Yesterday we had booked the bus from Newcastle to the ferry port at North Shields so needed to get a copy of our ticket printed. We drove down to Alnwick and fixed this up at the library. This is a market town with an ever present castle and gardens within the castle grounds. On the way down Mary spotted a road sign to Rock which rang a bell of our travels back in 1964 when we stopped at a Youth Hostel called Rock Hall.
On the way back we passed through Bamburgh Village so decided to visit the Grace Darling Museum. She was the daughter of a Lighthouse keeper and the Museum had a lot of personal items which help tell the story of her life. On 7th September 1838 she became a British heroine, when the media heard about how she rescued a number of people of the steamship SS Forfarshire which was wrecked nearby. Unfortunately she only had a short life and died in her late twenties probably as a result of consumption.
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| The Memorial window in St Aidan's Church, Bamburgh |
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| Grace Darling's tomb in the Bamburgh Cemetery St Aidan's Church |
Wednesday, 2 July 2014
Today we checked out Rock on the net and confirmed that Rock Hall was a Youth Hostel but is now Rock Hall School.
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| Rock Hall School |
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/773690
We then went to check out yet another seaside town called Craster but it was very busy and the pub was under some pressure as it was the traditional eating hour. Of course there was another castle!
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| Dunstanburgh Castle |
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| Craster with harbour in foreground |
Thursday, 3 July 2014
Today we went on a drive to visit a few more towns in the area. The first was to Rothbury where we did a stroll down the riverbank to Thrum Mill - this was a restoration documented in the TV series The Restoration Man by George Clarke.
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| Thrum Mill - Rothbury |
Here is a link to the owners' blog which tells the full story of the restoration - http://thrummill.wordpress.com/ (right click for options).
On then to Otterburn a small village with the main attraction being the old Otterburn Mill now a store similar to the Edinburgh Mill chain. Started a walk here listed as the Village Trail but turned back as it became less clear (as lots of English walks tend to do) and it became less attractive with lots of nettles and other weeds.
After a quick coffee we moved on to check out Newbiggin by the Sea a small town only 30 minutes from Newcastle and thus probably home of many business commuters. A very attractive bay and beach with a renovated seawall and out in the bay a huge sculpture called Couple.
There is a matching much smaller sculpture on the esplanade and the explanation is that the couple are doing what most people do when the get close to the sea. That stand and look out at it!
Friday, 4 July 2014
Took a drive to check out to St Cuthbert's cave at Holburn near Belford - one of two natural sandstone caves in Northumberland that have been traditionally associated with St Cuthbert the seventh century Anglo-Saxon monk, bishop and hermit.
It was in such an out of the way place that despite being only a few miles from Seahouses it took us longer to find the start of the track in than it did to do the short walk to the cave itself. Of course the walls of the cave are awash with inscriptions from more recent times which certainly detracts from the site's religious significance.
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| St Cuthbert's Cave - Holburn - Brian checking the map on the iPad! |
Anyone interested in St Cuthbert will find the link to Wikipedia useful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Cuthbert%27s_Cave (right click for options).
After this we headed off to Wooler to do a short walk up Humbleton Hill site of an original hill fort built over 2000 years ago. It was a well graded walk with the track winding around the hill to reach the summit. However, like all north country summits it was as windy as all hell and not a time to dally although I did take a pic of Wooler on the way down.
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| View of Wooler from Humbleton Hill |
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