Sometimes I comment on your blogs after you have visited me, however the comment you get from me may not be from the site you visited. That’s because I have more than one blog.
So here is a list of my other ones. 😘
If you get bored here over there on the right under pages there’s some more rubbish to read.
😊
Tilly
Around 9 mile round trip
This walk can be done either along the coastal path or along the seashore depending on the tides.
We decided to walk the shoreline as hubby’s knee was playing him up. The walk leaves the beach for a short time at Seahouses which if time allows is a lovely little village that is well worth a visit.
The walk starts at Beadnell from the road you walk a short way through dunes onto a volcanic beach. The hardened rock forms a landscape of huge ripples almost like another world, and there are some beautiful colours to been seen in the formations. This is also the place to see brightly coloured seaweeds and cove after cove of rock formations.
At seahouses you leave the beach for a short walk along the top before dropping back down, it is at this point the volcanic rock begins to disappear along with the coves and the beach stretches out straight as far as the eye can see in front of you. Along this stretch of the beach the wreak of a ship can also be seen.
Towards the end of this walk Bamburgh castle comes into view in all it’s glory, looming over the beach from it’s vantage point high on the hill. You can get to the castle by following the path through the dunes.
Holy Island
Berwick-Upon-Tweed,
Northumberland,
TD15 2RX
Admission adults £6.80 child £4.10
In 635 King Oswald summoned an Irish monk named Aidan from Iona (the island-monastery off the south-west coast of what is now Scotland) to be bishop of his kingdom. Oswald granted Aidan and his companions the small island of Lindisfarne to found a monastery on.
In the 670s a monk named Cuthbert joined the monastery at Lindisfarne. He became Lindisfarne’s greatest monk-bishop, and the most important saint in northern England in the Middle Ages.
Cuthbert reformed the monks way of life to conform to the religious practices of Rome rather than Ireland. This didn’t go down well, so Cuthbert decided to retire and live as a hermit. He lived at first on an island just offshore now known as St Cuthbert’s Isle, later moving across the sea to the more remote island of Inner Farne.
In 685 Cuthbert was made a bishop at insistence of the king and Cuthbert new duties brought him back into the world of kings and nobles, where he acquired a considerable reputation as a pastor, seer and healer.
On 20 March 687 Cuthbert died and was buried in a stone coffin inside the church on Lindisfarne. Legend as it that eleven years later the monks opened his tomb and to their delight they discovered that Cuthbert’s body had not decayed, a sure sign they argued of his purity and saintliness. His remains were elevated to a coffin-shrine at ground level, and this marked the beginnings of the cult of St Cuthbert. Miracles were soon reported at St Cuthbert’s shrine and Lindisfarne became a place of major pilgrimages. As a result, the monastery grew in power and wealth due to gifts of money, precious objects and land from kings and nobles.
After a devastating raid by Viking pirates in 793 the Lindisfarne monks retreated inland to Norham during the 830s. Then in 875 the decision was made to leave Lindisfarne for good. The monks wandered for seven years carrying St Cuthbert’s coffin and the treasures of Lindisfarne and eventually settled at Chester-le-Street, building a church in the middle of the old Roman fort. St Cuthbert’s relics were moved again in 995 and enshrined at Durham, where they remain.
The ruins of the priory are very impressive, however it has lost it’s feel of calm due to the fact that people are encouraged to use it like a park, picnics, ball games etc, so it’s very hard to soak up the atmosphere. There’s a nice little museum giving the history of the priory and St Cuthbert, the more I learnt about him the more I wish I could have met him.
Also in the same grounds stands The Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, or should I say the priory sits in the grounds of the church given that parts of the church have been there since the 7th century. This is a beautiful little church with lovely stain glass windows and a wood carving of the monks carrying St. Cuthbert’s coffin called ‘The journey’ which is strangely moving.
The grave yard is also worth a look around, very old graves and some very impressive tombs.
Lindisfarn Castle
Lindisfarn Island
Admission adult £7.30 child £3.60
The castle sit on top of a volcanic mound known as Beblowe Craig, and can be seen from miles around. The castle was built in 1550 after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII as part of the defences of the realm against attack by Scotland.
The castle has 13 rooms, 4 public rooms and 9 bedrooms plus a bathroom. All of which look the same. The rooms are empty of any features to distinguish them as anything other than just another empty room, what the room do contain is ‘art work’ by Anya Gallaccio which consists of wooden frames covered with blankets.
This is one of the worst castles I have ever visited, in my opinion a total waste of money.
Another thing I found annoying is that if you are not careful they try to charge you £8.10 the extra is gift aid.
No photos as the place was so boring I couldn’t be bothered.
Serenity Boat Trips
Seahouses Harbour
Price adult £18 child £12
The Farne Islands are a small group of islands a few miles off the coast at the Northumberland village of Seahouses.
The Islands are formed by the most seaward outcrops of the volcanic intrusion called the Great Whin Sill. This can runs from Upper Teessdale in Durham where it forms the High Force waterfall all the way to North Northumberland and on to the Farne Islands. The castles of Lindisfarne, Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh sit upon this rock it is the dolerite rock gives the Farne Islands their distinctive blackened appearance.
The Farne Islands are an incredibly important wildlife reserve, home to many species including Puffin, Eider, Razorbill, Guillemot, Shag, Kittiwake and Fulmar. They are also home to a large colony of grey seals which breed through the autumn and winter months. There are 28 islands the largest, innermost and most historic of the Farne Islands is Inner Farne. Inner Farne was the home of St Cuthbert who lived in solitude. St Cuthbert had a reputed gift of healing which brought pilgrims from all over the Kingdom of Northumbria. Island of the Pilgrims.
This trip takes about 2 hours and takes a route around the islands where you can get quite close to the seals and birds, the trip also goes by Grace Darlings light house. The skipper and mate point out the wildlife and give lots of information. Then the boat is stopped and you sit back and watch the sunset over Bamburgh Castle before heading back to shore, it’s a lovely way to spend an evening.
The Sill National Landscape Discovery Centre
Once Brewed
Hadrian’s Wall,
Bardon Mill
hexham
NE47 7AN
Admission free
The Sill discovery centre is named after the rocky outcrop Whin Sill. The building contains a permanent exhibition ‘What is Landscape’ which includes geological exhibits; interactive displays; artwork installations and audio-visual displays.
The Stell room has a changing exhibition, when we visited the exhibition was Digital Landscapes where I had great fun building a landscape complete with mountains, volcanoes and rivers and traveling around the world with the aid of VR glasses.
There’s a information desk with very knowledgeable people who can tell you about the area/walks etc. There’s a cafe and a grassland roof. The views from the grassland roof are incredible even on a wet day.
The Sill also has a youth hostel.
Durham Rd,
Low Eighton,
Gateshead
NE9 7TY
Admission Free
At 54m wide and 20m high the 200 tonne steel sculpture, the Angel of the North by Antony Gormley is believed to be the largest angel sculpture in the world. The red/brown colour comes from the weathering of the steel which can withstand winds of more than 100 miles per hour. It was erected in February 1998 on top of a former colliery pithead baths. Antony said
“The angel has three functions – firstly a historic one to remind us that below this site coal miners worked in the dark for two hundred years, secondly to grasp hold of the future, expressing our transition from the industrial to the information age, and lastly to be a focus for our hopes and fears – a sculpture is an evolving thing.”
Edinburgh Castle
Castlehill,
Edinburgh EH1 2NG
Admission adults £18.50 child £11.50
340 million years ago Castle Rock was formed after an volcanic eruption, how far back in history do you want to go?
The first castle built on the rock was known as “The Castle of the Maidens”. According to legend, the castle had been a shrine to the “Nine Maidens”, one of whom was Morgan le Fay. Castle Rock became a military base and royal residence for centuries in one form of another Edinburgh Castle being built during the 12th century by David I son of Saint Margaret of Scotland.
The castle ground are a good size and a day can easily slip away. You enter under the Argyle Tower and through the Castle Gates where you can chose to follow the map which takes you on a steady but steep slope to the top of the grounds or you can take the Lang Stairs. a steep curved stairway of 70 steps, strong legs are needed for both.
Once inside you can see the Argyle Battery, this is a six gun battery, this along with the Mill’s Mount Battery to the west and the defences below it were the main northern defences of the castle. The Argyle Battery was rebuilt in the 1730s to what you see today, each of the turrets has a cast iron muzzle loading 18lb gun which were made during the Napoleonic wars.
The one o’clock gun is fired every day except Sundays, Christmas day, and good Friday, it is fired at precisely 13.00 hours (one 0’clock)
The tradition dates back to the days when sailing ships in the Firth of Forth would use the gun to set their chronometers.
It is now fired because of tradition and is a popular tourist attraction.
St Margaret’s Chapel built around 1130 by David I and dedicated to his mother Queen Margaret is the oldest building in Edinburgh and houses a beautiful alter.
In 1457 Mons meg a 15 foot cannon weight more than 15,000 pounds was given to Jame’s II by Duke Philip of Burgundy, Three years later she was hauled 50 miles to the siege of Roxburgh Castle, were the king was killed there when another of his cannons exploded.
Mons Meg returned to action with James IV in his attacks on Dumbarton and Norham castles.
Her fighting days ended in James V’s navy around 1550.
In 1558, she fired a gunstone to Wardie Muir, now the Royal Botanic Garden, to celebrate the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots. In 1681 her barrel burst.
After 75 years in England, Mons Meg made was return to the castle in 1829, where she stands today.
The royal Palace houses the Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny.
The Great Hall still has the original hammerbeam roof.
There are also cells were prisons of war were kept and behind a gate a hole in the wall were prisoners escaped.
One of the creepiest parts for me anyway was an under ground room where ‘The Black Dinner’ took place.
In November of 1440, the newly-appointed 6th Earl of Douglas, who was just 16, and his little brother David, were invited to join the 10-year-old King James II, for dinner at Edinburgh Castle. However It wasn’t King James II who had invited the Douglas brothers. it was Sir William Crichton, Chancellor of Scotland, who feared that the Black Douglas were growing too powerful.
Legend has it that the children were all getting along , enjoying food, entertainment and talking, that is until the end of the dinner, when the head of a black bull was dropped on the table This symbolizing the death of the Black Douglas. The two young Douglases were dragged outside, given a mock trial and found guilty of high treason, and so beheaded. It’s said that the Earl pleaded for his brother to be killed first so that the younger boy wouldn’t have to witness his older brother’s beheading.
There is also a National War Museum, Governor house, Royal Scots and Royal Regiment museum, Dog Cemetery, David’s Tower, and a lot of other things to look at which I can’t remember. It is a very interesting place if you like castles and history.
