Further north to Holy Island via Hadrian's Wall

After a relaxed morning at Susan and Michael's beautiful home and gardens we set off with explicit instructions about how to get onto the Military Road to Hadrian's Wall.   It is hard to accept that I have never visited Hadrian's Wall before, not even once in all the years I lived in England and only living less than 30 miles away.


We didn't have time for a major visit but managed to visit Chester's Fort, one of the fort's established after the wall was built stretching from the east coast to the west coast.  It is hard to get the mind around the fact that the Roman's occupied England for 1000 years, 500 BC and 500 AD.

It is a popular walk for hikers and there were quite a number along the road.  It reminded me of the Camino in Spain.  There was a small section of the wall at the fort so at least I can say I have now stood on theWall. Hopefully there will another opportunity to walk along a greater stretch of the wall in the future.

After meandering through a few country lanes we ended up in Rothberry, now infamous for its recent police seige and murders.  We stopped for lunch and observed that all looked quite normal again.

Debbie was keen to see a 'real' castle and not just a ruin so after leaving Rothberry we headed for Alnwick which is near the coast and on the way to Holy Island. More imprtantly it is the home to Alnwick Castle which apparently is the second largest inhabited castle in England after Windsor Castle and also film location for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone.  A helpful car park attenendant gave us directions for a better road view of the castle and it is very impressive.  This is one place I have visited before but unfortunately time would not allow us to go into the castle on this occasion.

Next stop Holy Island only accessible via a causeway when the tide is out.  We had planned to get there when the tide was out but seems we were given the wrong tide times 'cause the tide was still well in so we back tracked to Bamburgh which has a castle to drool over and is one of the most impressive looking castle's in England.

Towering above the tiny village of Bamburgh on the bare, sandy coastline of Northumberland, the massive walls of this medieval fortress are one of two such places believed to be the original site of Lancelot's castle of Joyous Garde. Interestingly, there was a Dark-Age stronghold on the same site, which may account for this tradition.

In 547 it became the capital of the Northumbrian 'Kingdom' of the Angles who had settled there in the early part of the sixth century; as such, it would have been a stronghold of the Saxon alliance, who were Arthur's prime enemies in his fight to maintain British rule. At the time, the site was not called Bamburgh, but seems to have been named 'Din Guayrdi', which may have suggested Joyous Garde to Sir Thomas Malory, who first described it as Lancelot's holding in his fifteenth-century Arthurian 'novel', Le Morte d'Arthur. 

As luck would have it when we arrived at the castle gates it was to find once again a notice with 'Castle closed'.  Undettered we decided to use the time to walk around the outside of the castle and go down to the beach via the sand dunes.  Oh! what childhood memories were triggered as I skidded down the grassy dunes bum-wise reminding myself once again that I am 62 but oh! it was such fun.

We had not booked anywhere to stay for that night and after our walk along the beach I suggested to Debbie that since it was now 5 p.m. maybe we should think about finding a place to stay.  Debbie still carries the missionery spirit of years ago trusting that God would always provide her needs when the time came.  So casually she said Oh! there will be a pub at the end of the lane here and we will get a room there.  Me, of little faith, is thinking......she must have marbles in her head if she's thinking we'll get a room in the centre of Bamburgh in peak holiday season..... but I didnt say anything not even expecting there would be a pub at the end of the lane.  Sure enough there was a pub/hotel at the end of the lane, The Lord Crew, same as at Blanchland.  With no confidence at all there would be any vacancies I ventured in to ask about a room and would you believe it....one twin and one double left....we'll have the twin, thanks.  Ninetyeight pounds was a bit steep but who cares.  We gave each other a high five.  I am learning to be more flexible....it is so much more fun.



 One cannot go to the north-east coast and not have fish and chips so we drove to Seahouses a couple of miles down the coast and sat on a bench overlooking the quaint little fishing harbour and afterwards enjoyed a glass of red wine in The Olde Ship Inn. English pubs are often the hub of the local community and this one was certainly packed with atmosphere and fishing memorablia but the people I suspect were mostly visitors and holiday makers and we enjoyed a good chat with visitors from Newcastle and Scotland sitting at the table next to us.


After an exhausting day it was a good feeling to know we had a comfortable beds to rest in for the night as we made our way back to The Lord Crew at Bamburgh.