The Detritus of Their Lunch
Lunch had been lovely…. A pub lunch with some fabulous seafood fare ( I had the locally smoked salmon) with a half pint of bitter….. and we had chatted about where we were going this afternoon.
Yesterday had been spent visiting Lindisfarne, it’s abbey and castle… and on our way back to the hotel I had given everyone a glimpse of Bamburgh Castle ( as in Bernard Cornwalls series of books ‘ The Last Kingdom’). Staying in Alnwick we are actually within the fortified castle walls of the town AND just up the road from there is Warkworth Castle….. and then there are more.
This afternoons walk along the low lying cliffs of Northumberland would enable us to gain entry into Dunstanburgh and enjoy the coastal sea views. Everyone was eager to get going.
Navigating our way around the beautifully atmospheric village and port of Craster, I stopped on Haven Hill to talk about the lobster, crab and fishing industry….peppered with questions I led the group up onto the moors.
This small section of moorland is ‘common land’ and has been used by the villagers for millennia. A lovely feature of it is an ancient low wall that runs from the crest of a ridge, all the way down to the waters edge, once running into what are now tidal areas…… the wall is probably 3500 years old or more.
Pointing it out, we headed on into the sunshine with oyster catchers bombarding us with shells, the detritus of their lunch.
The footpath dropped down into a wide rut in the ground and the castle ruins stood before us. Along this path ( and rut) masons had once transported the building materials to the construction site that was to become Dunstanburgh Castle…… With the North Sea on our right hand side and a boggy moor to our left, it was easy to sea why this spot had been chosen to build on.
Approaching the attended gate, a warden informed us that the castle would close its gates within the hour…… the wind was expected to kick up and make it unsafe for visitors….. we hurried inside and started to explore.
I climbed the tower and looked down onto the landscape….. I felt that I belonged!……… yes, castle life will have suited me well