13/10/2009

Northumberland travels (2)

Now clearly in the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, not part of England until 1076. We cycled across to Lindisfarne on Sunday unfortunately with a tail wind, so it was heavy going on the return leg. While at Lindisfarne Priory It was interesting to learn that the remains of St Cuthbert were moved back to the island from Durham to avoid William the Conqueror's "harrying of the north".

Monday was a walking day along the coast from Alnmouth to Craster and back, so it involved another refreshment stop in the Jolly Fisherman, this time for crab soup and more black sheep. I should mention that the pub was recommended by Harry Pearson (Achtung Swinehund) in the Guardian a couple of weeks back (link) and I concur.
Today (Tuesday) was poor weather, so it was off to Berwick to do the town ramparts, unfortunately the barracks were only open until the end of September so I didn't get chance to visit the KOSB museum.

Then back south to Bamburgh castle, it's not EH, but was well worth a visit, it is a Victorian reconstruction, but still has the feel of the original and the Armstrong/Aviation museum is full of interesting items on engineering and local aviation history. My favourites were Lord Armstrong gun(s) and the items on German aircraft shot down. The state room also had some interesting arms and armour. Lord Armstrong seemed to be a typical Victorian engineer with lots of inventions to his name.

3 comments:

Fraxinus said...

20+ years ago I cycled the causeway to lindisfarne are the 'towers' still there for unfortunates caught by the tide? Bamburgh is an impressive place to visit must visit again to see aviation relics

Fire at Will said...

Yes a tower is still there for those foolish enough to get caught by the tide

Giles said...

Very interesting posts, Will - keep 'em coming!

Best wishes

Giles