Shepherdess dies in quad bike accident

Friends have paid tribute to a shepherdess who died in a quad bike accident while she worked on the hills.

Liz McIntosh, 64, was tending her flock in the Northumberland National Park when her machine crashed and it may have been some time before the alarm was raised on Friday afternoon.

It happened on an unnamed road close to West Todholes near Elsdon, where she tended a flock of 700 sheep and cattle with the help of a part-time shepherd.

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John Hartshorne, chairman of Otterburn Parish Council, said: “She had stock to deal with and at this time of year farmers are charging around the hillsides on quad bikes.”

Mr Hartshorne, who runs Albion Outdoors which gets young people out into the countryside to study nature, said Ms McIntosh was a keen naturalist. The important 10,000-year-old peat bog known as Steng Moss was part of her land, and she allowed his students access to learn about it, he said.