Saturday October 10th

This morning we got up at 7am. We had packed the majority of things the night before. Still, this didn’t seem to minimize the rushing about in the morning! Mathew put most things in the car by the time I’d got downstairs, and we were still packing things like loo roll, tea towels, vitamins, sauces….

I sorted out our lunches and I got my waffles out of the cupboard, but Mathew put them in the toaster too soon and we both got distracted with more packing. The waffles got toasted a second time and weren’t popped up mid-way – so they were burnt and crispy! AND Mathew had also packed the raspberries in the car – which I was going to have on my waffles!! I managed to eat said waffles with raspberries and maple syrup, and decided to have a normally toasted extra waffle.

Making sure everything was packed, we left and got onto the motorway.

Before realising I had left my coat.

My large, black, warm coat.

!!!

Yes, we returned home, fortunately we hadn’t gone far. It only added 20 minutes to our journey time so everything was fine! We had the radio on in the car hoping to get some frequent travel news, but we soon realised that, unlike during the week when there is s report every half and hour, there was nothing on a Saturday! This we found strange, because surely, a lot of people start their holidays on Saturdays?? Well, it didn’t matter in the end, as the traffic was light, we stopped once for a comfort break before continuing on to Belsay Hall and Castle.

On the way, we were very entertained my Jonathan Ross as he was talking about ladies in the Swedish Army had complained about their bras being too easy to take off, that they were popping off when doing strenuous training exercises and to make matters worse, they were apparently VERY flammable….! How they discovered that one, I don’t think I want to know!!

Anyway, back to the journey. We arrived at Belsay Hall in Northumberland at around 12:00 noon, and we looked around the hall first, before stopping to have lunch and then moving on to the Castle.

The Hall, I have to say was very unlike any other Hall I have visited in the UK. First off, it didn’t look grand from the outside – it looked like a large house possibly with large rooms, but it looked very understated and …well, not very exciting really. There were two Greek style columns at the entrance, but these were very simple and understated also. This was a “Greek revival villa”.

When we stepped inside, we walked into a large atrium, surrounded by more simple Greek-style columns. There were rooms off each side, a staircase leading to a second floor with a balcony looking down into the atrium, also with rooms off to each side. Everything was so simple, nothing grand at all – and the most unusual aspect of this building was that it was totally empty.

No furniture, no books, no paintings, no fancy ceilings – nothing. Just the occasional bit of 1920s or 1930s wallpaper, but otherwise EMPTY. I have never visited an empty Hall before, so this was quite surreal for me – but in a way I quite liked it not being cluttered and over-cluttered with unnecessary flouncy objects. It seemed sad, yet I really liked the building. The second floor was the same – with ice fireplaces too. The most interesting thing in there was actually the 1933 conical fire extinguisher! I had never seen one like that before so I had to take a photo of this vintage piece!

After lunch, we walked to the Castle which took around 25 minutes through the gardens. Now, the Hall was built from local stone – VERY local. In fact, it was quarried from the grounds of the place. So this was why the HUGE gardens we walked through, was actually an over-grown quarry. A quarry garden apparently inspired by the quarries of Sicily – in a way it was more grand and impressive than the Hall and the Castle put together!

The garden grew around the quarry. Not only this, but little alcoves had been turned into benches or little steps put in places down to ponds – just because this was how the ground lay. It was very impressive and had a romantic air about it. The autumn colours were brilliant so I took a few photos of the leaves so I could refer to them – I thought they might inspire me to make more jewellery!

The Castle was small and sweet, built in the 14th century with joint Jacobean mansion ruins. It was ruined and charming. There was an exhibition on the second floor which I thought was quite stunning. In 2004, there was a “Fashion at Belsay” exhibition, and a temporary exhibit then, had recently come back to the Castle once more. This was Stella McCartney’s “Lucky Spot”, a crystal horse sculpture created by 8000 large Swarovski Crystals suspended from a platform above. I loved it, I had never seen anything quite like it before!

After the Castle, we walked back to the Hall, a different route this time, but still through the quarry-garden. It was a wider path which took us back, which we later discovered was meant for carriages, and the previous path for walking.

Onward we went to Duns in the Scottish Borders, which we reached at 4:30pm. Out holiday cottage within the Duns Castle Estate was called “The Pavillion” – basically, a tower on the Gatehouse!! It was small, but comfortably so, more than enough room for two people. It was square on the ground floor, with a round tower at the top. The second floor was closed off, presumably the attic or something similar. The stairs went around and up to the circular bedroom on the first floor. It was quirky all over everywhere and it was perfect. We unpacked and had some tea and cake.