Northumberland in October

I booked a week with Seafield Cottage in Alnmouth early last year. My friend Yvonne and I were going to spend a week there. Yvonne couldn't make it so my mum came with me instead. I can recommend the cottage. We were made very welcome by Jenny Trapp when we arrived. There was a welcome basket of milk, bread, preserves, biscuits, tea and coffee and a bottle of wine to greet us when we arrived. Mum had the double bed and I had the comfortable sofa bed in the lounge. There are several good pubs for eating in the village - The Red Lion being the best. The post office is opposite and is open from 7.30am.

Luckily there is plenty to do in all weathers as it poured on Sunday. I drove to Craster as I was hoping the Shoreline Cafe would be open. I knew they do a good double expresso. It was open and they welcome dogs. Millie the Westie stayed in the car this time but came in later in the week. We then popped into Alnwick and spent a pleasant hour in Barter Books. I think this must be the largest second hand bookshop in the UK. Certainly a good place to be in the rain. There is a cafe there too but we didn't try it out.

On Monday we had a quick walk on the beach at Alnmouth.





We then drove up to Kelso via Wooler (excellent double expresso at the cafe there) and Coldstream. We went into Floors castle which had lovely grounds (pictured below) but decided we were not up to going around the castle. Stopped off at Ford & Etal on the way back.



On Tuesday we met up with Mary and Terry who have been featured previously in this blog. Mum and I met them some years before on a Great Rail journey. We had a lovely lunch at Warkworth golf club which has beautiful views of Coquet island and the coast line.

The rain came back for Wednesday but lifted by ten. We changed our plans and decided to go back to Craster for the walk to Dunstanburgh, lunch in Seahouses and a walk on the beach to Bamburgh.





It was a quick visit to Lindisfarne on Thursday as the tides were not with us this week. We were on the island by 8.45 and off again by 10am. I had to drive to Wooler as we visited the wrong cafe on Lindisfarne - no proper machine and the coffee was terrible.



We enjoyed a lovely walk by the River Aln at Alnmouth when we returned. I had to snap these colourful cottages in Alnmouth.




Finally a trip to Alnwick Gardens on Friday. It was a very misty day but kept dry for us to go around the gardens. Mum had not visited Northumberland before so I had to show her one of my favourite gardens.