(Adam’s write-up):  We first visited Alnwick Castle in Northumbria (NE66 1NQ)

This castle is now most famous as the site (both exterior shots and interior) for the Hogwarts School of Harry Potter fame.

Alnwick Castle is the home of the Percy family (currently owned by the 12th Duke of Northumberland) and has been in their possession for more than 700 years. Alnwick (pronounced “annick”) is the 2nd largest inhabited castle in England (after Windsor).

The place is lavishly furnished. They provided us access to one floor of the castle. It was strange to see 16th century paintings by Tintoretto and Titian next to family photos of weddings and reunions taken just a few years ago. If you had to be born to the ruling class, this seems like the way to go about it properly. No photos were allowed within the residence, but they did have enough things to do out of doors to keep the kids entertained – including a falconry show, lessons on how to ride a Quidditch broomstick, a dungeon and several smallish museums that were parts of the private collections of previous Earls and Dukes of Northumberland through the years.

(Brenda’s write-up):  It is rather difficult to recognize this castle as the setting for Hogwarts.  In the films, the castle has been so heavily CGIed that it doesn’t look much like the real thing anymore.  Nevertheless, it is a very neat castle and has a long, famous history beyond it’s use in Harry Potter.

It said at the castle that it is possible one of the Percy ancestors (prior to living in the castle) was the true author of the epic poem Beowulf.  Henry Percy — better known by the name given to him by his enemies due to the eagerness with which he would ride into battle: Harry ‘Hotspur’ — was one of Shakespeare’s most famous characters in Henry IV, Part 1.

My favorite story, though, was of one of the Percy men slaying a dragon.  According to him, he fought the beast and kept wounding it, but the dragon would fly back to a lake and dip it’s tail in.  The regenerative power of the magic lake healed the dragon’s wounds.  Percy, being the brilliant tactician that he was, managed to position himself between the magic lake and the dragon, preventing the dragon from being able to regenerate himself.  That being done, Percy made quick work of the dragon and killed it without further ado.  He swears ’tis true.  

As far as we can tell, the falconry field is the Quidditch Field.  Here you can see (barely) a hawk grabbing a hunk of meat at the end of a nylon line.

The statues at the top of the castle had a purpose; they were supposed to look like intimidating armed soldiers to any would-be bad guys approaching by sea.  They were basically human scarecrows, and apparently they worked really well.

Holden and Josie sitting with a fake soldier.   He was keeping watch, making sure nobody sketchy got too close to the castle.

Holden and Josie on the catwalk, watching the amateur archery competition in progress down below.

(Adam’s write-up):  After lunch, we drove over to the seaside down of Craster (NE66 3TW). Our original plan was to drive from Craster down the coast back towards our house and just see what we see. However, just north of Craster was the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle. We almost didn’t visit and that would have been a shame. This was easily the highlight of the day.

To get to Dunstanburgh Castle, you have to make almost a 2 mile walk (each way) from the nearest parking. The views were gorgeous – the ocean on our right and fields of sheep and cows to our left.

By the time we arrived at the castle a fog moved rapidly moved in and limited our visibility beyond 50 feet. It gave the place a creepy, isolated feel that accentuated the scary aspects of the ruins. The kids just loved the place – they could climb anywhere they pleased and run about exploring the grounds.

Dunstanburgh Castle is thick with history – erected in 1313, and it played prominent roles in several wars against Scotland as well as several battles during the War of the Roses. By the mid-1700’s, the castles purpose and history were behind it and it was left alone for the next several hundred years.

(Brenda’s comments):  The beginning of a new era … Isabella is now 2 1/2 inches taller than I am (at last measure) and it shows in all the photos.  I’m being overshadowed.  Literally.

When we started the hike, we had a fantastic view of the castle off in the distance.  Within minutes, a fog rolled in and completely obscured it.  It’s amazing how utterly disappeared it was, and hard to convey how otherworldly the experience felt.

When Isabella was three years old, a barista at Starbucks gave her a tiny sheep finger puppet.  Isabella loved that thing and took it everywhere for years.  She called it Baby Meep.  This is lambing season, and there are baby meeps in every field as far as the eye can see.

We finally got close enough to see the outline through the fog.

The kids loved this castle.  They all three declared it’s the best castle we’ve ever been to, owing to the fact that it’s in ruins and the proprietors don’t care if you climb everywhere.  There are lots of climbing spots here.

Josie loves this photo because Adam didn’t get the floor in the frame.  She’s only about 15 inches off the ground, but it looks like she’s scaled the castle walls in an epic Laura Croft-style adventure.

Under different circumstances, this would have been a spectacular view of the ocean.  The fog was so thick we couldn’t see it, but could hear it very well.  It was an eerie sensation.

Leaving the main building and heading over to the cliff where they had another lookout tower and gate house.

It really is built onto the side of a cliff.  It said the area facing the ocean was at one time filled in enough to flood with water, which reflected the imposing tower and looked freaky from an ocean perspective.  They were all about scaring away seafaring bad guys.

Starting the 2 mile hike back to the car.  The castle is quickly becoming ghosty….

… and then nearly completely gone.

Stopping on the way back to inspect tide pools.  Josie is dumping sand out of her shoe.

Wouldn’t you know it, the fog begins to lift as we leave.

Absolutely stunning views.  This is one of the most fun hiking/walking experiences we’ve ever had.

 

Yesterday at Beamish, Josie bought a little handmade brass pig.  It’s about the size of an acorn and she spent £2.99 of her own money on it.  She wanted it to be her lucky pig, much the same way people will have a lucky coin.  It appears that her “lucky” pig is the first casualty of the trip.  That thing is gone.  We spent forever this evening scouring through the house looking for it, including me out searching the car in my pajamas at 10:00 p.m.  We’ll have another look tomorrow morning while we’re packing up to leave, but I’m not very optimistic about finding it.  I have a feeling it fell out of her pocket while she was climbing castle walls or chasing baby meeps through the fields.  It’s also possible that it’s in a tide pool somewhere.

Tomorrow morning we head back to Edinburgh.  We’ll be spending at least two weeks in Scotland and possibly going from there to Ireland.  This may well be our last day in England for quite some time.