Not quite ambling around Amble

Last Friday I went to the nearby seaside village of Amble.

Amble is a pretty village on the coast of Northumberland, it is on the south side of the River Coquet and from the small harbour you can get boat trips to nearby Coquet Island.

Coquet Island

There is ample parking near the harbour and small beach, although you do have to pay even if you have a parking disk. 

We didn't visit the shopping street on this occasion, but it's a nice shopping area with a variety of shops. The quayside has a market every Sunday, as we went on a Friday it wasn't on :). 

On our visit having parked up, we went to the Quayside cafe, which is in the harbour. This is a chip shop cafe, and I had a lovely cheese patty and chips, whilst my dad had haggis and chips. Haggis is actually a Scottish delicacy. The chips from here are lovely, and if you are visiting the area I would recommend them.

After we had eating we braved the weather outside, which was extremely windy. 

Amble has a lovely small harbour in the river, and you can look across to get some great views of Warkworth Castle. 

View to Warkworth Castle

We walked along the river, and than along the pier. The pier goes around in a circle, and offers some protection to the small beach. 

Amble Beach

Amble Pier

We walked all the way along and around the pier, it offers some lovely views back towards Amble. The first section has the river on one side and the small bay with the beach on the other, at the top end the pier is open to the sea, and has a great view of Coquet Island. 

We walked all the way around the pier, and then back along the houses in the bay, before walking across the small beach. 

Amble Beach and view looking back to the pier.

We finished up with a nice hot tea in a small cafe opposite the harbour. I can't remember it's name but it was friendly, if a little strange and cluttered. We got chatting to some locals about aeroplanes of all things.

An A to Z of Northumberland A

Hi, last year I started an A to Z about Northumberland in the UK on Bubblews, and I thought I would tweak it a bit  and share it with you.

So starting with A;

A is for Alnwick (pronounced An-ick), which is a small town and home to the Duke of Northumberland, who owns the rather magnificent Alnwick Castle. The Percy family have been the Dukes of Northumberland for hundreds of years. The castle is also famous for being used as Hogwarts. 

Alnwick is also famous for having one of the UK's largest second hand book shops called Barter Books, in it's old train station. 

The town is called a market town, as it holds a weekly market selling all kinds of different goods. Throughout the year they also sometimes have special fairs, for example French ones, and a Christmas fair.

Alnwick also has a great museum called Bailiffgate, which is about the history of the town and surrounding area, and the award winning Alnwick Gardens which is a separate part of the duke's estate, and visitor attraction. 

My favourite thing to do in Alnwick is to explore the streets, which are full of history and the Alnwick pants (water fountains), and to sit in one of the many cafes and let the world go by.

A is also for;

Ashington, a town in the south east of Northumberland. Ashington is the opposite of Alnwick in that it is an ex pit (coal mining) town, and is all back terraces and shops (unfortunately now mostly charity ones). 

It sadly had it's hay day when the mines were still open. Although the council are supposed to be doing something to improve it, and are currently building a new leisure centre. 

It is still though a lovely friendly town, and has a leisure centre (the old one), as well as the nearby Woodhorn museum ( a local museum about coal mining), and the beautiful QE2 park and lake.

Amble, is a small coastal village, with a lovely harbour and some great fish and chip shops, my favourite is the Quayside cafe, great friendly service and lovely chips.

Alnmouth, a small coastal village with some pretty houses.

Aydon, a small village in south west Northumberland, with a lovely castle.

Acklington, a small village best known for it's prison.