Sunday October 11th

This morning we went to Bamburgh Castle – again in Northumberland which I quite liked because it wasn’t full of lurid wallpaper, too much furniture and gold-leaf ceilings. It wasn’t empty like Belsay, but it was grand and simple, not too many paintings, simple wooden ceilings which I loved, and the walls were left bare and had been carved in so many places – this I also loved….unfortunately we were unable to take photos inside, which was a great shame, but I might be able to get some from their website! Originally the probably stronghold for a local King, 6th century Kings chose this castle as their Royal Capital, and is now known as “The very foundation stone of England”.

After exploring the Castle, we walked along the beach – but we had to cross the sand dunes first! Most people know I hate walking on sand! But once we were on the actual beach, it was fine. It was incredibly windy, and there was LOTS of sand-drift going on, which reminded me of the beaches in Tofino in Canada which had the same thing going on! It was fun to stand in it, but quite difficult to walk into – which we had to, to get back! I also found a piece of sea glass which I decided to keep – I might be able to turn it into a pendant……!

Time for lunch, and we went to Lindisfarne. We crossed the causeway and had lunch in the car, looking at the view of Holy Island. We continued on, first visiting the Abbey ruins, and then onto the Castle.

The Priory ruins were really nice, and I thought it was an atmospheric place to be. The stone was very pretty – it was pink and rough hewn but well carved, and the nature of the stone made it easily erodable by wind and sand I should imagine, as we were right on the coast of Northumberland still, actually on an island. The ruins FELT old, and it is rarely that I can actually feel the atmosphere of a historical place like this. This was one of the most important centres of early Christianity, which was unfortunately attacked by Vikings. Something I learnt here I thought was very interesting, and made me think of First Nations’ Totem Poles in Canada. Carved stone crosses were used all over the place for several different reasons – not only grave stones but Market Places, Town Centres, Wells, all sorts of uses. It just reminded me of the Totem Poles in Canada and their various uses – inside buildings, outside buildings, entrances, marriages, deaths. I wasn’t aware of this curious similarity until now – not being a Christian myself I had not known about these uses for the cross, and I thought this was very interesting.

Not knowing anything about the place previously, I didn’t know what to expect when we went into the Castle. I felt it was more recent, and it was less atmospheric. It turns out that it was more recent – it was built in the 1550’s using stone from the demolished Priory. Even thought I was hoping it would be a Medieval Castle, I still liked it inside because of its quirky layout and the rooms were furnished modestly – as if someone were still living there, but not a very wealthy family. I really liked it.

On the way back to the car, I had an ice-cream (yes, I know it was windy and slightly on the cold side, but this is a thing we Brits like to do – have ice cream on cold, windy days!!), and we stopped off at a couple of shops, and a small garden. I was looking for something of a Cross-Stitch project to do, but it seems there is very little of this craft in Northumbria, which surprised me. I couldn’t find anything. We were quite annoyed that we had just missed the last admission to go and see the Lindisfarne Gospels, which would have been nice to see. Well, nevermind. We went back to Duns and bought our dessert – Lemon Cheesecake – before coming back to the cottage for the evening and enjoying a nice Sunday Pork Roast.