Sunday, 1 May 2011

Northumberland

We discovered the lovely Northumberland coastline some years ago and so wanted to visit this again on our way up to Scotland.

A favourite place:- Bamburgh.

The castle is stunning, the beach is stunning – the whole area is Noarthumberland 003stunning ………… Noarthumberland 007especially in the sunshine!

Left:  Approaching the castle from the South.

Right:  The castle as seen from our ‘wild’ camping site.  We were warned by our friends Gary and Joan that getting onto campsites these days was trickier than in the past ……… over two of the Bank Holiday days we had to resort to ‘wild’ camping as six sites we tried were full up!!

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      ……………………………… Views of the beach …………………………………. 

The Farne Islands can clearly be seen one way and Holy Island the other.

Holy Island/Lindisfarne

We set off early to re-visit the island as the one and only time before we have visited it was in February!  8.30 a.m. and we were happily trundling along when, behind us appeared a police car and he put on his flashing blue lights!!!!  Apparently our Insurance wasn’t registering on their system.  We are obviously a couple of dodgy looking O.A.P’s!!!

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Well we did support them but it cost us £4.40 for the privilege!  Actually, if you are not members of the National Trust you need a lot of ££££’s in your pocket as you have to pay lots to get in to see both the priory ruins and the castle.

Anyway – some pictures to give you a ‘taste’ of Lindisfarne if you have never been there:-

 

 

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The castle dates back to the middle of the C16th.  It was built to protect the island from the Scots!  The Priory dates back to the beginning of Christianity in Britain – sacked by the Vikings!!  The up-turned boats – used now as sheds – council tax band???  We didn’t come a cropper on the causeway!!

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             Noarthumberland 051  Eider ducks abound.

Today we have gone over the Scottish border!  Over the Forth Road Bridge………. and onwards.

We are now on a camp site near Stonehaven.  We plan to stay here for a couple of days as we want to explore the area a bit.

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