Scotland and England 5 - 22 June

Wednesday 5 June

Arrived in Newcastle 9:15am after a nice breakfast on board.  Wonderful help leaving the ship from a young DFDS guy (ferry employee).  He took 2 bags, ushering us down stairs, overtaking hundreds of people, leading us straight to the top of the Immigration queue.  Being old has some advantages!

Entering Newcastle harbour

International ferry terminal

Had to wait 30 minutes for Enterprise car, an automatic Ford Fiesta.  David had not taken out insurance to cover 1000 pound charge for any dent, scratch.  (This worried him for some days before he gave in and paid.  He added a scratch to the car but in the end Enterprise did not charge for it.)

We headed north to our B&B in the small village of Norham, stopping at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea for lunch.  It prides itself on the artworks scattered around the town after its badly eroded beach was redeveloped in 2007.

The Couple

Black-headed gulls at Newbiggin

 Not much to see in Norham so we drove to Berwick-on-Tweed where we found much of interest.

Sign en route - fishing is a major preoccupation in Scotland

 Went into the Berwick tourist office and they directed us to the circular route around the ramparts.

  We walked the path for 30 minutes.

Massive earthworks

Barracks 1717

Gunpowder magazine 1750

 Our host  at Abbotsford B & B was very pleasant and helpful with information.
 Back to Norham by 6:30 and did not want to drive any more today, so we ate down the road at the local pub. It was full of people with large dogs and decorated with very long fishing rods on the ceiling.  The food was OK.

Thursday 6 June

Tried to get to Lindisfarne but ran into a road block due a train breakdown en route.  Warned of a one hour wait so we drove north-east to the coast, starting with an exploration of Eyemouth.

Gunsgreen House was built in 1753 by smuggler, John Nisbet, who built the house with a tea chute, vast cellars and hidden spaces to hide his smuggled goods, most often tea.

Herring gull

Cannon on site of fort built in 1547 - no remains to be seen

View of Eyemouth from fort site

North of Eyemouth is St Abbs, a popular place for scuba divers with very clear sea.  It is also popular with seabirds who roost on its 90m cliff.

St Abbs coastline

Roosting site

I think these are all guillemots

Herring gulls and kelp - non-breeding adult on left

We drove to St. Abb's Head National Nature Reserve Visitor Centre building where we enjoyed tasty soup for lunch at Old Smiddy café.

 

This night we took our host’s advice and drove to Swinton for dinner.  The atmosphere and food was distinctly upmarket and good.

Wheatsheaf dining room (from the web)

bar area

Great salmon!

   Friday 7 June 

Headed north-west towards Edinburgh with a slight southerly dip towards Melrose.  Before that, we came to the 1865 imposing viaduct at Leaderfoot, where Leader Water joins the Tweed.

This path was enticing but very short

Hawthorn

Melrose had two attractions for us – the Abbey which we viewed from outsideand Priorwood Garden, very pretty and worth the donation we made.

A few of the lovely flowers

View en route to Ratho

 


Four hours later we reached our Air BnB apartment at Ratho, chosen for public transport access.  It was modern, spotless with large bathroom, small bedroom and tiny kitchen/dining area.

Saturday 8 June

Used Park and Ride to get a very modern tram to Edinburgh.  

Uphill walk from tram

Royal Scottish Academy for contemporary art

St Giles Cathedral founded in 1124 by King David 1

Note unicorn on Mercat Cross in Parliament Square

Overcast as we walked to Scottish Museum.  Free entry and appealing airy feeling from white walls and much natural light.  We were only interested in natural history and started with the excellent activities offered for children. 

Tron Kirk, 1633, is now the focus of Edinburgh’s World Heritage Sites in Old and New Towns.  Inside, visitors are asked to consider the cost of conservation and restoration and to vote on topical issues such as the banning of large coaches in Old Town.

We booked a guided tour of Edinburgh Castle for 2pm.  By then, rain was threatening and drizzle became a constant part of the tour.  Fortunately, our guide, complete with unicorn, had a great sense of humor, spoke very clearly, gave opinions but knew the facts.

Queen Victoria ordered a grand entrance

The portcullis was the 'real' entrance to the castle

Our excellent guide, Jen, invited us to photograph the guard as he walked past

General Haig born 1861 in Edinburgh

Our group was a hardy lot and Jen was very knowledgeable and entertaining

Oldest Edinburgh building in centre - St Margaret's Chapel, 1132

Great Hall 1512 (above and below)

Mons Meg 1449

Cemetery for guards' dogs

Huddled under shelter to watch this!

Preparations for Tattoo - seats in blue area cost 500 pounds!

They had more food than most people

Prisoners' bunks

And it kept raining!  Wet farewell to Edinburgh

Sunday 9 June

Left Ratho 9:50.  No rain!! Walked a little way beside Ullswater en route.

Winding road near Windemere

Detoured to Carnforth to shop at Tesco.  Arrived 4pm at our Arnside apartment which was not easy to find, tucked away in a one-lane road.  Sycamore House was rather grand in lovely wooded grounds with two large ponds.

    
 

Our part was above the double garage with own steep access.  The rooms were spacious, modern, very tastefully decorated.

Guardian on neighboring home

Put on a load of washing but later found that the cycle, including drying, was very long.  Clothes were so wrinkled that I had to iron everything.

Railway viaduct on Kent Estuary

We walked down to the estuary before dinner, quite close, very flat, tide out.

Local farm

Using the induction cooktop involved a battle – much more complicated than ours.

Monday 10 June

 
Walked down to Arnside Promenade to buy toothpaste and check out the town.  The small supermarket, Londis, was quite competitive with Tesco.

We never went into this local pub.

Tide was very low.  Weather overcast but no rain.

After lunch we drove to nearby Silverdale and walked up to The Knott.  Overcast so views not great.

Tuesday 11 June

Drove to Kendal to walk Scout Scar on Underbarrow Road.  4km in very windy 11° but good views and easy walking.

 


Then we went to Grange-on-Sands, the town on the opposite bank of Kent Estuary.  Bigger, more prosperous, more tourists BUT 20p dirty toilets.  Parked for free near smelly large duck pond to eat our sandwiches.  Moved further into town and refused to pay GBP 1.2 to park near The Promenade, which we couldn’t see.

Glad to return to Arnside, park for free, buy wine and retreat ‘home’ for coffee and Bakewell tart. I worked hard on Berlin blog but instead of Publish, I touched something else and lost the lot. Boo hoo!!

Our host, Mike, a lovely chap, came up to show us how to get on to Netflix and we watched Dark Mirror.  Put washing on a 30 min cycle which didn’t finish for 2 hours…

Wednesday 12 June

Overcast. Lazy morning blogging while David dealt with QNC business. 

 Drove to Beetham, looking for a path to Fairy Steps.  Parked outside a block of flats and were told on our return that parking was just for residents – we hadn’t noticed the sign.  Finding a place to park outside posted P areas became a big problem everywhere in UK.

We found a path (probably not THE path) which was obviously seldom used as it became more overgrown until we reached a field.

Walked across farmlands and pastures, bordered by oak woodland. Cool weather but better than yesterday as not windy. 

Came across a complex of barn, turbine and mill, only open to the public Thurs - Sunday.

As the Jeep arrived, sheep came running

We gave up on finding the way to Fairy Steps!

Thursday 13 June

Bad weather so we stayed at home.
 

Friday 14 June

Drove to Trowbarrow nature reserve and disused quarry – lucky find as it was only mentioned in one book our hosts lent us and we just had a long road address, so had to look very carefully to find it.  Quite a small area, only about 2.5km walk but very pretty.

Time for some social history so we visited the nearest place, Holbeck House, and were very pleased we did.  It is owned by the Duke of Devonshire who lives at Chatsworth but a female relative now lives there and runs it (as well as 17 tenanted farms, the local racecourse, a quarry, a caravan park and …).  The guest wing is the only part open to the public and the rooms were beautiful.  

Entrance to the Guest Wing

Leadlights upstairs

Small section of grounds

Tasty soup for lunch at Holbeck House cafe

Saturday 15 June

David drove for 6 hours on the excellent motorways, stopping twice for a break. Arrived at Boots Cottage in Bude at 3:15 after slow progress in rain on M5.  Very pleased with our small annex and greeted with warm scones, jam, cream, coffee.

Cars belong to owners' son - both in working order

Feeling fresh, so we walked down the back garden to the canal, complete with waterlilies, and then up a very steep hill to Marhamchurch (which features an old church – we found a 1616 gravestone).  Signpost said 1.5 miles to Bude and road was quite steep so we turned back home.

Canal at back of Boots Cottage

Marhamchurch - mostly 14th C

Sunday 16 June

Fathers’ Day in UK.  Drove into Bude in rainy conditions and found it packed with people, even those in rain gear carrying boogie boards to the beach.  They’re a hardy lot!  There’s a rack of wetsuits in the local big supermarket and our cottage has a notice asking guests not to wash sandy wetsuits in the shower. 

GCHQ Bude, an international eavesdropping centre

Couldn’t park anywhere tempting so returned, had lunch and set out on a walk towards Widemouth Bay, starting nearby at The Weir (big pond of ducks and geese, upmarket restaurant with kids’playground, petting zoo). 

Canada goose and mallards

  
Walked uphill through a sheep paddock trying to avoid large black poos and up another hill – then rain poured down.  Hasty retreat.  Back at The Weir, sun came out, rain stopped, so we retraced our steps and finally walked to Salt House, along coastal path for a while and then back by an easy track.

Widemouth Bay below fields of spinach

solar farm

Monday 17 June

Dry weather forecast so I hung the washing out and we set forth for Bodmin Moor which seemed to have several walking trails and historic attractions. Google Maps persisted in its attempts to make us take the shortest routes and put us on one-lane very slow roads.  Very frustrating!  We eventually found ourselves at Goliathe (sic) Falls and enjoyed a very pretty, slow walk beside the River Fowey. 

Goliathe Falls

Quite a few people there, all with dogs having a lovely time.

I sent us the wrong way to Minions, an historic area, and we endured even worse road conditions.  A helpful gardener seen en route gave us the right directions and we did get there.  However, Neolithic standing stones are just that and the other ruins were industrial 19^th C.

Steering a bull after feeding it an icecream at Minions

So we then headed for the coast and Tintagel of wrongful King Arthur claims, though an ancient castle in ruins still exists.  BUT access is not possible now as a new bridge to the castle island is a work in progress.  On the bright side, we didn’t have to pay except for parking and got lots of exercise walking up and down a very steep road to view the island and its cove protected from Atlantic swells.

Tintagel

Walk down to Info Centre and cove

Ignored Google maps enroute and home, sticking to 2 lane roads.

Tuesday 18 June

Doc Martin's house and surgery 4th from right

Port Isaac of Doc Martin fame was our first stop and we got there early before the crowds. Very cute as the TV show suggests and people were filming when we arrived. 

used as pharmacy in TV show

 spoiled by smudge on lens

Drove much further south to Penzance which is another old town, much bigger than a village, with old pubs reputed to be smugglers’ haunts having secret tunnels down to the harbour.

 Built in 1233, the Turks Head is the oldest pub in Penzance, as well as one of the oldest in Cornwall and all of the UK.

Its name has a fairly bloodthirsty origin, named for when the Turks invaded the city during the Crusades. You can use your imagination to figure what the locals’ preferred way of dealing with them was.

Unfortunately, much of the pub burnt down in the 16th century and was rebuilt. However, there are still some fascinating glimpses of the past which can be found in the cellar.

My favourite part of the Turks Head is the smuggling passage that can be found between the pub and the harbour. Well, they didn’t call it the Pirates of Penzance for nothing.

Interestingly, the Turks Head has some more modern claims to fame. In the 19th century, a young boy named Thomas Holloway grew up in the pub. He would go on to be a pioneer of women’s education, opening a university college for women to study courses previously unavailable to them, such as medicine.  (Journey with Georgie.com)

16th C The Dolphin Tavern

17th C Admiral Benbow

Finally, we tried to see the harbour at St Ives but the crowds made it impossible to decide whether it was worth the trouble, so we went home.

Wednesday 19 June

Drove out trying to find a parking spot near the Coastal Path and ended up in a similar spot to that on Sunday.  Easy pleasant walk. After lunch, we parked in Bude and walked the Maer Cliff trail, just 3.4 km but very enjoyable.

Walk down to Bude from Maer Cliff

Bude sea pool and beach

Thursday 20 June

Enjoyed our 3 hours at Tamar Otter & Wildlife Centre.  Only light rain this day.  Saw many otters and watched them being fed.  The keepers have a great attitude to conservation - breed, then release where possible.  Many otters and birds were brought here as orphans. 

Two families of Asian short-clawed otters; feeding time below

British otters - 7 yr old male on left, 17 yr old female

 The male was an orphan in poor condition.  He is not yet mature, is just learning to swim and is given rump steak instead of fish for more nutrition.  Female otters always dominate the bigger males, attacking them as much as needed to get submission.

This serval lives with her shy sister

One of 3 Siberian chipmunks, size of a rat

The bird of prey talk was great – more informative than many others we’ve seen and anyone had a chance to touch or hold the birds.

European kestrel above and below.  She killed a peahen which annoyed her.

Eurasian horned owl

Harris hawk, smartest bird here - untied knots

Full of red-necked wallabies, roaming freely in the large enclosure, looking very much at home and healthy.  Also Siberian chipmunks, meerkats, a beautiful serval, deer, Gouldian finches, Japanese quail …  Nice tearoom where we ate Cornish pasties and watched wild birds come to the feeders outside.

Drove to nearby Launceston where we walked up a Norman (12^th C) tower.  Very windy and I didn’t enjoy the climb.

Friday 21 June

At last we discovered the easy walk to Bude along the canal and it was a fine, sunny day.  Perfect!

Lock

Duck down or not

Evil eye on an eel

We went 8km down to the beach, past the Friday market, and everywhere we saw schoolkids exercising, mostly in canoes. 

Bude has an International Adventure School with accommodation where kids from anywhere can learn to abseil, walk ropes, canoe, surf, kayak…  Very impressive.

Lunch at home.  Drove to Boscastle, less than 20km, but held up by roadworks on the main road and having to reverse 100m on a narrow road to let a ridiculously large tourist bus pass.  Once there, we faced the same tourist problem which sent us back from St Ives – crowds.  I refused to pay for parking when we couldn’t even get close enough to see the harbour.  David had planned a walk starting out of the town but again no parking space and very steep country. 

Back home to pack for moving on tomorrow after a pleasant dinner at The Weir, which was short-staffed and led to a 45-minute wait for food.  Staff were apologetic.

Saturday 22 June

Drove from Bude to Ringwood and shopped there before looking for our booked accommodation.  This proved very difficult as David relied on some GPS info to get there.  We found ourselves in Verwood, a round trip of 9.2 miles from Ringwood.  A helpful guy who had never heard of Mockbeggar used his phone to find that it was quite near Ringwood in another direction.  When we found the street, we still needed help to locate the actual house.

It turned out to be ‘The Annex’ on a large block including a big modern house and the grandest tool shed I’d ever seen.  Cars there included a Discovery, Audi and Mercedes.The owners were very friendly and helpful.

Shed in background; The Annex on right

The Annex was advertised as a B & B with small kitchen, lounge area …  The kitchen had a microwave and benchtop oven but no cooktop, so I had to ask for a casserole dish to cook the meal I’d planned.

We walked in surrounding streets looking for a trail but didn’t find one.  The houses were all backed by farm or woodland, a nice area.

Sunday 23 June

Made the most of our one full day in New Forest, starting with an 8 km walk at Bolderwood, then a good roast lunch at a pub in Ringwood, a 4.6 km walk near Linwood and a short 2 km walk near Blashford Bird Hide.

Rhododendron

Ringwood shopping area

Ringwood Pub 1703

Sunshine and Sundays lead to family fun in England and we were delighted to find this area, complete with icecream van.

 

Kids were sliding down this sand dune

 

Pretty!!

Scaup

Juvenile black-headed gulls

Pestering their parent for food

Monday 24 June

Left Mockbeggar at 9 and set out for British Wildlife Park, as the best way of filling in time.  Found out that it is not open on Mondays, in common with many other options.   Fixed on Horsham as a destination, some 30km out of the way, but offering a well reviewed local museum, free entry.  We were very pleased with the social history displayed, from clothing to archaeology to farm machinery …

Pottery figures showing country crafts - cobbler, wheelwright, potter, trugmaker, saddler. Alan Lanchbury, 1973-74

Garden in museum

Alfred Stubbs, a very impressive athlete

David took the car back to Gatwick, no charge for a scratch he admitted to.  It was 30 minutes from Gainsborough Lodge but he walked 50 minutes after a wrong turn.  However, he was in good spirits after driving around in difficult conditions for 19 days. 
Walked into Horley to buy dinner but nothing appealed so we returned to have the last of our snacks and wine in our small comfortable room.
Easy trip to Gatwick next morning via cheap airport transfer.  Uneventful flight home, though Cathay premium economy seating offers little more than straight economy and a much longer walk to toilets.