Alnwick Gardens and Dunstanburgh Castle

Gentleman farmer

So, the weatherman said it would be an OK day – some sunshine with showers and wind.  We expected a grey day when we woke up, but know we had deep blue sky and sunshine.  Hurray.  As it was looking good, we thought we would have an outdoor day and go and visit Alnwick Gardens which were recommended to us by Evie’s mum at school.  We got there as they opened to find they were £12.95 for us to enter – wow, my old guide book said £4.  We did wonder for a moment whether it would be worth it, but as we didn’t have any other plan we decided to bite the bullet and pay up.  We are sooooooooo glad we did – they were amazing gardens and well worth the admission price.

Fountains

Dancing squirrels

As we walked in we were confronted by a huge cascade of water and fountains darting this way and that.  Amazing in their own right, but there were lots more gems to find.  First of all Tom had a play on some John Deere pedal tractors which were located below the cascades (he couldn’t believe his eyes and was very very happy!) We then walked to the top of the cascades, Tom thought about darting under some jets but thought better of it when I explained we didn’t have any replacement dry clothes for him.  We then found ourselves in the Serpent Garden which must have had the best part of 10 water sculptures: water running down, across, up, in funny shapes, you name it, there was a water sculpture to fit and it was fun for us as well as Tom to play with them and work out what they were doing.  

In the bamboo maze

Next was a bamboo labyrinth where Tom and I got parted from Matt and had to wait ages for him in the centre (he said he had been and gone and only came back because he wondered where we were – do we believe him?...)  This brought us out at the tearooms, well it would be rude to ignore them so we had elevenses with the customary 2 cakes between the 3 of us (going to miss this when we are back to the old routine), then Tom shot off to play on the tractors again – this time collecting water in his bucket, transporting it and dumping it on the ground, all the children were doing the same, it looked great fun.

Tom Hood

We then went on a fairytale adventure.  Tom had a quiz to fill out which started at one of the buildings.  There we met Sebastian Sap who asked Tom if he wanted to be a fairytale character, he did and ended up dressed as Robin Hood, complete with felt hat with a bright yellow feather in it.  We had to go round the gardens and find the answers to the questions, and were helped by many people dressed in costume who pointed us in the right direction (just as well as I didn’t get some of the references to some of the fairy tales.  It was very well done and the costumes were great – we even saw the wicked witch with her basked of red apples (we gave her a wide berth).  Tom wouldn’t let me kiss the frog prince though (not sure why?).  

Lovely meadow

The quiz took us around the edge of the gardens, all of which were very very beautiful.  I don’t think there was a leaf out of place even in the wild meadowy bit!  The quiz took us to a craft hut where Tom wanted to do the activity (really?)  The theme was Jack and the Beanstalk and the activity was to draw, cut out and decorate a castle, attach it to a stick and decorate a pot ready for planting a bean seed.  Very apt considering Tom brought home a bean plant from school last week: his homework was to look after it and write a diary of how it grows – we brought it with us in the car, but unfortunately, even though we looked after it as well as we could, putting it in the sun and watering it, it turned black and died!  Oops!  Maybe we should try again with this new pot and stick?

It's hard work playing so hard!

By now it was 1.30 and tummies were rumbling so we went back to the tearooms and got ourselves some lunch.  Once Tom had finished he was off …yep those John Deere tractors were luring him again.   Once he had had his fill, we queued up for a tour around the poison garden where we learnt lots of grizzly ways to die by sniffing, touching or eating various plants.

Tom then had another play on the tractors before we left.  On our way back to the car we went to check out the Tree House which we had been told was amazing -  it was amazing – reminded me a bit of Gaudi / Ghibli architecture.  There were no straight lines, and looked very very cool.  It houses a restaurant, maybe next time we are here we should try it.

Amazing Tree House

Castle Entrance

We had decided at this point to head to Dunstanburgh Castle, a ruined castle on the coast not far from Alnwick.  We got ourselves to Craster and then walked to the castle.  We didn’t realise how stiff a walk it would be: it was 5 miles there and back and the wind was blowing a gale.  Now a year ago, Tom wouldn’t have stayed the course with the wind, but he did really well today only complaining once – phew.  It was a big old castle, not much of it remains today, but the outer walls are still there and some of the entrance towers.  Enough to clamber about.  I didn't get to find out much about it apart from the fact it was built by the Earl of Lancaster and he didn’t get on with King.  It was in a stunning location, in the middle of no-where.  No buildings / farms even on the horizon, which is quite unusual for a castle I think.

We had a good old clamber and then walked back to Craster in the buffeting wind.  We got back to the village at 5 and hoped that there would be a pub or restaurant open and taking orders (having got caught out before).  The first place we tried didn’t open until 6.30 – arggggh.  Luckily there was a pub, The Jolly Seaman which was open and taking orders from 5.30 phew.  We made ourselves comfortable and ordered burgers (Matt and I) and cheesy pasta for Tom.  All was of high quality.  When the waitress asked if we wanted pudding Matt and I chorused ‘No’ just as Tom said ‘Yes!’.  Oh well, he had walked well and ate up quickly so we relented and ordered something called a Banoffee Pot – wow, it was evil but so so good (bottom layer of biscuit, then caramel, then bananas, then caramel moose sprinkled in chocolate) and anyway we deserved it after a very active day.

Castle ruins

We then headed home.  A great day, and although it was windy it wasn’t cold and we had sunshine for most of the day which was great.  Think we all got a bit wind burnt!