Tapp's Travels

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In Morpeth, as well as getting ‘flu jabs, Autumn Covid boosters and heaps of tablets we also visited the hotel where we held our wedding breakfast.  The Queens Hotel.  Except it has now been re-purposed as a posh café and gin bar.  It also has a snazzy new name – “Pleased To Meet You” or PTMY as it’s known locally.  Very nicely done out it is, too.  But as with all places like this, it has attracted a class of people “working-on-someone-else’s-electricity-and-internet” while occupying a table for four, only drinking one coffee an hour and annoying real customers with over-loud business calls.  (A bit like me at the Biscuit Factory in Newcastle – but at least I had a bacon sandwich with my coffee!)

When we got home from Corbridge (with the over-size parcel which has had to be moved in and out of the caravan/every day since!) the omens were good.

“Red sky at night, shepherds’ delight…” and all that.  We need a dry day to take the awning down before we move on Monday.  However, Saturday dawned a bit murky.  Distinctly damp.   Definitely drizzley.  So, we decided to visit Wallington Hall (a National Trust property just down the road).

Apparently, we had chosen the busiest day of the year to visit!  A damp, weekend day (a sort of “where can we take the kids today, day”), coinciding with a free visit deal sponsored by a national newspaper!  Still, it’s a big place and most of the families with children seemed to favour the tearooms, the shop, the icecream stall, the pizza kitchen and the gardens.  So the house was remarkably un-busy!

The garden had some weird animals lurking!

… and some monstrous (out of season) snowdrops!

A good mission, finished with a shared icecream as the sun came out.  Home to take the awning down ready for departure on Monday.

Before leaving we had another Sunday lunch at the Three Wheatheads, this time with Peter, Ailsa and Andrew.  The Nunnykirk site closes on Monday, and we are going to be the last people to leave!  The bitter end has arrived!

But not the end of the tour which continues at Craster about 20 miles away on the coast.

Life’s a beach up here.  Miles of sand.  Miles of coastal path.  Constructively renamed from the “Northumberland Coast Path” to the “England Coast  Path”.  Excellent use of resources!  Shame they didn’t add the distances to the next points of interest!  That would have been useful!

We walked from Budle Bay to Bamburgh one day.  On the way we met a couple of brain surgeons (Paul and Yvonne).

We had a long chat about the problem of Robson Green extolling the virtues of Northumberland on TV.  His very insistence that it’s an undiscovered county is self-defeating!  Perishing visitors from all over are flocking to the area in their camper vans!  Some from Chester, even!  We also introduced them to the highly calorific Border Tart.  An amazing, and amazingly local, delicacy involving thin pastry, loads of dried fruit, sugar and butter with a topping of sugar icing.  It’s rarely found more than 1 km from the England/Scotland border.  (I fibbed about their profession, by the way.  See Paul and Yvonne, I told you that you can’t trust the veracity of some of my comments!)

The rotters at the Bamburgh Golf Club, which is situated smack bang on the coast path, won’t serve non-members.  Well, it is their club I suppose, but come on.  Get real.  This is a pair of fully-paid-up, non-members of dozens of golf clubs here – and we need coffees!  (To be fair, the bar staff said they would make us coffees, but we declined in case the objecting (objectionable?) members walked in!)

Approaching Bamburgh Castle from the north with an unsatisfied requirement for caffeine.

Apparently, the site of the castle.was originally the location of a Celtic Brittonic fort known as Din Guarie.  In 647 AD, it was captured by King Ida of Bernicia.

For the reccord, the territory of Bernicia was approximately equivalent to the modern English counties of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and Durham, as well as the Scottish counties of Berwickshire and East Lothian, stretching from the Forth to the Tees.

The “Bamburgh fort” was destroyed by Vikings in 993, and the Normans later built a new castle on the site, which forms the core of the present one.

One interesting fact is that this castle was the first castle ever to fall as a result of the use of gunpowder.  It happened in 1464 during the War of the Roses.  Allegedly, masonry remnants from this event can still be found on the village green below the castle walls. You just can’t get good council workers to clear the debris!  (Well, I thought it was interesting!)

In the 17th century, financial difficulties led to the castle deteriorating, but it was restored by various owners during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was finally bought by the Victorian era industrialist William Armstrong (of Cragside fame), who completed its restoration. The castle still belongs to the Armstrong family and is open to the public.  (Thank you Mr Google!)

The next day we walked from Seahouses to Bamburgh on the fabulous sandy beach.   We had to check out the other side of the castle, looking for points of weakness in the defences.

However, if the Hairy Bikers could get in for their TV show, I’m sure we could if we wanted to!  Actually, all we would have to do is pay the entrance fee of £15.50 and we’re in!  Easier and safer than using gunpowder!

The following day we decided to visit Scotland.  Well, it is less than an hour away.  A brief stop at Belford to remind Glenda of her family visits to the Blue Bell Hotel (now a faded shadow of its former self). The town was absolutely deserted when we arrived.  The local long-distance hauliers (the only people we could find to ask) recommended breakfast at the Well House Café.  The place opened at 10 am and by 10.05 every table was occupied!  Where did all those people come from?

Into SNP-Land.  First stop Eyemouth.  A town at the mouth of the Eye Water River.  The long narrow harbour is home to a fleet of boats

mainly fishing for …

Nephrops norvegicus is often referred to as the Dublin Bay Prawn.  Les Français call them langoustines or, very locally, Demoiselles de Cherbourg.  Or scampi down at the chippie!  Although a local fisherman explained that scampi is the tail of small prawns – often several compressed together to look like one big tail.  But then again it can often be bits of monkfish inside that breadcrumb coating!

The harbour is home to several seals.  Common and grey.  These are very friendly, undoubtedly because they are very well fed by the tourists.

The other main activity in the port relates to the offshore wind-farm industry.  The development of the Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind-farm has achieved a significant milestone this year with the opening of its state-of-the-art Operations and Maintenance base.

This 450 megawatt (MW) wind farm is due to be commissioned in 2024.  The hope is that this operation will generate 50 jobs in town.  But some locals are very suspicious of the allegedly green credentials of offshore wind farms.  Just one example is the rate diesel is used in the port.  The fishing industry has historically required the storage tanks to be filled once a month at most.  Now with all the new activity, the same tanks need refilling every other day.  Whether that is sustained long-term remains to be seen!

One other tragic, local story of interest (apart from all the public toilets being locked) relates to the Eyemouth Disaster.  On 14 October 1881, most of the fishing fleet, some 20 boats and 129 men from the town, were lost in a terrible storm.

On that dodgy note, we moved a few miles further up the coast to St Abbs.

The village was originally known as Coldingham Shore, the name St Abbs being adopted in the 1890s. The new name was derived from St Abb’s Head, a rocky promontory located to the north of the village, itself named after the 7th century saint Æbbe of Coldingham.

The plan was to hike to St Abbs Head.  About two miles northwards and 300 feet upwards.  Sadly, the route upwards revisits sea level part way through.   But that and the whale sighting will have to wait.

I’m sooo far behind!