Lampwick visits Northumberland

[angledge]

Yes, my dissertation deadline looms nigh. But when funkyplaid, spiffington, & seolta are making a mid-week road trip to go castle-bagging in Northumbria, what is a grrl supposed to do? Sit in the lab & manipulate elections?


Of course not.

The Fearsome Foursome, also accompanied by American visitor yatzabella, piled into funkyplaid's hired black rocketship totally uncool rental car & headed South with plans to visit three of the castles that guarded this long, lonely stretch of coastline. Like most travelers along this route, we passed through Berwick-upon-Tweed on our way, a city whose role as a crossroads is visible over its river:


Our first castle of the day was Dunstanburgh Castle, an impressive ruin dating back to the Wars of the Roses (latter half of the 15th century). Visitors reach the castle by walking a little over a mile along the coast, through cattle & sheep pastures.



The castle was actually started a century & a half earlier than that, by a powerful noble who wanted to show off his wealth & authority by building an enormous fortress near one of the King's strongholds (more on that castle next). But the invention of cannons spelled doom for most castles - this one perhaps more than most.


While we walked towards the Castle, funkyplaid told us about recent archaeological work undertaken on the site to try to locate an artifical harbor that had once served the Castle. We took a moment to scamper along the rocks to search for it ourselves.


We also wandered around the large area enclosed by the castle walls, looking North towards our next castle stop.


We weren't ready to go, but we had to leave in order to make it to our other targets. So we hiked back to Craster & drove up the coast to Bamburgh Castle. Which is an incredibly impressive pile of stone, located on top of an already impressive stone outcrop. This site was the seat of the Kingdom of Northumbria, & Sir Thomas Mallory, the author of "Le Morte D'Arthur" (one of the first histories of King Arthur), believed that Bamburgh Castle was the most likely site of Lancelot's castle "The Joyous Gard".


We didn't have time to visit Bamburgh, because we were racing the tides to make it to Lindisfarne Castle, which is accessible only across a causeway at low tide. The castle stands upon the Holy Island, one of the oldest Christian establishments in England & still the site of a monastery & retreat house.


I found the Lindisfarne grounds incredibly peaceful, & I wish we could have spent more time there. There was a typical mixture of old & new, but there was a continuity in the style of ornamentation that made the whole place feel timeless.


Because we arrived somewhat late in the day, we were barred from entering the ruins of the abbey itself.


Time also prevented us from walking all the way to Lindisfarne castle itself, so we were content to stare across the harbor for a little while.


Finally, we had to head back across the causeway to the mainland. Then we roared back up the A1, making a quick detour to the Sheep's Heid in Duddingston to enjoy a quick drink in Scotland's oldest pub. Altogether it was a very fine day out & despite the load of procrastinatory guilt I felt today, I'm very glad I went.

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[angledge.livejournal.com]

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