After spending time in Newark and York, we arrived at our destination for a week, Rothbury.
The reason, amongst others, that I wanted to explore this particular part of the wonderful Northumbria is that I wanted to go and see the Alnwick castle gardens. Originally, I was going to book us into somewhere in Alnwick itself, but, as usual, I didn’t do it early enough, and Alnwick, was, basically, full. However, the hotel I found in nearby Rothbury, the Coquetvale Hotel, was a little gem. It’s a 19th century country hotel amd had only recently been taken over by new people. The food was lovely, the room very comfortable, and the service excellent. Yes, there were a few niggles, but we won’t mention those, we had a fabulous time there.
Rothbury itself is stunningly scenic, set on the most wonderfully attractive river, and surrounded by gorgeous countryside.
Alnwick Castle
I so enjoyed our day here. Alnwick Castle is magnificent! We toured all round the castle, poking in corners and admiring beautiful things and rooms.
There were lots of Harry Potter things going on and here is Mike facing up a dragon
The cascades were fantastic and a lot of fun. Many sudden jets of water would shoot out of various płaces. There were a lot of kids running around soaked to the skin, shrieking and having lots of fun.
We spent hours there and had a good lunch there too.
Amble and Boulmer
We did loads of walking exploring this gorgeous county. We went to two sea side towns, Amble and Boulmer. Soft, sandy beaches, no litter, a warm and strangely calm sea and hardly anyone about. On this beach there were sandpipers at the sea edge, keeping just ahead of us, peep, peep, peeping their way along.
Cragside
This National Trust property is just 1.5 miles from the hotel. The grounds are so extensive that there is a six mile drive around them, and very beautiful they are too.
How about this fireplace!
The walls in the hallways all had lovely tiles, different ones on each floor. Must have been handy for the people who did the cleaning.
Cragside was a very modern house for its time. It was the first house to have water powered electricity, it has a lift, warm air central heating and even a sauna and plunge pool.
On the day we were there, they were doing some demonstration cooking in the kitchen. I took advantage and had a fascinating conversation with the volunteer
I rather liked this sign, made me smile anyway
I would love to Jane, I really enjoyed our trip
So happy you liked your trip to Northumberland. We Northumbrians would of course love to welcome you back, sometimes we are a bit shy and awkward tho 🙂 Wallington Hall not far from Cragside is well worth a visit and along the Roman Wall (Hadrians Wall) Vindolanda has an amazing collection of perishable stuff that has been preserved by the special wet/acidic oxygen free conditions since about 100 – 400 AD In Hexham there is the Abbey which has a new exhibition and a crypt dating back to St Wilfred in 675 AD. No I dont work for the tourist board!! And then theres the Border Reivers, the Northumbrian Pipes, oh and Blanchland too. Happy googling. Come see us again.