In a previous post I've already mentioned our trip to the Farne Islands in Northumbria in search of the elusive Puffins ... but there's so much more to this coastline than puffins alone. Designated an 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty" it had to be worth a look! Rather than the craggy cliffs, deeply cut inlets and rock formations of the Welsh SE Pembrokeshire coast, the North East Northumbrian coast offers instead sweeping expanses of white sand fringed with marram grass, huge star-studded skies, castles at every stage of ruin, and islands. Not just any island, but the 'Holy Island' of Lindisfarne.
I'd never been to the North East and had no preconceptions or expectations other than those suggested via Google, so I was particularly looking forward to exploring all it had to offer. Our home for the week was a fisherman's cottage in Lower Burnmouth - the last town in England, before Scotland. Our cottage sat on the end of a neat row of identical whitewashed cottages looking out over the quiet harbour, and was accessed by a perilously steep single track lane which wound down the cliff turning sharply onto the harbour wall in front of our cottage. (Behind our front door was a another perilously steep route - an almost vertical ladder to bed - fun going up, but a cautious descent needed to the bathroom in the middle of the night!).
Most mornings we woke to the rosy glow of the sun as it appeared over the horizon, turning the faces of the cottages pink. Most nights we gazed up at a cavernous black sky crammed full of starts and all manner of astronomic activity. Most days we were blessed with dry and bright skies, so were filled with as many experiences as our digital photo cards could hold.
Our first 'must see' was Lindisfarne, a small island and site of religious significance for many centuries, and famous for the Lindisfarne Gospels and (allegedly) the birth of Christianity. 'They' say the island still offers sanctuary and calm to the troubled or weary soul. There's no doubt it's a special place - it drew us back 4 times in 1 week! Some of that attraction was the access to the island, a long dramatic causeway which is reclaimed by the tides twice daily, making forward planning a necessity! The island landscape is dominated by two structures, the Castle and the Priory, but these are not the only focal points for photographers. Views west across to the Northumbrian mainland and south to the Farne Islands and to Bamburgh Castle offer pre-framed views. And thanks to a long-held custom of converting upturned boat hulls into huts, some additional and quirky subject matter was also 'on tap'.
Our boat trip to the Farne Islands was just that, courtesy of Billy Shiels, and without puffins :( However we did get to see the famous Longstone Lighthouse at close quarters, where heroine Grace Darling lived but risked her life to rescue the otherwise fated passengers on the SS Forfarshire from certain death in a terrible storm in 1838. En route we also saw seals bobbing about and shag-covered rocks (or shargs, as the locals pronounce it :), so a memorable albeit puffinless trip.
So why the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty award? The islands alone warrant a recommendation, but it is the beaches of this coastline that are special. We explored much of it from Berwick upon Tweed to Dunstanburgh and had 3 particular favourites - Low Newton by the Sea, Cocklawburn Beach and Ross Back Sands. Each offered a wide sweeping expanse of white sand, a sense of remoteness and x myriad photo opportunities. Low Newton took some finding but turned out to be a gem, and well worth the miles of narrow winding roads to get there. With no major routes accessing the place it was inevitably quiet, but imagine also a curving coastline, waves gently lapping a white sandy beach, a scattering of smooth black rocks, a striking silhouette of Dunstanburgh castle ruins on the promontory ahead, a small whitewashed pub and very little else. Perfection! A lack of road access meant a long walk across fields and dunes to Ross Back Sands but the effort involved was rewarded with a sweeping wide expanse of clean soft golden sands backed by Marram grass stretching from Lindisfarne to Bamber, with their respective castles at each end acting "in parenthesis" to the enclosed scattering of seals on the shoreline! Mention should also be made of Bamber Castle and beach which features in any Northumbrian tourist-related marketing! In short, it's an imposing castle in a significant location overlooking an impressive beach, photographed by everyone. Trouble was, everyone knows about it, so there were all there ... wouldn't have missed seeing it though!
The castles we really enjoyed viewing were perched on the most southerly and northerly points of the section of coastline we explored - Dunstanburgh castle to the south and Fast Castle to the north. We'd seen the ruins of Dunstanborough from Low Newton beach, but the tide had prevented us from reaching it on foot. A subsequent walk to the castle from the opposite direction gave us breathtaking views of Low Newton and beyond, as well as some historic walls on which to sit and eat our picnic! In contrast, our walk to Fast Castle in SE Scotland was anything but fast but it was quite an experience. It involved a one hour long and very steep descent across grassy headland to the tiny but precipitous ruined remains of an iron-age fortress built on a narrow sloping plateau overlooking the sea. Whilst my fear of deep ravines prevented me from crossing the narrow bridge to the grassy mound beyond, this castle captured my imagination beyond all others.
Having spent a week in the English/Scottish Borders, it seemed fitting to end our holiday to visit the demarcation of the first Anglo/Celtic border. In AD122 Emperor Hadrian had ordered an 84 mile, 15 foot high and 10 foot thick wall to be constructed across the country. Popular theory suggests it was built to separate the Romans from the Celtic 'Barbarians', but historians believe it acted more as a border or customs post for the Romans to track the population flow between south to north, and to protect Hadrian's new empire. The ancient site of Hadrian's Wall stretches across the UK from East to West, from Tyneside to Cumbria, and we took this scenic cross-country route along the Wall before heading off home. This was another of my 'must see' places and it met all expectations. What is left of the wall is now only a few feet high and many of its 30 forts, 80 milecastles and 160 turrets have now disappeared, but the wall is still punctuated at regular intervals with a few remains.
However at our first stop at Housesteads in Hexham we saw the most complete Roman Fort in Britain with granaries, barracks and a hospital still intact, and with commanding views over both 'Empires'. Some miles further west at Cawfields we followed the wall on foot across a steep slope and by an impressive milecastle, and this well preserved section epitomised for me the historical and cultural significance of Hadrians Wall.
Our final stop at the earthworks site and Roman Army Museum in Carvoran brought history to life for us through the various media of sound and vision - a film of Roman life at the Wall through the 'Eye of an Eagle', scaled fort models, excavated battle and personal artifacts and last but not least the purchase of many postcards - making our visit to Hadrian's Wall the perfect end to a very special holiday in the North East.
I'd never been to the North East and had no preconceptions or expectations other than those suggested via Google, so I was particularly looking forward to exploring all it had to offer. Our home for the week was a fisherman's cottage in Lower Burnmouth - the last town in England, before Scotland. Our cottage sat on the end of a neat row of identical whitewashed cottages looking out over the quiet harbour, and was accessed by a perilously steep single track lane which wound down the cliff turning sharply onto the harbour wall in front of our cottage. (Behind our front door was a another perilously steep route - an almost vertical ladder to bed - fun going up, but a cautious descent needed to the bathroom in the middle of the night!).
Most mornings we woke to the rosy glow of the sun as it appeared over the horizon, turning the faces of the cottages pink. Most nights we gazed up at a cavernous black sky crammed full of starts and all manner of astronomic activity. Most days we were blessed with dry and bright skies, so were filled with as many experiences as our digital photo cards could hold.
Our first 'must see' was Lindisfarne, a small island and site of religious significance for many centuries, and famous for the Lindisfarne Gospels and (allegedly) the birth of Christianity. 'They' say the island still offers sanctuary and calm to the troubled or weary soul. There's no doubt it's a special place - it drew us back 4 times in 1 week! Some of that attraction was the access to the island, a long dramatic causeway which is reclaimed by the tides twice daily, making forward planning a necessity! The island landscape is dominated by two structures, the Castle and the Priory, but these are not the only focal points for photographers. Views west across to the Northumbrian mainland and south to the Farne Islands and to Bamburgh Castle offer pre-framed views. And thanks to a long-held custom of converting upturned boat hulls into huts, some additional and quirky subject matter was also 'on tap'.
Our boat trip to the Farne Islands was just that, courtesy of Billy Shiels, and without puffins :( However we did get to see the famous Longstone Lighthouse at close quarters, where heroine Grace Darling lived but risked her life to rescue the otherwise fated passengers on the SS Forfarshire from certain death in a terrible storm in 1838. En route we also saw seals bobbing about and shag-covered rocks (or shargs, as the locals pronounce it :), so a memorable albeit puffinless trip.
So why the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty award? The islands alone warrant a recommendation, but it is the beaches of this coastline that are special. We explored much of it from Berwick upon Tweed to Dunstanburgh and had 3 particular favourites - Low Newton by the Sea, Cocklawburn Beach and Ross Back Sands. Each offered a wide sweeping expanse of white sand, a sense of remoteness and x myriad photo opportunities. Low Newton took some finding but turned out to be a gem, and well worth the miles of narrow winding roads to get there. With no major routes accessing the place it was inevitably quiet, but imagine also a curving coastline, waves gently lapping a white sandy beach, a scattering of smooth black rocks, a striking silhouette of Dunstanburgh castle ruins on the promontory ahead, a small whitewashed pub and very little else. Perfection! A lack of road access meant a long walk across fields and dunes to Ross Back Sands but the effort involved was rewarded with a sweeping wide expanse of clean soft golden sands backed by Marram grass stretching from Lindisfarne to Bamber, with their respective castles at each end acting "in parenthesis" to the enclosed scattering of seals on the shoreline! Mention should also be made of Bamber Castle and beach which features in any Northumbrian tourist-related marketing! In short, it's an imposing castle in a significant location overlooking an impressive beach, photographed by everyone. Trouble was, everyone knows about it, so there were all there ... wouldn't have missed seeing it though!
The castles we really enjoyed viewing were perched on the most southerly and northerly points of the section of coastline we explored - Dunstanburgh castle to the south and Fast Castle to the north. We'd seen the ruins of Dunstanborough from Low Newton beach, but the tide had prevented us from reaching it on foot. A subsequent walk to the castle from the opposite direction gave us breathtaking views of Low Newton and beyond, as well as some historic walls on which to sit and eat our picnic! In contrast, our walk to Fast Castle in SE Scotland was anything but fast but it was quite an experience. It involved a one hour long and very steep descent across grassy headland to the tiny but precipitous ruined remains of an iron-age fortress built on a narrow sloping plateau overlooking the sea. Whilst my fear of deep ravines prevented me from crossing the narrow bridge to the grassy mound beyond, this castle captured my imagination beyond all others.
Having spent a week in the English/Scottish Borders, it seemed fitting to end our holiday to visit the demarcation of the first Anglo/Celtic border. In AD122 Emperor Hadrian had ordered an 84 mile, 15 foot high and 10 foot thick wall to be constructed across the country. Popular theory suggests it was built to separate the Romans from the Celtic 'Barbarians', but historians believe it acted more as a border or customs post for the Romans to track the population flow between south to north, and to protect Hadrian's new empire. The ancient site of Hadrian's Wall stretches across the UK from East to West, from Tyneside to Cumbria, and we took this scenic cross-country route along the Wall before heading off home. This was another of my 'must see' places and it met all expectations. What is left of the wall is now only a few feet high and many of its 30 forts, 80 milecastles and 160 turrets have now disappeared, but the wall is still punctuated at regular intervals with a few remains.
However at our first stop at Housesteads in Hexham we saw the most complete Roman Fort in Britain with granaries, barracks and a hospital still intact, and with commanding views over both 'Empires'. Some miles further west at Cawfields we followed the wall on foot across a steep slope and by an impressive milecastle, and this well preserved section epitomised for me the historical and cultural significance of Hadrians Wall.
Our final stop at the earthworks site and Roman Army Museum in Carvoran brought history to life for us through the various media of sound and vision - a film of Roman life at the Wall through the 'Eye of an Eagle', scaled fort models, excavated battle and personal artifacts and last but not least the purchase of many postcards - making our visit to Hadrian's Wall the perfect end to a very special holiday in the North East.
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