Category: Northumberland
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St. Abb’s village
Named after the Headland, so familiar to listeners of the shipping forecast, which is named after the 7th-century, monastery which, in turn, is named after its founder, Aebbe. Aebbe was a Royal princess, born to Aethelfrid, King of Northumbria. She was an Angle, and to use modern parlance, probably a 2nd generation immigrant from Southern…
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The Battle of Homildon Hill
I just love it when I learn something new out the blue. The plan was an early start to bag Humbleton Hill, a 298 metre hill overlooking Wooler. On the map, a hill peppered with Gothic letters: a couple of settlements, a fort, a hut circle, and a homestead. Plenty to pique my interest. But…
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Howick Haven
One of the many small sandy bays along this stretch of the Northumbrian coast between Boulmer and Caistor. At the turn of this century, an amateur archaeologist spotted some worked flints protruding out of an eroded sandy cliff just beyond the far side of the bay. He reported the finds to Newcastle University who investigated…
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Sir Guy, the Seeker
One stormy night, a brave and noble knight, Sir Guy, is riding along the coast and arrives at Dunstanburgh Castle on the Northumbrian coast. Suddenly the gates burst open to reveal a tall old man with a white beard and a halo of flames flickering around his bald head. Around his waist, there is a…
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Beadnell
I suppose I am drawn to the sea, perhaps I am a thalassophile at heart, but not quite ‘sjøvant‘ as the Scandawegians would say, not being entirely at ease. I remember a works outing in 2003, a sailing trip from Hartlepool to the Farne Islands for the weekend. I was so bad, even though the…
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Sir Guy the Seeker
This legend reminded me of Freebrough Hill when I first read it. A supposedly hollow hill in which King Arthur, sleeps surrounded by his knights. Sir Walter Scott told a similar tale of Thomas the Rhymer in Eildon Hill, not a million miles away from Dunstanburgh Castle on the Northumbrian Coast. But the hero of…
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Milecastle 39 and the Sycamore Gap
Day 14; 2 weeks now into this lockdown and the morning routine has developed into my daily exercise during which I look for inspiration for a photo to post that evening. This morning I had read that it was on this day in 1199 that King Richard I, perhaps better known as Richard the Lionheart,…
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Bamburgh Castle
Or should I say Bebbanburg, the ancestral home of Bernard Cornwell’s Uhtred in the book and film ‘The Last Kingdom‘? An Uhtred the Bold did exist, he was made Earl of Northumbria in 1006. But Cornwell’s Uhtred lived 140 years earlier. A long, long time ago, maybe the time of Uhtred, maybe before or maybe…
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Coquet Island
An RSPB reserve about 1½ km offshore at Amble. Apparently it’s home to a colony of Roseate Terns. In the 7th-century the monk Cuthbert, living as a hermit, met Ælfflæd, Abbess of Whitby here. The island’s isolation appealed to many later medieval hermits and became a Benedictine monastic cell linked to Tynemouth Priory. The tower…
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Durridge Bay
I must be something of a thalassophile at heart because I do enjoy running along the coast, even though memories of being helplessly seasick are so vivid. But then a beach is also the worst place to run. Time never passes. The beach at Durridge Bay on the Northumberland coast is a 7 mile stretch…