A Hello and a Touch of Nostalgia

Hello everyone,
I’m George. I live in a small town on the north east coast of Northumberland, England’s most northerly county. Rather than bore you by talking about me, I thought I would describe one of the many attractions that this part of the UK offers to visitors and to those who are fortunate enough to live here.

Bamburgh Village

Northumberland’s coastline is only about 60 miles long but it has more than its fair share of sandy beaches and small villages. As well as beaches, this short stretch of coast is endowed with no less than five mediaeval castles. This might well be explained by the fact that Northumberland’s northern border divides England from Scotland. A reminder, perhaps, of the long and violent struggles that raged between the two countries before the union of the crowns brought a sometimes uneasy alliance.

Bamburgh Castle

The most dramatic of these wonderful ancient fortresses that line themselves up along the Northumbrian coast is, to my mind, the one which dominates the tiny village of Bamburgh. An awesome sight no matter how many times you see it, this castle appears to have been hewn from the very rock on which it stands by some ancient sculptor of the Gods of war. Its elevated position overlooking the North Sea and the surrounding countryside would have been a beleaguered army’s dream come true, enabling them to repel invaders from both land and sea.

Painting of Bamburgh Castle by R McInnes

Although enchanting to look at, castles such as Bamburgh are not the stuff that fairytales are made of; their primary purpose was to provide a stronghold and place of refuge for their owners and supporters. It is said that walls have ears; if only the walls of Bamburgh Castle could talk, I am sure that the tales that they would tell would be far more gripping than any that a novelist could dream up.

There is, of course, more to Bamburgh than its wonderful castle. Much of the appeal of Bamburgh for me is that it is a personal treasure trove of countless childhood memories. It was a favourite venue of my mother and father and they took me and my sister there as often as they could in the summers of the 1950s. Every trip was something of an adventure as we lived about 40 miles away and cars in those days, especially the ones my father had, were somewhat unreliable.

How well I remember the excitement of playing hide and seek around the castle’s buildings and spending hours making my own castles of sand on the fabulous beach. When the tide is out this beach is a glorious expanse of clean, white sand peppered with deep rock pools which hide an amazing diversity of delights for young naturalists. Crabs, shellfish and unlucky dogfish which have been trapped by the outgoing tide are just some of the creatures that are waiting to be discovered.

Beach at Bamburgh

What Else is There to See?

The village which nestles beneath the towering walls of the castle oozes charm. It would make a splendid setting for the home of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. There are quaint cottages, an “Olde Tea Shoppe” and a couple of typical English pubs where one can relax with a pint of the local brew.

Bamburgh Village and Castle

No visit to Bamburgh would be complete without paying homage to the village’s best known heroine, Grace Darling, daughter of the then keeper of the nearby Longstone lighthouse.

On a fateful night in September, 1838, 22-year-old Grace and her father rowed for more than a mile in a small, open boat, battling gale-force winds and tumultuous seas in a bid to rescue survivors of the shipwrecked SS Forfarshire. Grace and her father succeeded in rescuing nine passengers and crew who were stranded on the rocks where their ship had floundered and sunk.

The news of the rescue won the hearts of the nation and Grace and her father became celebrities. In today’s world their story would have gone viral on social media websites!

The story has a sad ending, however. Grace never fully recovered from the rigors she experienced on that night and died from consumption just four years later. She died in her father’s arms in a little cottage in Bamburgh...

I hope you have enjoyed my short guide to the lovely village of Bamburgh in Northumberland, England. In my next post I hope to introduce you to another of my favourite venues on this coastline, the tiny island with a long causeway, The Holy Island of Lindisfarne.