An incredible tour down to England to first visit the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. This Island is only accessible when the tide is out, so we opted to book a bus tour because trying to plan all the busses and timing of the tides was just too much. There was a big log jam up because one person was scared to cross the causeway as there were sprays of water still gushing across, but it wasn’t a big deal and you’ve got to just take the opportunity when you get it. People had to get out of their cars and go talk to the person to give them reassurance that it was fine. Finally, we made it!
Lindisfarne is the monastery that was famously plundered by Norse raiders as they came a-Viking (as it is called). A place where some of our ancestors sacked our other ancestors. It’s a place I have read a lot about and seen tv depictions of, so to see it person was both thrilling and chilling. We first walked out to the castle that was built after the monastery was sacked, and it was a place of fierce cold and winds so strong we didn’t do the full walk up, I thought I would blow away into the sea! From that vantage point, you could see Bamburgh Castle across the way, which will be another stop on our journey. We got some cool photos.
You can see all the water on the causeway as the tide had just gone out. A whole lineup of traffic was in front of and behind us.
See the sticks in the ground? This is the pilgrimage walk, The Walk of St. Cuthbert, and if I understood the guide correctly, these are also there for people who make this walk to grab onto if the tide comes in. I didn’t get a photo, but there was one that had a little stand with a tiny wooden hut (like a deer stand) that you could climb up into and hideout in to wait out the waves.
You can just see Bamburgh Castle way off in the distance to the right go Lindisfarne Castle on the left.
The winds here were pretty frightening! We decided to just snap a pic and head to the monastery ruins since there is apparently nothing in the castle and we only had an hour to explore this whole area.
Since we had only an hour & 15 here, we had to hustle back down into the town in order to see the ruins of the monastery.
Monasteries are often also breweries, so the town seems to be carrying on the tradition with locally made wines, gins and meads. I loved the label on this gin! They also had a cool depiction of Odin that I had to snap.
This was the most charming little walk among cherry trees where they had loads of romantic swinging benches. We took a lovely stroll and imagined what this must look like in spring when all the cherry blossoms are blooming!
Here we are on the ramparts of castle watching people pretending they are playing Quidditch from Harry Potter.
These ancient and amazing Cedar trees I’ve never seen their like! They were immense!
Here’s the Quidditch class with some very exuberant actors leading the group.
All these narrow and very steep-stepped passageways that I can barely climb!
A view from the ornamental garden with one of the many water features.
Me geeking out about being at Hogwart’s! This is the spot where many of the scenes from Harry Potter were filmed so I had to get a shot of me standing in this iconic spot!
Here’s the locked Poison Garden that you can only tour with a guide. They advise you not to touch or sniff anything in this garden as some of the plants are so poisonous. And some I’ve got going in my own garden at home (some poisonous species are actually quite popular as garden plants, so especially if you’ve got pets or kids, make sure of what you are planting.)
My photos keep loading all out of order, but you get the idea. It was really cool to see this garden and our guide was great.
Next we had a brief stop off at Hirsel Estate to see if we could spot some Hairy Coos, Scotland’s famous hairy cows, but they had moved their herd. But we got to see a beautiful adult swan, its two sygnets and some cute ducks, all very friendly and obviously used to people. We got a couple of lattes and I picked up a Heather Lip Balm and Avocado & Aloe lotion at the sweet little Homestead Café Farm Shop. I would love to run a little shop like that one.
Back to Edinburgh, we saw a guy with what we think is a golden eagle, and then we supped at a cool little pub called The Ensign Ewart. John enjoyed a new kind of haggis: haggis scotch egg sandwich and I had a delicious carrot & coriander soup with a Scottish Brie, bacon and apple tomato chutney sandwich.
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