Castles, castles... Edlingham and Warkworth

 June

We've been to Edlingham outside Alnwick a few times because the boy has always loved the stories his granddad tells him about the zombies crawling out of their graves around the little 1000 year-old church beside it.

It's down a steep and winding track on the way out towards Cragside and near to the viaduct so it's  really scenic.  We've been there on bright days when it's bonny and on grey days, when it's easy to believe that reivers are hiding just out of sight - all in all very atmospheric.

And - odd thing to admit to perhaps - if you're into moss and lichens, then you'll love it. 

We always trace out where the house would be from the remains of the walls and I always warn the boy NOT  to go inside because I have horrors of the leaning wall of the solar falling on him, though it has stood for at least 600 years.  He has started not to listen. Hum!

Well, last visit was a warning.  The wall did NOT fall on him but, after he did his walking-along-the-broken-wall trick, he casually let himself down on to the pavement, turned over on his ankle and...  yup!  Agony!

Himself took him on his back up the track to the car and he slept on the way home.  Walk-in Centre job that evening!  At least the one in Washington is lovely and modern.

 

Last Sunday (end of June) my daughter from London was up with us with her two little ones. 

This time we did Warkworth Castle.  Now usually I don't go in for great militarised castles but Warkworth  is not of that ilk at all.  It is a fortified house belonging to the great Percy family of Northumberland with lots of interesting little design features which interested me.  We could see visitors listening intently to their headset tour guides so I'm sure we missed out on lots of lovely history here but it was lots of fun watching our two year-old grandson racing around tight castle corners, discovering guard rooms and beer cellars ( actually that was his dad) and generally enjoying the place.

It belongs to English Heritage and is a cheap day out at £5.40 an adult if you're not a member.  You pay £3 for parking but this is refundable in the ticket booth inside the castle so don't miss out on this.

However, the best bit of the visit was the walk down to the hermitage and the short boat ride over the Coquet river. (Mind, this is currently only available on Sundays, as is the upper room in the keep!) It's a steep little walk to begin with and a bit of a challenge to a double buggy's wheels but very soon the path flattens out and the walk under trees beside a peaty brown river makes you ask if there are kingfishers - I don't know- I always ask!

Warkworth's Hermitage is truly a bit of a wonder.  Carved out of solid sandstone, it's amazing to see gothic windows and angled pillars and an altar all, as it were, growing out of the sandstone cliffs.  It was built for a holy man though developed into more of a rural dwelling place. Damp and dank, even in June, it is returning beautifully to the natural world and has something of a fairy feel. A MUST SEE! Bring extra cash (about £3 each) though for the boat ride there and back - a lovely student doing her summer job!

That was a day of pure pleasure.  Lunch at The Hermitage Inn in the village was very satisfying and my vegetarian daughter was not disappointed with her asparagus omelette so we were all pleased.