A Short Break to Northumbria

Rob, Brock and I enjoyed an overnight stay in Northumbria during the week.

We stayed at the beautiful Chillingham Manor House, where we had the best breakfast ever at a hotel: Rob had muesli, orange juice, vegetarian sausages, eggy bread, toast and homemade preserves, and coffee. I had excellent fresh fruit salad, apple juice, bubble & squeak with poached egg (laid by one of the chickens I could see out of the window!), gluten free toast with Seville orange marmalade and lemon curd, with coffee. Absolutely superb! We bought a jar of the wonderful marmalade to take home with us. Ros and David who run this small hotel are so friendly and welcoming, I would definitely recommend a stay with them if you are in the area.

[Image from The Manor House's website]

Our day had started with a walk around Wilton Lodge Park in Hawick, followed by lunch at the Damascus Drum cafe.

Next stop was at Melrose. The weather was beautiful for this time of year. Here is a view of Melrose Abbey.

Then Kelso (above), before we drove to Chillingham.

The following day, on the recommendation of our host, we went to Bamburgh beach to walk Brock.

A slightly cooler day, we took a bracing walk along the beach, taking in the views out to sea and of Bamburgh Castle.

Then it was on to Alnmouth for another beach walk, followed by coffee and cake.

Our final stop before driving home, was at the fantastic second hand book store at Alnwick Station, Barter Books. It is a really wonderful book shop, with model railway running around the tops of the shelves in one room, an open fire with sofas and free coffee in another room. There is a nice cafe, the Station Buffet, there, but it was full even at this time of year. They operate a number system for getting a table. We were lucky enough to get the table in the centre of the bookshop, where we had a jacket potato with cheese, and the day's special, Kitchari (a curried lentil and rice dish). Tasty food, but we were still a little full from breakfast so didn't do it justice.

A very nice change of scene for us all!

Lambley Viaduct Walk, Northumbria

Happy New Year, everyone!

Rob, Brock and I decided to start the new year with a walk at Lambley Viaduct near Alston in Northumbria. The viaduct is over 260m in length. It used to carry the Haltwhistle to Alston railway. The railway opened in 1852 to haul coal from the Alston mines, was closed in 1976.

The walk is part of the South Tyneside Trail. Click on the photos for a larger version!

A view from the path.

Views from the top of the viaduct.

The viaduct and footbridge.

We walked part of the way back next to the river.

Alnmouth Trip November 2012

Rob, Brock and I had a night staying in Alnmouth on Tuesday 6 November. We stayed at The Saddle B&B, which was dog friendly and catered for vegetarians and gluten free diets, and also has a free wi-fi connection.

Brock had his first walk of the day at Birdoswald, taking in part of Hadrian's Wall. Then it was on to Heaton, Newcastle for lunch at the Sky Apple Cafe. Interior seen below.

 It was hard to choose from the many vegetarian and vegan choices on offer, but I went for halloumi and aubergine in gluten free batter served with chips and peas. I also had a cappuccino, which was excellent. The chips and tartare sauce were very good, but I was less keen on the batter. I would happily return and try out some of the mix and match starters, such as aubergine parmigiana, mezzes and koftas. Plus there are many sandwiches, wraps, burgers and other 'mains' to try. It had a nice atmosphere and the waitress was friendly.

 We drove on to Lindisfarne (Holy Isle) and crossed the causeway. The main car park is outside the main village on the island. From there, you can walk to the castle (below) and visit the various shops, restaurants etc. Many are shut at the end of October, though. We did enjoy a green tea and tasty cake in the Post Office, which had a couple of tables to sit at, and also sold maps and guides to the area.

Up-turned boats are used as sheds next to the castle and in the port area.

At Alnmouth, that evening, we enjoyed a walk on the beach, and a meal at the Hope & Anchor hotel/pub.
There are at least three pubs/hotels that welcome dogs in the village and there were five dogs in there the night we went. The menu includes three vegetarian choices:- mushroom and red onion stroganoff with rice (I had this and it was quite tasty); vegetable and coconut curry with rice and nan bread (Rob had the curry and enjoyed it - plenty of spice!); and Quorn and vegetable cottage pie with veg. We had puddings: apple tart tatin with custard for Rob and I had pear poached in red wine with cream - lovely.

The next morning we had our breakfast at the B&B (a good choice of fruit, yoghurts, cereals and fruit juice, followed by your choice of cooked breakfasts, including porridge).

Brock had two runs on the beach - first thing in the morning and again after breakfast.

We drove on to Berwick and walked round the city walls, before having coffee in a Cafe Nero.

The artist Lowry used to stay in Berwick for his holidays and painted lots of scenes from the area. This is the house he used to stay in, which has views out over the sea and it is next to the allotment patch.

Melrose in the Scottish Borders was our next stop, for lunch. It is a pretty town with lots of independently owned shops, and a ruined abbey and the Harmony Garden (closed end of October!).

Hawick was our last stop, for a final walk, around the park before heading for home.

The Alnwick Garden

Rob and I visited Alnwick Garden on Monday 25 October. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we stopped to walk Henry next to Hadrian's Wall at Birdoswald in Northumbria.

The car park for the gardens and Alnwick Castle is quite a walk from the attractions, and costs £2. We had forgotten that it was half-term school holidays in England, but we were soon reminded when we had to queue for over half an hour to get tickets for entry to the garden! Adult tickets cost £9.50 each, and you can pay an extra £1 towards The Alnwick Garden Trust, which carries out charitable projects and programmes.

You pass this huge tree house on the way to the main entrance...

Inside the Garden, we went straight to the terrace cafe for lunch. We ate quiche and salad followed by a nut/fruit cake (rather like a Florentine without the chocolate), with tea and a mineral water. The cost was £15.15. The food was tasteless: cold, claggy quiche and undressed lettuce, tomato and cucumber with coleslaw. The cakes tasted mainly of sweet, chopped fruit peel and didn't go down too well, either.
The cafe was in a scenic position, overlooking "The Grand Cascade" (a section of which is shown in the photo below). There is a clear roof over the terrace which lets the sun shine in, and lots of bamboo plants in pots give some privacy, but it was busy and noisy, being bi-sected by the main walk way to the Garden.

The Garden was a lot smaller than we had imagined. It was divided into areas, such as The Serpent Garden - a sort of maze with water features; The Rose Garden; The Ornamental Garden (bordered throughout with huge, trained crab apple trees, which looked very impressive with masses of red fruits at this time of year.) Training trees over structures seems to be the Head Gardener's speciality. Here is an example of a covered walkway below.

You can visit the market town of Alnwick easily, with a ten minute walk. We did that, stopping off at the 'Roots and Shoots Garden', which is situated separately from the main area. It is a small vegetable garden, still with an impressive quantity of herbs and vegetables for this time of year. In the centre is a pyramidal structure planted with rows of herbs going up the sides. There were flat beds and raised beds - still with chard, sorrel, beetroots, kale, Brussel spouts etc, all looking very healthy and tempting. Local schools have beds of seedlings, each with the sort of scarecrow that you would not like to come across alone at night.


After a look round the town, we made our way back to the Alnwick Garden gift shop and plant centre. There were lots of plants on offer at the end of the season, and 90 rose varieties available.

The tree house is the grand finale. Again it was very busy, and the cafe and restaurant situated inside the main building would probably need to be booked in advance to be sure of a seat. There is a short tree top walk including two wood and rope bridges. The children were having a high old time jumping up and down and getting the whole structure to sway like a giant swing, so we staggered around the walk like drunken sailors.

I think Alnwick garden would certainly appeal to families with young children (who may also like to visit nearby Alnwick Castle - where part of the Harry Potter films was shot). I enjoyed seeing the vegetable garden and the tree house, but would have liked to see a greater variety of plants, and styles of planting. My main tips would be to avoid busy times of year and to take a packed lunch!