{"id":4410,"date":"2023-09-25T21:33:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T21:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4410"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:28:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:28:02","slug":"4-the-first-frost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4410","title":{"rendered":"4. THE FIRST FROST!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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While at Nunnykirk, the temperatures dropped from the high 20s to frosty.\u00a0 Overnight!.\u00a0 Admittedly,\u00a0 only very early one morning.\u00a0 But ice on the grass was a bit of a shock, and highlighted our “slightly” inadequate selection of clothes packed!\u00a0 Still, the reason for ice on the grass was clear skies above.\u00a0 So, ideal conditions for coastal walking. We’ve never been to Low Newton-by-the-Sea, a tiny, picturesque village almost entirely owned by the National Trust\u00a0 Well not in living memory, anyway.\u00a0 So, time to put that right.\u00a0 And it’s low tide in the middle of the day.\u00a0 Good omen!<\/p>\n

We did look at the Ship Inn for possible lunch, but it was heaving, so that got a skip!<\/p>\n

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But the beach was almost deserted!<\/p>\n

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And we get our first view of Dunstanburgh Castle across Embleton Bay.<\/p>\n

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The castle was built at a time when relations between King Edward II and his most powerful baron, Earl Thomas of Lancaster, had become openly hostile. Lancaster began to build the fortress in 1313, and he built it on a far grander scale than was originally planned.\u00a0 Perhaps more as a symbol of his opposition to the king than as a military stronghold.\u00a0 Anyway, it didn’t save Lancaster’s bacon because he was captured while away from home and executed in 1322.<\/p>\n

The following day, we were heading for Longhoughton and Sugar Sands, but BMW’s dodgy sat nav took us unnecessarily close to Alnmouth, so we diverted to Foxton Golf Club for a coffee before walking south on the beach at low tide, back to Alnmouth.<\/p>\n

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Walking round Alnmouth, we discovered some of its peculiarities.\u00a0 Like the Schooner Hotel aka the “Haunted Hotel”…<\/p>\n

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With over 3000 recent ghostly reports, the Paranormal Society has named the Schooner as the “MOST Haunted Hotel in Britain”.\u00a0 I<\/span>t\u2019s fair to say, there are, without a doubt, ghosts present here.\u00a0 A hive of activity since the early 17th Century, this old inn has played host to smugglers, murderers, and suicides.\u00a0 Allegedly, the hotel has recorded over 60 individual ghosts residing here.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The majority of the rooms in the hotel are said to be haunted, however, most<\/span> reports seem to involve room 28.\u00a0 Suicides, murders, and family massacres are said to have occurred in this room.\u00a0 Guests have reported the sounds of children\u2019s voices and crying, women\u2019s screams, an overwhelming sense of fear, and a feeling of an unseen presence in the room with them.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
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A<\/span>s I said, Peculiar!\u00a0 And in a moment of madness, obviously brought on by all the peculiarness in town, we signed up for a ceilidh on Thursday evening in Hindmarsh Hall.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
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After all the excitement in Alnmouth, we just had to have a coffee in the Village Golf Club.\u00a0 The club was established in 1869 making it the oldest nine hole links in England.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

Then back to Foxton and on further north towards Boulmer.\u00a0 This time on the coastal path because the tide was in.<\/p>\n

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After Sunday lunch (back at the Cook and Barker Inn again), we investigated our next campsite – Proctor’s Stead near Craster.\u00a0 Booked and paid for.\u00a0 Sorted – another six nights!<\/p>\n

Late in the afternoon, the weather took a turn for the better and we walked north from Craster and got a different view of Dunstanburgh Castle.\u00a0 It looks a wreck from this side too!<\/p>\n

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Apparently,\u00a0 there are more than 70 castles (in various stages of decay) in Northumberland.\u00a0 More than in any other county in England.\u00a0 But we’ve seen just one on this trip so far, although we have seen it both from the North and from the South.<\/p>\n

As we walked towards the castle, we met an American couple on a tour of the UK.\u00a0 They had had two days in London, a day in Bath, a day in the Cotswolds, a stop-over in the Lake District before the day in Northumberland.\u00a0 \u00a0I think they had another day or two in Edinburgh before heading back to Arizona via London Heathrow.\u00a0 They had just enough time to take our photo (see above) and relate their itinerary.\u00a0 \u00a0We had to sit down for 10 minutes.\u00a0 We were so tired just listening to their itinerary!<\/p>\n

Monday dawned a bit damp and we discovered that we were gradually being left isolated in the middle of the site.\u00a0 Everyone is going home!<\/p>\n

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After lunch the weather perked up and the sun came out.\u00a0 We still had Cragside on the list of things to do while in the area.\u00a0 So, Cragside it was.\u00a0 Ignoring the house (where Lord William Armstrong lived and Queen Victoria visited***), we headed straight for Nelly Moss Lakes.\u00a0 Two bodies of water originally engineered by Lord Armstrong as part of his pioneering Victorian hydro-electricity system.\u00a0 Cragside was the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectric power.<\/p>\n

Two laps of the lakes gives us the best part of a three mile walk.<\/p>\n

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While pausing at the top end, we were invaded by a gang of red admiral butterflies.\u00a0 One of which took up residence on my hat …<\/p>\n

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Well, well, as Hans would say.\u00a0 That’s another great day completed.<\/p>\n

The alert amongst you will have noticed that we had got to Monday!<\/p>\n

Although we had had good intentions of attending it, the Thursday barn dance had come and gone… UNDANCED!\u00a0 Well, undanced by us anyway!<\/p>\n

*** Footnote<\/strong>…\u00a0 It is not at all clear that Queen Victoria ever actually visited Cragside, although her granddaughters certainly did.\u00a0 The “Victoria Carriageway” is actually the “Cragside Carriageway”.\u00a0 Sorry about the misinformation above!\u00a0 You just can’t always trust the locals!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[pmb_print_buttons] While at Nunnykirk, the temperatures dropped from the high 20s to frosty.\u00a0 Overnight!.\u00a0 Admittedly,\u00a0 only very early one morning.\u00a0 But ice on the grass was a bit of a shock, and highlighted our “slightly” inadequate selection of clothes packed!\u00a0… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uk-tour-not-greece"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4410"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4612,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4410\/revisions\/4612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}