Tuesday 22 May 2012

A weekend in Northumberland


We got back last night from four days away in Northumberland. The weather over the weekend can best be described as 'mixed': mixed as in cold, very cold, or simply freezing!

On Friday we'd booked to visit the Farne Islands with Billy Shiels boat trips out of Seahouses, but on arriving at the harbour we were told 'no sailing today, pet'. The weather was bad and we nearly froze wandering around Lindisfarne in the strong wind and drizzle and then later in the day pottering around Berwick for half an hour. We did manage nine species of wader off the causeway leading to Lindisfarne and enjoyed visiting the castle though

Rather than traipse over to Seahouses again on Saturday we phoned ahead and were told the same as Friday. This gave us chance to explore a bit further south and we enjoyed a day of short coastal walks, teashops and an evening hike out to Dunstaburgh Castle from Craster, which was highly memorable

The weather had improved through the day through Saturday afternoon and we woke to lovely blue skies on Sunday morning. We had chance at last to visit the Farne Islands We weren't disappointed with our 'all-day' trip and the highlight was spending three hours on Inner Farne surrounded by three species of nesting tern, shag, razorbill, kiitewake, puffin, eider duck and guilemot!

Yesterday we visited Bamburgh castle which was great and I enjoyed driving back through the dales, including the full length of Wharfedale 'proper' from Cray down to home

No comments:

Post a Comment