Northumbria

In the late 1980s, I had the most awesome 3 years studying Surveying Sciences at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.  Over the decades, the popularity of this course peaked and dipped and, then sadly, as it failed to reach university targets for applications, the undergrad course closed.  However, rather than run a wake, the Geomatics team organised a celebratory reunion which explains why JC and I had a road trip north in June.

Tuesday 09/Wednesday 10 June 2026

We drove up to Northumberland in stages, staying on Tuesday night in a functional hotel off the M1 near Nottingham. On Wednesday we drove up past Newcastle, stopping first at Warkworth Castle.  This was a surprisingly interesting castle: I'm slack at history so hadn't high hopes for being entertained.  However, help was at hand with the audio guide, meaning JC was free to loiter and take pictures, whilst I ticked off the spoken tour.

The more I learnt of this site, and its 15th Century heyday, the more I felt blessed that I am a free woman of the 20th Century, able to work, have kids and create a home without feudal restrictions.  The audio tour focused on one of the ladies who lived there and had a son - absolutely no freedom and pretty much one job in life, to procreate.  It's also quite irksome that the history of the site by English Heritage only mentions men.  

Moving on, lovely views of Amble.  And lovely view of JC taking a snap for his parents - it's the rare time he uses his phone not his camera. ;-)

We drove on up to Craster and walked to Dunstanburgh Castle.  As a trustee of the South West Coast Path I was interested to see the England Coast Path sign.  I'll get onto that one day...

Dunstanburgh

 

Such wonderful, expansive coastline up here.

We dined at The Ship Inn at Low Newton (thanks for the recommendation team Granger) and loved the light over the beach after supper.  

Thursday 11 June 2026

We were staying at Seahouses and had a planned trip, including landing, to the Inner Farnes today.  Unfortunately, there was too much rain forecast so our trip was cancelled and we rescheduled to a 2 hour birds and seals trip.  Although it was disappointing that we couldn't land on the islands to see the puffins up close, it was wonderful to sail past both the inner and outer isles wondering at the amazing wildlife.  Lovely day for a sea trip.

The birds didn't mind the weather either and flew, squawked, soared and swooped as they should.

We saw numerous common guillemots, atlantic puffins, kittiwakes, arctic terns and shags (or were they cormorants?).

The grey seal were also bobbing around.  You can just seen a head appearing in the shot of the Longstone Lighthouse.

The rain passed and we headed to Bamburgh to explore/take photos. What a beautiful castle!

I loved the Black Rocks Point Lighthouse which I found very anthropomorphic with its eyes and nose.  

The rock pools were fantastic to explore.

I did get a tad bored waiting for the photographer to finish his photoshoot so I wandered to and fro to create a little message via Strava.

Friday 12 June 2026

Today was Lindisfarne/Holy Island Day.  We drove across the causeway promptly after breakfast, to have a full day there whilst we were cut off by the tide.  As expected, I got far more excited about this than most people would, as I love a tidal lock-down.

We parked up and went on a long(ish) explore of the island.  We walked up to the neck (west of the image below) and admired the long, windswept sands.

 

It was pretty breezy, but the rain held off and we had a lovely walk around the coastline before heading to Lindisfarne Castle.  

Lindisfarne Castle was a 16th Century fortress, that had served its purpose and became defunct, before being snapped up by Edward Hudson in 1902.  He had it remodelled assisted by the architect Edward Lutyens and gardener Gertrude Jekyll.  

We then visited Lindisfarne Priory, established in 634 AD. It was the home of Cuthbert and continued as a monastery, with the famous Lindisfarne Gospels dating from the early 8th Century. It was dissolved by Henry VII in 1536, became a naval store but fell into ruin. 

It was such a remote and peaceful place to explore, and the last spot on our Northumberland trip before heading south...

Exe Valley Way - Days one and two

When we knew we were moving to Cullompton I unfolded the local maps to study the terrain.  I spotted a trail, the Exe Valley Way, and we agreed it'd be the next walk we did.  Now most of the house downstairs is re-decorated, we are able to chill a bit, and start exploring properly.

Monday 25 May 2026: Exe Head to Withypool - 16.9 km

The Exe Valley Way officially goes from Exford to Starcross, but Exford isn't where the River Exe rises, and we wanted to go all the way from source to sea.  This meant starting with the extension north of Simonsbath and walking a section of the Two Moors Way.

The buses are non-existent around this patch of Exmoor and, as we are blessed with two cars, we parked one at Withypool and the other north of Simonsbath where we started walking.  A bog or two later, we found the source of the River Exe, the trail's namesake, starting high up on Exmoor.  If you look closely, you can see the words "Exe Head" carved into the stone.

It has small, but promising, beginnings.  I suppose that's how we all start out in life.

It was a super hot day so I was in full Vietnam mode - long sleeved blouse, trousers and hat.  We were going to be out long enough to be stupidly burnt if we weren't covered up.  Our route took us through Simonsbath and we arrived as the pub opened, so had a pint of coke before heading further. 

By this stage we'd veered away from the Exe (there are no public rights of way along it) and were hugging the River Barle.  Beautiful.

It was such a lovely walk - sun, water, no crowds and just the odd curious cute dog.

We eventually strolled into Withypool and stopped at the pub for another coke.  Two guys said hi to us - turned out they'd also had a drink in Simonsbath and spotted us again!

Saturday 30 May 2026: Exford to Hawkridge - 16.3 km

Today we started the Exe Valley Way properly.  

Exford is a lovely spot, although the ford now appears to be a bridge.  But renaming itself Exebridge would cause no end of confusion... (see later yet-to-be blog).

Again, another beautiful day and the azaleas/rhododendrons were in full bloom.  Climbing out of Exford, we looked back onto it.

Then it was up onto Room/Road Hills and down into Withypool via a not-terribly-great bullock encounter.  

  

Anyway, I survived (thanks JC!) and we had coffee in Withypool at a cafe with vintage petrol pumps.  34p a gallon.

JC wandered off to take photos of the bridge again.  Ah, yes, the lesser-spotted JC is seen in his natural habitat...

We then deviated from the Exe Valley Way, as its way-marked route was along a road and the Two Moors Way route, along the Barle, was far more enticing.  So enticed we were and had a wonderful walk along the Barle.  The tree trunk was incredibly comfy apparently.

We left the Barle at the ancient clapper bridge of Tarr Steps, which was busy as expected.  Lots of happy squeals from splashing kids.

Then it was a pleasant meadow walk back to Hawkridge.  I do love a long distance walk ;-)