Saturday – Warkworth Castle and an Amble in Amble

We awoke Saturday morning to beautiful clear skies and very pleasant temperatures.  After Elaine’s morning walk up to Dunstanburgh Castle while I did a shorter walk around Craster Harbor and posted the blog for yesterday, we set out in Pierre Peugeot for some sightseeing.

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Having spent a week here last year, you’d think we would have seen everything close by.  Not so, and we have several destinations in mind for this week.  Our first stop today was at Warkworth Castle run not by the National Trust, but a sister organization called English Heritage.  Alas, we are not members, so we had to fork out £5.60 each for admission.  We were the second people to enter the castle when the doors opened at 10:00 AM

Started in 1149, Warkworth Castle became the home of Roger fitz Eustace and later of the powerful Percy Family.  Part of its importance lies in its role as the chief residence of the powerful Percy family in the late Middle Ages, as well as the exceptional architectural quality of its late 14th-century great tower.

Warkworth was, in the late Middle Ages, the main residence of the Percy family, the Earls and later Dukes of Northumberland, one of the most powerful families in northern England, particularly in the border area with Scotland. While Alnwick Castle, which they bought in 1309, boasted large estates and greater prestige, Warkworth was their favorite residence.  (The Percy’s still reside at Alnwick Castle, which we visited last year, headed now by Ralph Percy, the 12th Duke of Northumberland.)

As the Percys played an important role in the life of the court, the castle was the setting for historically significant events. These included, in the early 15th century, the conspiracy by the 1st Earl of Northumberland and his son, known as Harry Hotspur, to depose Henry IV.  Even after the castle later fell into decline, it was still sufficiently celebrated to be used by William Shakespeare as the setting for several scenes of his Henry IV plays, written in 1597.

Upon Leaving Warkworth, we drove just three miles down the road to a town called Amble.  It’s a pleasant enough town, crowded with visitors for the weekly boot sale (rummage sale), but it has a forlorn air of a spot past its prime.  We just missed the Amble Puffin Festival by a week (Sorry, Debbie Wicks!), walked (ambled in Amble) amongst the endless vendors at the boot sale, stopped at the Northumberland Seafood Center for a look at their breeding program for European lobsters (almost microscopic in size as they begin their life), and ventured out and back on the L-shaped breakwater.  The lasting memory was of the microscopic baby lobsters, one of 20,000 of which will grow to maturity.  We passed on an hour boat ride round Coquet Island to view puffins as we had seen thousands of them last year on the Farne Islands near here.

Then we went another eight miles down the road for a stop at Druridge Bay Country Park for our picnic lunch – sandwiches, chips, and beverage of choice (Diet Coke or water) under still sunny skies by the water.    After lunch we took an alternate route back to Craster through Boulmer, the home of a large RAF Boulmer Base.  We may be back to Boulmer for a lunch someday soon.  By the time we were back in Craster, the fog rolled in and you could just see the ocean from our cottage, Craster Rocks.

After a nap, the fog had lifted in plenty of time for drinks on the small front deck.  Dinner tonight was at home prepared by Chef Elaine: Chicken Tiki Marsala (or is it Tikka Marsala – seen it both ways) with green beans and bread.  (We must buy some naan for the leftovers!)  Wine was New Zealand Oyster Bay Pinot Noir.

Night, night!