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Circular Tour from Alnwick Castle |
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Alnwick Castle has been in the Percy family since 1309 and is
the home of the Duke of Northumberland. Open from April to October it is in the
centre of the town with fine gardens landscaped by Capability Brown, have a pre
visit at www.alnwickcastle.com |
| The Old Railway Station
at Alnwick although no longer has trains stopping, is worth calling in to view
the Second Hand Book on Sale along with a Cup of Tea or Coffee while you Decide.
Visitors arriving to Alnwick for the first time have a fixed image of Coastal
Castles to explore, unaware of the majestic countryside inland. |
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Which is where we start our tour leaving Alnwick Market Place
in a south westerly direction towards Rothbury noting the disused rail line on
the right winding its way before turning north at Edlingham, before which the
views to the cheviot Hills in the distance and
Edlingham Castle below are breathtaking. |
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Scotland which we will return to later, we journey on over the moors to Rothbury
in the Cheviot foothills. As we drop off the the moors we enter the forests of
the Cragside Estate a National
Trust property. |
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Cragside a Victorian house situated in
900 acres near
Rothbury
was built by industrialist Lord Armstrong as a home and a place to test his
engineering theories, hence the house was the first in the world to be lit by
hydro-electricity. |
It is now a showcase of Victorian art
architecture and technology. Open year round except Mondays and also Tuesdays in
the winter, maintained by the National Trust there is a Tea Shop, Gift Store and
acres to walk and enjoy, ideal place for a picnic lunch. The centre of Rothbury is only a mile or so further by the
Coquet river and worthy of a stroll through the streets if one has time with not
being difficult in Cragside a day long visit.
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Returning to the A697 we turn North towards
Wooler through Powburn at the entrance to the Cheviot valley of Ingram where
Breamish Valley Cottages offer self catering accommodation.
Hedgeley
Moor past Powburn was a
Battle
Field in 1464, where two
stones, 10 metres apart, mark Percy's Leap being the distance reputedly
covered by Sir Ralph Percy's horse as he died. . |
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Percy was defeated by the House of York in this "Wars of the
Roses" battle. The English civil war between the House of Lancaster the red rose
and the House of York the white rose was fought to produce a King for England.
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Further up the road past Wooler
on a rounded hill the battle of
Homildon Hill
was fought in 1402 between Henry Percy (Hotspur) and Earl Douglas
and his massive army. News of the battle is mentioned in the opening
scenes of Shakespeare's play Henry IV. |
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Wooler is a farming market town in the shadow of the Cheviot Hills where
our journey turns east to Chatton and Chillingham Castle, where a unique
breed of cattle with the same name have roamed wild for almost 800 years.
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The cattle are a creamy white colour with
long curved black tipped horns and the breed has remained pure since the
estate boundary was sealed in 1220 leaving them to roam wild. We now head
for the coast through Belford arriving at Warren Ford at the head of Budle
Bay, with
Bamburgh Castle rising in the distance on the coast. |
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The
origins of the present castle were built by the Normans, but much of what
exists today is quiet modern being restores and added to by the Industrial
Magnet
Lord Armstrong who bought the castle in 1894. |
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Royal National Lifeboat Institute museum commemorates the life of lifeboat
heroine
Grace Darling, who with her father rescued
survivors from the shipwreck of the SS Forfarshire in 1838.
This small museum in
Bamburgh has the original boat used in the rescue on display was
opened on the Centenary of the rescue, she died at 26 only a few years later.
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Leaving Bamburgh on the coast road Seahouses is the first
fishing
port on the Northumbrian Coast from where boats sailing daily weather
permitting to the Farne Islands off the coast which is a reserve for
thousand of sea birds. |
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A few miles south of Seahouses lies the village and harbour of Beadnell, which evolved around
the fishing harbour which was built in 1798 by Thomas Wood being unique – as
the only west facing harbour on the British east coast
The local
kilns produced limestone for export until 1826 along with grain from the
Northumbrian farms. Herring fishing continued till 1918, now the harbour is used
by a few of cobbles to catch crabs, lobsters, salmon and sea trout.
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| the next village id Embleton where
Heritage Cottages offer
Self Catering Accommodation with only a short walk to a Links Golf
Course across which the beach and Dunstanburgh Castle are accessible. |
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Craster is a small
fishing harbour which still supports inshore coble fishermen and an Oak
Smokehouse for their fresh herring from which produces Kippers for sale daily.
While parked at Craster a walk along the coast to Dunstanbrugh Castle is a must,
built in the 14th century it has had a chequered history noted
elsewhere on our web. |
| Craster
named after the family who have owned the area since pre Norman day had it’s
harbour enlarged in the early nineteenth century to accept coastal barges, which
took the locally quarried road chippings for city streets as far away as London.
The Quarry is now used as a tourist car park with the
Bark Pots Tea Room who
also Local Cottages to rent.
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While parked at Craster a walk along
the coast to Dunstanbrugh Castle is a must, built in the 14th century it has had a chequered history noted
elsewhere on our web.
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Further south on the
coastal road is Howick Hall & Gardens
once the home of Charles Grey, a past Prime Minister of England who in
1833 abolished slavery. A wander through the grounds which continue on to the
beach though a nature reserve can be rewarding.
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D.Charlton
Our next stop is Alnmouth with its Links Golf Course
at the estuary of the river Aln only a few miles down stream from Alnwick the
and the end of our tour, which we cannot consider complete till we have visited
Warkworth on the river Coquet as it finishes it's journey from Rothbury in the
Cheviots.
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Warkworth with its
castle standing proud on the hill over the village, protected by water on
three sides was built by Harry Hotspur in 1402, and used by Shakespeare in
his play Henry IV.
Only a short walk to the sand dunes and beaches
Warkworth is a central location to stay while enjoying the Northumberland
coast. |
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The ruins give
an impressive view on the riverside drive from Amble or a walk along from
the Hermitage a short distance up stream.
The
Percy Family, the then Earls of Northumberland modified the keep in the
fourteenth century and was home to Harry Hotspur before he helped seize
the Crown of England from Richard II for Henry Bolingbroke |
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