Castles in the mist

The day started with beautiful sunshine and warmth. We dug out the sunglasses and got on our way. First stop was Bamburgh Castle. We decided not to go in as it was a huge castle and it would take hours to do it justice as is lived in still. Instead we spent an hour walking around the outside of it.


It was very evocative as a strong sea mist came in as we walked along the beach. It felt like a living creature as this cold, damp mist swirled around

The castle stands on an almost perpendicular piece of rock

It is on a site of one of a chain of fortresses built by the Romans. It may have been the capital of the British kingdom of the region from the realm's foundation in c.420 until 547, the year of the first written reference to the castle. In that year the citadel was captured by the Anglo-Saxon ruler Ida of Bernicia and became Ida's seat. It was briefly retaken by the Britons from his son Hussa during the war of 590 before being relieved later the same year.
His grandson passed it on to his wife Bebba, from whom the early name Bebbanburgh was derived. The Vikings destroyed the original fortification in 993.
The Normans built a new castle on the site, which forms the core of the present one. William II unsuccessfully besieged it in 1095 during a revolt supported by its owner, Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria. After Robert was captured, his wife continued the defence until coerced to surrender by the king's threat to blind her husband.
Bamburgh then became the property of the reigning English monarch. Henry II probably built the keep. As an important English outpost, the castle was the target of occasional raids from Scotland. In 1464 during the Wars of the Roses, it became the first castle in England to be defeated by artillery, at the end of a nine-month siege by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.
The castle deteriorated but was restored by various owners during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was finally bought by the Victorian industrialist William Armstrong, who completed the restoration.

Being half term holidays there were lots of families on the beach and sounds of laughter circled within the mists.
Then it was onto Lindisfarne. This is an island much of the time so you have to be sure of the time and tides before driving over to it. Again the sea mists played around the edges of the land. Very evocative for a Holy Island!

Driving over to lindisfarne during low tide

Lindisfarne's Norman priory stands on the site of an Anglo-Saxon monastery founded by St Aidan in A.D 635, on land granted by Oswald, King and Saint of Northumbria. Aidan is believed to have chosen the island site because of its isolation and proximity to the Northumbrian capital at Bamburgh. Aidan the first Bishop of Lindisfarne, a Scots-Celtic monk from the isle of Iona, travelled widely throughout Northumbria and with the help of King Oswald as interpreter, began the conversion of the Northumbrians to Christianity.
In 654 St Cuthbert came to Lindisfarne as the fifth successor to Bishop Aidan.In 793 A.D Lindisfarne was to witness the first Viking raid on the coast of Britain.

Inside the old church next to the Abbey ruins

Lindisfarne castle

Interesting house built under an upturned boat

We had a rather disappointing lunch of canned vegetable soup. Geoff also tried some crab connection which he ended up throwing out. We started off on our southward bound trip. We changed destinations several times during the trip as we wanted to see everything on the map. We feel like children in a lolly shop and that we are running around gorging ourselves. We feel almost panicked at what we are not going to have time to see.p
Geoff is on a quest to see Saxon churches which are intact so we set off to see Bede's monastery at Jarrow. We had to navigate through the centre of Newcastle to get there which was a bit of a challenge although the mighty Ipad did brilliantly. When we got there we couldn't get in however as it had just closed which was disappointing. We did however see the outside of the original parts which was good.

The Saxon wall of the church

We were going to Escomb to see another Saxon church but as we struggled to find accommodation we changed plans and ended up staying at a funny little hotel at Darlingford near the Tees airport. It had been a RAF base for e Canadians in WWII. It was great value and it had a lovely bath. Fell into bed exhausted.

Romain remains

We started the day by visiting Housesteads which is the biggest and most impressive fort remains on the wall.

We spent some time in the museum which was good. Lots of finds

The history of the wall and the Roman fortification is quite fascinating.

Then it was onto Hexham.

We visited the Abbey. Amazing.

It had a Saxon Crypt. The Saxons didn't know how to cut stones so they re used a lot of Roman stone and you could see lots of inscribed roman stones in the crypt.

 

Geoff had two lunches and then we walked through the park. Then in was on to Corbridge. These ruins are in quite good condition and you can see the street pattern and original paved streets etc. In the 300 years they were here they had rebuilt the town several times.

Then we got sidetracked looking for another Saxon church at Whittingham. We drove off the track but could see no Saxon part of the church.

We stayed overnight in Alnwick. Very friendly hotel owner who had children in Australia.