More of Northumberland

Tuesday, 1 July 2014


 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.


     

The Memorial window in St Aidan's Church, Bamburgh

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.

Rock Hall School

Here is a pic of earlier times as a youth hostel (taken from the net). The link to the site is

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!

Dunstanburgh Castle

               

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.

 

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.

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.

View of Wooler from Humbleton Hill

Northumberland

Saturday, 28 June 2014

We left Braemar around 9.00 and headed south.  Crossed the Firth of 
Forth on the fabulous bridge and dropped into Berwick on Tweed.  Neither of us recognised it and wondered why until we finally realised that we had never been there.  The last time we were in Scotland was in 2006 and we stayed in North Berwick, and not Berwick on Tweed!

Found our way to Seahouses and found the cottage without too much hassle.  It was about 5.30 when we arrived and moved in.  The house is on three levels and is nicely decorated with a seaside theme.  The living area is a bit squeezy, but adequate and has a nice Ikea kitchen.  Couldn't believe that it has a table and chairs exactly the same as the ones Janiece had in her apartment in Hong Kong. 

Having settled in, we decided to go for a walk along the Northern Coastal Trail.  After all my complaints about farm animals, we could not believe that these were the first notices we saw when we started walking the Northern Coastal Trail!

Continued for a while across the golf course, but it was cold with a strong wind blowing, so headed back for our first fish and chip meal.  Fish was very nice, but were not too impressed by the chips.  Brian has decided that the only people who make decent chips are the Belgiums.

The village is right in the middle of a long stretch of coastline - and fishing has been and still appears to be the main industry.  There is a small protected harbour with a lot of boats.  Because it is close to the Farne Islands which are nature reserves, tourism is also very important, with a number of boats taking people to see the birds, seals, dolphins etc.

Sunday 29th June.

A very cold wind blowing, so we rugged up and had coffee at the Bamburgh Inn which is not in Bamburgh, but overlooks the Seahouses Harbour.  Decided to walk down to the next village,  - past the flying golf balls - and along the beach to Beadnell.  Had an ice cream and headed back.   Fish, but no chips, for tea.

Monday 30th June.

 A very nice day so we went north to Holy Island.  Expected it to be a bit like Caldey Island in Wales, but it was not nearly as interesting.  There is not much left of the Priory and what is, is a ruin.  Couldn't see the point of paying to go inside when you could see the same ruins from the outside.   Took lots of photos and visited the Church of St. Mary which had a fantastic wooden sculpture as you walked in, but I couldn't find any information about it anywhere.  We looked in all the shops to see if there were postcards of it, but no joy.  Maybe it is a case of the locals  knowing what it is about and not thinking it is worth telling anyone else!

 Brian found this on the net.  It is a sculpture that represents the return of St Cuthbert to Holy Island.

Priory from the Lookout

St. Aidan

 Unlike the Akers, we left in plenty of time to make sure that we were not caught on the causeway as the tide was coming in, and decided to visit North Berwick.  It at least was a bit more familiar than Berwick on Tweed, but was much busier than we had remembered.  There were lots of people on the beach and there is a very big sea pool at one end of the beach.  It reminded me of Manly Beach in Sydney.  Had coffee in a deli, and bought some delicious salads to accompany some home cooked cod for dinner.  Brian had bought it and some other fish from the shop next door.  It is a favourite of Rick Stein's and has a smoke house which has delicious smells emanating from it when we walk past.

Large sea pool in background.

North Berwick Beach, which reminded me of Manly Beach NSW

Got back late from our long drive - North Berwick is almost back to Edinburgh - and had our cod and salads for dinner. Didn't take any photos of dinner, but afterwards, I went down to the harbour and across the top of the cliffs that lead away fromSeahouses toward Bamburgh.  Took some sunset photos of the islands and think I managed to get one with one of the lights flashing from the southern end light house.  Zoom in to see it.

  

 Must admit that I probably feel more at home in this environment by the sea, than anywhere else in UK. The only difference I guess is the weather.  When we were driving back from North Berwick yesterday,    very nice sunny day, we were talking about it and both felt that it was very like the scenery around Byron Bay in northern NSW.  Rolling green hills and cultivated fields.  The village of Seahouses is also unlike the other seaside places we have been to in UK.  It is nothing like Yarmouth or Scarborough in Yorkshire with their grand hotels and amusement parlours - there is a small amusement parlour here - but nothing like the ones in these other seaside places we have visited.   To my mind while they have aspects that are delightful in their own way, they are not as natural as Seahouses.  This is probably due to their history and the different purposes they served, tourism versus industry, but I like the more natural aspect of Seahouses as opposed to the tourism of the others.

 

Shelf like Coalcliff NSW

Harbour at Seahouses. I left out the modern buildings.

TUESDAY 1 JULY 
  

Today we did a walk north along the beach to Bamburgh, and when we returned Brian was saying that except for the houses, we could be walking on a beach anywhere in Oz.  I had to point out to him though, that unfortunately, Seahouses has lost some of its uniqueness, by allowing some very modern 2000 type building to built on the seafront which are totally out of character with the rest of the buildings.  Again it was a beautiful sunny day, and we even when paddling in the north sea.  Brian said he thought it was warm when I said it was cold!  I thought it was Mary who is supposed to be contrary?

You'll have to zoom in to see him

He didn't chop my head off.  Like the shadow

 
Beforehand, we went down to Alnwick - it is the closest place that has a library - so that Brian could print out the ticket to get us from Newcastle city to the port of Newcastle on Saturday week.  It and the other market town Wooler which we visited on the way back were interesting towns.  We might do some walking in the Cheviot hills from Woolmer, so stay tuned for more posts from this region.  

  


















  

Braemar

Sunday, 22 June 2014

On our first day - Sunday, we did a nice walk around the village.

Braemar is a lovely village.  Very popular with tour buses and the house we are in - Ivy Cottage - is lovely.  We both like it more than Black Swan Cottage.  It is probably newer, and lighter.  The living area in Black Swan was pretty dark, whereas here there is plenty of light throughout the whole house.  One big disadvantage is that there is no washing machine and dryer.  There is however, an offer to have a load of washing done, dried and lightly ironed for ten Scottish pounds.  $20 seems pretty close to our last economic bench mark in this regard which was in Rome in 1995 when it cost us $Au28 for a load of washing albeit minus the light ironing!

There is a Co-Op supermarket in town which opens at 8.00am and closes at 10.00pm - very handy and there are a number of pubs, cafes and gift shops.  

The village is on the River Dee which has lots of water in it and we are close enough to here it from the bedroom window.  One of the inconveniences we have found is that nearly every place we have stayed in has been overheated and we have had sleepless nights because of the heavy feather doonas on the beds.  Here we have a lighter one, but it still gets too hot in the bedroom.  Our solution has been to open the windows and turn off the radiator.

Braemar Village from the Lion's Face and Cromins walk.

Invercauld House - Monarch of the Glen?

  



















Monday, 23 June, 2014

Mary and I drove out to the start of the Ben Macdui walk. It was from the National Trust Car Park and we walked the old road to Derry Lodge, a round trip of 10km. I had been considering hiring a bike to reduce the 34km walk to 24km plus 10km on the bike; however, when I saw the road with lots of granite chips I decide against it as I could have spent more time repairing a probable flat tyre than the ride would have saved me. It was an easy flat walk and useful to get the lie of the land.


Tuesday, 24 June, 2014 

The Ben Macdui Walk

The mountain weather forecast was that this was a perfect day to walk in the Cairngorms and so it turned out - even got a little sun burnt!! Well I said cheers to Mary and set out from the car park at 9am with a rough estimate of being back at 6pm. The road ahead was fine again and crossed the Lui Water soon after the start - here is a pic of the road ahead to Derry Lodge -

It was a  beautiful day for walking - breeze light and warm. I made good going as expected to the Derry Lodge and set of up the track along the west bank of the Derry Burn before reaching a footbridge after a northerly bearing of about 3km and continuing up the east bank of the Derry Burn -

The track was fine walking of just over 3km to a junction in the track with my direction being to the left (N Westerly). The track follows the line of the burn with another foot bridge just after the junction to lead back the now southern bank of the burn and the soon to the Hutchinson Memorial Hut. It was difficult on such a glorious day to imagine the conditions in which this hut would be a life saver. A photographer taking photographs of the burn descending from Loch Etchachan told that only last three nights had been horrendous and a fine sanctuary for some young women belonging to one of seven groups of Duke of Edinburgh Award candidates in the Cairngorms.

The climb from the hut to Loch Etchachan is not difficult but it is the steepest part of the walk. From the eastern end of the loch it bears to a south westerly direction crossing a stony slope where for me on the second day after the summer solstice the track disappeared in a few spots under the remaining snow - which of course was now ice thus requiring me to keep to the safety of a stony diversion. After this the track follows the ridge to a lochan indicating the approaching westerly turn to the easy climb to the Ben Macdui summit.

There were, to my surprise, quite a few walkers at the summit, until I realised that they had arrived from Cairngorm route in the north. I had a quick lunch after unsuccessfully trying to send a text to Mary pushing my eta from 6pm to 7pm but of course there was no service - why was I not surprised. 
The mobile coverage in the UK is pathetic given the number of carriers and the small area to be covered. There is also, as in Australia, the low level of competition amongst the carriers who do not share their transponder installations. That is unless you carry a foreign mobile in which case if you set it to auto it will find the best provider. Why is this so? Well for foreign phones you pay to receive as well as to send a call. Get it now? Yes greed is good. 

On the way up I spotted a cairn that I thought might have marked the turn off to the alternative route back to Derry Lodge. I was correct as it turned out but I had no track so needed to take a bearing of 150 degrees across and down a grassy slope beneath the cliffs to the west of Lochan Uaine. On a less perfect day with cloud or mist it would have been a difficult navigation but on this day I could see the start of the track at the start of the Sron Riach ridge and was able to head directly for it. The walk down was as difficult as any walk down a moderately steep ridge but eventually I made it to the Luibeg Burn. The views from Sron Riach of Carn a' Mhaim and Coire na Poite were fantastic but I was too busy descending to stop and take a pic which would not have done justice to the view. Here is a pic looking back at Sron Riach -

The return was an easy walk along the eastern bank ( becoming the northern bank) of the Luibeg Burn to arrive at Derry Lodge and then on to the car park to meet Mary at just after 7pm.  (Actually as I didn't get his message I arrived at 6.00 and when he wasn't back by 6.30 decided to walk toward where I hoped he would be on the way back.Hadn't got too far when there he was.  Said he was a bit sore and tired - not surprisingly - no way could I have done that walk in that time.)

Brian skipped over the trip from Newcastle to Braemar.  It was pretty uneventful but as I commented about the Motorway Services in England have to say that the first Scottish one we saw was much more like the Aussie ones.  Much smaller, and with a much more rural feel to them.

Braemar is a lovely village.  Very popular with tour buses and the house we are in - Ivy Cottage - is lovely.  We both like it more than Black Swan Cottage.  It is probably newer, and lighter.  The living area in Black Swan was pretty dark, whereas here there is plenty of light throughout the whole house.  One big disadvantage is that there is no washing machine and dryer.  There is however, an offer to have a load of washing done, dried and lightly ironed for ten Scottish pounds.  $20 seems pretty close to our last economic bench mark in this regard which was in Rome in 1995 when it cost us $Au28 for a load of washing albeit minus the light ironing!

There is a Co-Op supermarket in town which opens at 8.00am and closes at 10.00pm - very handy and there are a number of pubs, cafes and gift shops.  

The village is on the River Dee which has lots of water in it and we are close enough to here it from the bedroom window.  One of the inconveniences we have found is that nearly every place we have stayed in has been overheated and we have had sleepless nights because of the heavy feather doonas on the beds.  Here we have a lighter one, but it still gets too hot in the bedroom.  Our solution has been to open the windows and turn off the radiators! 

WEDNESDAY 25 JUNE

Recovery day for both of us.  While Brian was doing his walk, I was having an attack of vertigo.  Fortunately I had put the tablets I was given after the first attack I had experienced back in January into my luggage, -  just in case - .  Ian is not the only risk manager in this family. And they worked a treat.  By lunch time I was feeling soooo much better, I couldn't believe how bad I had felt earlier in the morning. 

We didn't do anything much on Wednesday.  Had a wander around the village looking in all the gift shops etc.,  and I did a walk which I would have done on Tuesday if I had been well enough.  I have decided that Scotland is soooo much better for walking than England.  All the trails we have been on since we arrived in Braemar are well marked, usually with maps or brochures and easy to follow.  BUT BEST OF ALL THERE ARE NO FARM ANIMALS AND ALL THEIR SH... in their National Parks and Reserves.
 

St. Andrews RC Church, Braemar

River Dee at Braemar on the "Brown" route

THURSDAY 26 JUNE

Brian had been trying to retrieve my bigpond email address.  Apparently Telstra just took it on themselves to close it down.  They did not advise us that they were going to do it, nor the reason why, so he has spent a lot of time trying to restore it.  He spent most of Thursday morning trying to rectify it - got on to Telstra but with little satisfaction -  so we decided to go for a drive to Ballater and do a walk that he had found when he was researching walking around Braemar before we left Oz.  He had read about some women who had forgotten their map, so couldn't do the walk they had planned, but came upon a walk that was very enjoyable i.e. Loch Kinord in the Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve.  

It was a nice "along walk" and here are some of the photos I took.  One of the things that has taken my eye since we have been in Braemar is that the Scottish seem to have found a solution to an insoluble problem for people involved in Heritage i.e signage.  We first saw these signs when we did the walk on Sunday, and it is really ingenious.

 

The post

The Story

This celtic cross was carved over 1,000 years ago.

This one is 76 years old

 

 FRIDAY 27 JUNE

Brian spent the morning trying to sort out the email problems.  I did the
green walk around Braemar.  It is called the Queen's drive and according to the brochure was a favourite drive of Queen Victoria from Balmoral Castle.  We did not visit the castle this time, but drove past it on our way to Balater yesterday.  The car park was full so it looks as though tours of it are very popular.

Tonight we went to The New Distillery Ceillidh Band for a 'bush dance'
at the Braemar Village Hall.  There are only 400 people live in the village, but the population is inflated by tourists.  There were four of us at the dance tonight.  Two girls from New Zealand and us.  They were having a great time.  We got up for a few of the dances, met and chatted with some of the locals and found them very interesting.  It was not very crowded - only about 30 people there, but they were all enjoying themselves. We got up for a few dances and I couldn't help thinking that Helen McFadden would have been in her element playing the fiddle!

I haven't gotten used to the shortage of darkness here in Scotland.  The sun is up at around 4.00am and it doesn't get dark until after 11.00 pm.

Would definitely come back to Braemar again.