Freshly Minted: Dunstanburgh and Alnwick

The second of our "Exploring historic Northumberland" trips was to the village of Alnwick and nearby Dunstanburgh Castle on the coast. We left Newcastle on Sunday February 14 at 9:30 AM, catching a bus to Alnwick (taking a little over an hour to get there). From there, we caught another bus to the seaside village of Craster (a 30 minute drive). At Craster, we started a 25-30 minute walk along the North Sea towards Dunstanburgh Castle. Shortly after the walk began the castle began appearing in the distance, and this, combined with the beautiful contrast of the blue sky, the white puffy clouds, the blue sea, and the green rolling countryside made for a lovely walk. It was quite amazing to look to one side and see the beautiful blue rolling ocean and only have to turn your head 180 degrees to see the beautiful classic English rolling landscape--an amazing contrast! The walk to the castle was somewhat muddy but we eventually arrived and were treated to more historic tidbits and some more wonderful views. Dunstanburgh was also a major castle in the Scottish-English border conflicts. I climbed the remaining turret of the castle while Allison waited below and then we toured the grounds of the castle. While the rest of the group went back to Craster to find lunch in a pub, Allison and I ate our picnic sandwiches at the castle, looking over the North Sea and the countryside.

After lunch, we made our way back along the sea to Craster, where we met the rest of the group and caught the bus back to Alnwick. In Alnwick, we took a walking tour of the old Medieval part of the village before heading towards Alnwick Castle (the historic and present residence of the Dukes of Northumberland). Alnwick Castle was also used in the filming of Harry Potter (the part where Neville gets on a broom and knocks statues off the castle walls), and we were able to see and photograph some of the part that was used. Sadly, we couldn't get into the grounds themselves, since they are indeed a residence and only open to visitors during the summer. However, we were able to walk down a road to a nearby river where we snapped some lovely pictures of the castle. From there we walked through a ridiculously muddy field littered with dead rabbits (to the tune of 15-20 in number). The whole thing was a tad bit morbid. We eventually ended up on another nearby road, and walked down that until we came to an old Medieval abbey. After hearing some more tidbits about the abbey, we headed back to Alnwick for a quick drink before catching the bus back to Newcastle.

Craster and the North Sea coast