Bears? Who Needs Bears When You Have Bamburgh?

We were camping just a few miles outside Bamburgh, so under a gloriously sunny sky, we cycled to the castle. Bamburgh is owned by the same family as Cragside and they were a forward thinking, enterprising family always at the leading edge of technological, scientific and social invention. Apart from hydroelectricity, the Armstrongs’ were involved in airships, aviation, armaments, shipping and renewable energy and were generous philanthropic benefactors.

The small castle museum highlighting the aviation, shipping and engineering feats of Armstrong Whitworth and its subsequent incarnations as Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Vickers-Armstrong was the most interesting indoor exhibit. The castle rooms were ok but far too much porcelain for our liking, how many dinner services does a castle need! Seeing all those plates gave me a sense of deja-vu, when my parents moved house after 30+ years in same house, every box marked ‘kitchen’ that me and my sisters unpacked contained plates, I swear we counted over 70 plates! We couldn’t find a mug to make tea in as every bloody box contained plates, dinner plates, tea plates, side plates, picnic plates, you name the occasion there was a plate for it. To cap it off my parents had stayed with us for a couple of weeks before they could move into their new home and Mum had bought some new plates for the new house!

Bamburgh’ s magnificence isn’t to be found in their plates, but in the setting and we couldn’t have had a better day to climb down the dunes, onto the vast beach and walk. The sun shone, there were amazing cloud formations, it was warm and still. Enjoy…

From Bamburgh, we cycled along the coast to Seahouses and onto Beadnell, where Charlie had a fab bacon,Brie and cranberry panini and I had the most disappointing crab sandwich ever…. which was a shame as they were landing the crab just down the road at Seahouses.

We cycled back to our campsite via a scenic inland route and later that evening, we walked through the dark lanes to a lovely little restaurant (highly recommended) called The Potted Lobster. As everything closes at 10, we walked back slowly taking advantage of the dark skies to star spot.