Today we all went up the coast to Holy Island. I’ve been once before for a weekend Viking ‘event’ and the place was heaving and I didn’t get chance to get to the castle. Today was a little quieter and we managed a nice wander around the priory and then walked along to the castle. As ever, no dogs allowed in so the family went in while I pottered with the dog and then we swapped over. It’s a nice little castle with lovely views. The rooms, although small, looked like they would be rather cosy with a good fire going!
Some pics…
And seeing as we were then only 9 miles from Berwick it seemed daft not to pop in. I’ve only been to Berwick twice. Once to help with some surveying in my early archaeology days and a couple of years ago trying (unsuccessfully) to find somewhere decent to eat on a Sunday night when travelling back from Scotland. Was most impressed to find free parking so we then set off to walk around the outside of the walls and more by luck than judgement stumbled across Berwick Barracks. It was dead quiet there (we arrived at 4pm) but the chap running the shop was very chatty and helpful. There are three museums there. One focusing on the town itself (which I was less impressed with), the King’s Own Scottish Borderers regimental museum (which was excellent!) and finally the By The Beat of the Drum exhibition. This latter looked at the development of the British infantryman from the time of the Armada to the late 20th Century. The highlight for me was in the C18th room where a display cabinet housed a battalion on parade. In 25mm figures. With what looked like Hinchliffe X Range AWI by Steve Hezlewood. I only had my phone with me and the light was not up to much but…
They look like the figures to me. I had a chat with the guy looking after the regimental museum and he thinks the exhibit was done over 25 years ago and the figures done by Derek Sharman, who still runs tours of Berwick walls. Anyway, always good to see some nice figures. And if they ever get rid of them there’ a good few units there! Even better was that you could take dogs into the museums as well!
Berwick is a delight in terms of the military museums (Coldstream not far away either with a small regimental museum too).
Thanks for the post, I too like the places you have been. Did you visit the Elizabethan defences too?