A caravan holiday in Scotland, part 2

We decided to have a lie in while the day warmed up. 

After a breakfast of tea, and chocolate brioche we went to have a look at the beach. It's advertised as a 15 minute walk, but I don't think it's quite that, although it's longer as you access it by going over a small railway bridge. From there was a great view. It was windy though so we decided to walk back, and have a drive into the village.

We ended up driving all the way down to Arbrossin as there's not much at Saltcoats. There we stopped at an Asda to get some shopping, there didn't look anywhere exciting to stop so we ended up back at the caravan. 

Here we decided to have something to eat at the boathouse restaurant, and get there 2 for £11 deal. Except after we'd picked something we were told they'd stopped serving food until 5, strange the offer is advertised between 12 and 5. Not much of an offer then. 

We got a bacon sandwich back at the caravan instead, and enjoyed sitting outside in the sunshine.

Next we drove to Kilmarnock to buy an electric heater. I enjoyed it, as it's a lovely little town with a nice range of shops, statues and cafes. A kind man also pointed out to us that you don't have to pay for parking after 5.

We decided to eat at a McDonald's, and came back to watch TV.

We went to the nighttime show at the clubhouse, which was billed as cabaret, but was actually a singer, who wasn't that great. This was followed by another music game show which was ok.

A caravan holiday to Scotland part 1

In June 2015 me and my husband went on a cravan to the west coat of Scotland through a Sun newspaper deal.

It was a long journey across from Northumberland, the weather was raining on and off, but the view as we crossed the pennines was great.

We stopped at Hexham to find a petrol station, and after a drive around I remembered the map on my iPad. Using that I located a garage, £50 for 40 liters of fuel later we continued on our way. 

The journey went well, especially when we hit Scotland. The M74 is an amazingly smooth 3 lane motorway with little traffic. The view continued to be amazing with sweeping hills, and wind turbines, which I like. 

After several little villages we arrived at the park. Checking in was nice and easy, the lady was friendly and gave us a map of how to get to our caravan as well as information on the entertainment, facilities and our entertainment passes.

The weather was still nice, and the caravan was red hot. The caravan itself is basic, but nice. There are two bedrooms, and the main one has an ensuite. 

I made the bed (you had to pay for bedding or bring your own, they just provide a quilt and pillows). We bought our own quilt to save messing around with quilt covers. We then had a cup of tea while looking at the information. We decided to have a bite to eat in the restaurant and then have a look at the show.

The restaurant stops serving at 8pm, and it was ten to so we both quickly decided to have ham, egg and chips. With a cider and a half it came to about £17.50, not bad value. The food itself was ok, although I was disappointed that the egg was hard and not runny. They had golf on in the restaurant but you couldn't hear it above the amusements in the other room. 

After we went into the show bar, but the kids thing was still on. It finishes at 9, we had a go in the amusements while we waited for 10 minutes. Then we had a drink and settled down for the show, except it was a game show instead of what was listed. It was entertaining enough though, and after they had a quiz which was pretty easy. 

After that we went back to the caravan, which was freezing. We put the fire on and watched TV, before going to bed. Again it was freezing, and I was pleased we had our thick quilt, it was that cold we put theres on top, and the two singles from the spare room. It was a good nights sleep though, nice and quiet.

49th Northumbrian Gathering Photos

This is my photo video of photos I took during the Saturday of the 49th Northumbrian Gathering. 

It was an event I really enjoyed, despite the weather 😀

                      

Ladies Morris Dancing at the Northumbrian Gathering

Another old tradition is ladies Morris dancing, and again I was lucky enough to see the Hexhamshire lasses at the Northumbrian Gathering this year, and they were great. Ladies Morris dancing is a bit different from the men's as it involves hoops and less bells.

Morris Dancing at Northumbrian Gathering 2016

An old tradition in England is Morris dancing, and it's something that can still occasionally be seen at local fairs.

I was lucky enough to see the Hexham Morris Dancers at the recent Morpeth Gathering. It was fun to watch, and if you get a chance to watch some I recommend it.

Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering 2016

The Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering now in it's 49th year, is held the first weekend after Easter.

It is a celebration of the traditional lifestyle and crafts from Northumberland and Morpeth.

This year I went on the Saturday, and I would describe it as a treasure hunt of events. There is a lot going on, but it is spread across the town and apart from signs telling you what's on when, and the farmers market it would be easy to miss. I first learned about the gathering from my mum, as she had seen a poster advertising the opening of Morpeth Castle for the event.

Morpeth itself isn't short of car parks, although they do operate a parking disc system. For the event they had a park and ride system from the local council offices. We decided to park at the local train station as we expected the other car parks to be busy. That turned out not to be the case, probably because of the rain.

We started of at the castle, as it is privately owned by the Landmark Trust (who rent it out for holidays) so it is rare you can visit it. The castle itself is quite small as it's just the original gatehouse, but it is nice inside, especially if you were staying there. In the castle grounds there were medieval style tents, and people dressed in medieval clothes as part of the celebrations.

After we had finished at the castle we walked into town via the park. Here we came across some Morris dancing. Morris dancing is an old English traditional dance, and it is great fun to watch, even if by now it was pouring down. We saw men dancing, and the ladies.

The next thing we visited was the clock tower, this is in the centre of the town, and is something I've often admired. The visit turned out to be a chance to try something that should have been on my bucket list, bell ringing. First though a lovely lady told us all about the towers history.

The tower dates back to the early seventeenth century, but the bells were first installed in 1706 in repayment for voting someone to parliament. Today the bells still chime every night for the curfew.

In the towns main market square there was the farmers market on, with a welcome surprise of a Punch and Judy 

Finally also in the town were various storytellers and work shops, there was also a craft show in the town hall. The gathering on the Saturday also started with a parade.

The gathering is held each year on the first weekend after Easter, and if you are in the area I would recommend it, as there was lots to see and do and it really was an interesting and fun day out.

Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, UK

Once upon a time there was a kingdom called Northumbria that was ruled by King Aethelfrith, when he married to strengthen his kingdom, he renamed his fortress after his new wife Bebba (Bebbanburgh later became pronounce Bamburgh)*. At the time Bamburgh castle and it's king was the most powerful force in northern England, and Bamburgh castle would be one of the most powerful castles in England for hundreds of years until the vikings attacked around the 10th century. Bamburgh's prominence was such that it had links with early christianity through St Aidan who was bought to neighbouring Holy Island by King Oswald, who also became a saint following his death.

The castle that stands today, has been rebuilt and renovated over the years, due to being attacked and neglected. For much of it's history this has been a royal castle, and was built and maintained by them as an important defensive fortress. Some of the main keep dates from around 1163 when the castle, had the great tower started for the sum of £4*, now that sounds a bargain although I'm guessing it was worth a bit more then :) 

Today the castle is in owned by the Armstrong family, who bought it in 1894*, at the time Lord Armstrong of Cragside (see earlier review), saw it for sale in the Times and decided to buy it for £60,000*. He did quite a bit of renovation to the castle, as it was in need of it when he bought it. It's funny my first thought when I realised he owned both Cragside and Bamburgh castle, was why would you buy Cragside if you owned Bamburgh castle, but I now see it was the other way around :)

Bamburgh castle is probably the castle most recognised, outside Northumberland, unless you were watching Harry Potter (that's Alnwick castle), as it is the one on most advertising, due to it's magnificent appearance.

I visited on a windy day in February, the timing being because I had bought a Groupon deal for £12 for 2 people and it ran out at the end of February (I bought it in December, not realising the castle was only open on a weekend up to February). I visited with my dad one Friday, as that's the day we go out together :) Normal price is £9.95 for adults, £9 for senior citizens, £4.50 for children or £25 for a family (2 adults 3 children), so we saved £6.95 (my dad is a senior, not me :) )

**Our Visit**
The day we visited was initially windy but dry, and we really hit on as, as we were leaving a storm hit and it started to rain heavily. Bamburgh is on the Northumberland coast about 42 miles north of Newcastle, it's about 30 miles from us and took us about an hour to get there going up the A1 and then following the route across to the coast. On the way back we came the coastal route which took maybe 15 minutes longer, and this is considering we were taking it steady due to the weather. 

Bamburgh castle is high up above Bamburgh village, overlooking the sea (150 feet above), and sand dunes. It affords great views of the neighbouring Farne islands, and Holy island, as well as the sea and beach. We parked in the council car park at the bottom, paying £1.80 for 2 hours, we chose here as we had visited the castle years before and remembered the parking above being limited. The council car park now offers free parking. Walking up to the castle is quite steep, and at the top we discovered the parking has now been extended and there is a reasonable sized car park with all day parking for £2 :) Still I needed the exercise :)

The entrance to the castle is further up hill through a large gatehouse, with the ticket office being in the constable tower further up. From here you are outside the main section of the castle in the outer ward, the path is quite steep, and you can either follow it up, or walk along the battery (outer defensive wall) as we did. We chose this way so that we could admire the view of the sea, and the nearby islands, although it was quite overcast so we didn't get the best view. There are also lots of cannons along here :)

**The Outer Ward** 
The battery, and path both lead to the outer ward. There are a lot of buildings here, although the castle grounds themselves are reasonably compact. The ground here is hilly, with the ground sloping rapidly down to the west ward. In the outer ward, is the old stables, which now house the toilets, and a cafe on the left hand side. There is also some stocks on the green, and a replica of the King's of Northumbria's royal stone seat (which I had a seat in). At the bottom of the slope is another gateway which leads into the west ward.

In the west ward there is a picnic area, 2 sites where they are doing an archeological dig (in summer you can watch them), the armstrong aviation museum, and an old mill. The museum is quite small, but we both found it really interesting with huge engines, and old cameras that had been used on planes. There was also a model of a spitfire, and a large gun. 

The walls on this side of the castle give a great view of the village of Bamburgh.

**The Inner Ward**
Uphill is the inner ward of the castle, this has an inner curtain wall, from which you again get a great view of the sea. There are also the remains of the chapel, with a large bell. The entrance to the state rooms, and keep is here. There is one entrance, that is open as you actually go through the state rooms to get to the keep.

**The castle, and state rooms**
While you can't explore all the rooms, as there are private apartments above, the parts you can see are interesting. My favourite was the King's Hall, which is a beautiful room with a lovely wooden beamed ceiling which you can admire with mirrors that are provided. In here there was a lovely guide, who we had a nice chat with. This room has a minstrel's gallery at one end, and a lovely seating area (roped off) raised up at the other, the room is actually from the victorian times as it was renovated and designed by Lord Armstrong. In total I think there are about ten rooms that you can look around, including the rooms in the keep itself. Other highlights for me were the secret stairway in the keep's wall, the model of the castle, the well (dug through over 40 feet of solid whetstone), and the victorian hoover (I like my old gadgets :) ). There were a further two guides in other rooms, both of which were friendly and knowledgeable.

The keep leads to the shop, and from here you can visit the dungeon. This has several figures showing old torture methods, and was pretty interesting. Next to the shop there is also the archeological museum, which houses various finds from the castle's grounds. The exit opens back out onto the outer ward. From here we took some more photos before hurrying away as by this time we were over our parking time (not that we expected a ticket as Bamburgh is pretty deserted in winter), and it was bucketing down and windy. 

**The cafe and shop**
We visited the cafe for a warming cup of tea during our visit. This is a nice room and the prices were reasonable, about £5 for a sandwich. The drinks were slightly more expensive, at around £4 for a pot of tea for two. 

The shop has the usual range of gifts, as well as some local wine and foods. There is also a small art gallery, with some lovely pictures you can buy in the shop. 

**So what did I think?**
We both really enjoyed our visit, the only downside was the weather as the views weren't as clear as we might have liked, and quite a lot of it is outside. However, as they say "every cloud has a silver lining", and the weather and time of year meant that there were only a few other visits so we could get some great photos without lots of people in them, and we had plenty of time to see what we wanted to see, as well as to talk to the guides. 

The grounds and buildings are really well looked after, and there are plenty of signposts telling you where you are and what things are, which we found really useful. It is also possible to buy a guidebook or hire an audio tour, although we didn't bother preferring to discover things ourselves. As said inside there are also several guides, who are knowledgeable and friendly. 

Bamburgh castle surprised me as when I visited it in the past I didn't really enjoy it, and my memory was just of lots of plates. I was left feeling that the best thing about it was the outside, but now I have been again I have completely changed my mind, as there is so much to see. From their web site I can see that they have won several awards, including one from trip adviser, and I can see why. Everything feels really well thought out, informative and welcoming, I can imagine that if I visit again in summer, while it would be more crowded you would still enjoy yourself, and it would be pleasant to enjoy a picnic overlooking the sea. 

We spent about 2 and a half hours there in total, including getting a cup of tea in the cafe before going into the castle proper. We took advantage of the walk back down to the car park, to take some more photos of the castle, although by then we were pretty wet. 

**Anything else?**
The castle has pretty good disabled access, including a separate cafe room, as the cafe entrance is upstairs. By it's nature parts of the castle are not wheelchair accessible, but a surprising amount is, and again this shows how much thought has been put into it, including tarmac paths which while steep provide a good surface. 

The castle is also available for weddings, and wedding receptions, and if I wasn't already happily married I'd be tempted as it would be a great location :)

The castle is open everyday until the 2nd of November, 10 am until 5pm

For more information there website is http://www.bamburghcastle.com/index.php


*Bamburgh castle website


This is updated from my review on Ciao