdale Project was the initiative to improve the river Rede, which is one of only two places that still hold a small population of these molluscs in Northumberland. Providing a vital role for our rivers, they filter up to 50 litres of water a day, improving the quality for other species of fish and mammals.

Again, it may appear discordant that a goat should have freshwater mussels as its beard and at its feet, and in its beard, but it highlights the plight of our flora and fauna on a regional level, depicting how something can survive in the right conditions from Neolithic times, to the transient life of a mollusc that could be decimated in a heartbeat if we don't take care of our planet. Currently, both live within the same miles and should be celebrated for their ingenuity and existence in such rough terrain.

I liked the fact that it's living its leaping life just above the peeping eye of Catcleugh Reservoir which itself had its own industrious history worth reading about. Enveloped by hills, Lumsdon Law, Ellis Crag, Girdle Fell and Carter Pike, the goat is remote.

Crowning the source of the River Rede high up in the hills, Whitelee Moor is one of a handful of habitats that still support small herds of Northumbrian Wild Goats.

The sculpture is consciously abstract, representing the wild and remote nature of the landscape and heritage, and its connections to the rich Bronze Age, Roman (not by my Roman!) and Border Reiver histories. The well laid wooden boardwalk is a linear invitation to step into the territory of the goat, despite people's abilities, to traverse this wild terrain.

Everyone is welcome. The land belongs to us all.

There's so much to see in this area, and so much more is accessible since the Revitalising Redesdale Project. Why not visit The Black House at Catcleugh, the gorgeous little chapel of ease St Francis of Assisi, or The Three Kings Stone Circle all close by.