Saturday 7th July

Last night's empty quayside was transformed into a huge car boot sale area this morning.

 

The views upriver were a peaceful contrast.

There are many well cared for allotments on the inland side of the town.

The route of the old railway line forms a long green space through the length of Amble. The track was raised so that the loads of coal could be tipped into the waiting barges.

The bridges and the railway lines have gone but the long jetty remains.

The funfair arrived last night.

We drove a couple of miles inland to explore Warkworth Castle which featured in Shakespeare's Henry IV.
www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/warkworth-castle-and-hermitage/

On arrival we were told that the Hermitage was open and to follow a path by the river for about 15 mins.

This brought us to the ferry crossing.

We were fortunate to be the only people here and enjoyed the crossing and the atmosphere of the hermitage and surrounding woodland.

The carvings date from at least the 1400's and were extremely well preserved in the three spaces which can be explored.

The castle is also larger, much more extensive and better preserved than we had expected.

A view from a castle window of the River Croquet flowing out to sea at Amble.

The town of Warkworth has many fine buildings.

The old bridge as seen from the new one.

Alnmouth beach is just three miles north and has a huge expanse of sand.

We saw three fields of thistles that look as though they have been grown deliberately but we don't know why. They looked lovely contrasting with the grass.