Sunday 6 March 2022

Exploring :: Northumberland #6 ... Heading for Berwick-upon-Tweed, via Spittal

Hi there everyone 😀

On one level it feels more than a little frivolous to be writing about holiday adventures and daily trivia whilst things are so terrible for so many people across the world right now. On another it feels important to keep on going with normal everyday stuff. 

It appears lots of bloggers are feeling the same way and I’ve seen lots of feedback, from readers, of an appreciation for the chance to escape what has become the absolute tragedy we are seeing, reading and hearing about constantly at the moment … if only just for a few minutes … in favour of something which is a little less horrific and may even provide a little comfort and sense of normality. 

It’s with this in mind I have decided to try and continue posting as normal for the time being …

It was Thursday, the last full day of our winter break in Northumberland with our good friends Lesley and Tom. We were back up to full strength, the weather forecast was good and we were ready to make the most of our last day.

Although I’ve been to Northumberland a few times I’ve never actually visited Berwick-uponTweed and it was somewhere I that was definitely on my agenda for this trip. I’d done a bit of research and was really looking forward to exploring somewhere new.

Lesley had also been on Google and suggested we stop at Spittal beach on the way. I’d never heard of it but it was just our side of the estuary so was definitely up for it … after all, it was on the coast, it was bound to be worth a look.

It was a bit of drive from Seahouses but we were soon parked up in the car park just off Spittal beach, and directly across the estuary from Berwick ...

We immediately knew that, whatever else we did when we got to Berwick, we were definitely going to be having to have a walk out to the lighthouse ...
I don't think I've ever seen a pier out to a lighthouse quite so long ...

That would all be for later ... but first ... Spittal. It really was a bright and breezy day, with a really cold wind but, as always, we were dressed for the weather and headed along the footpath which would take us to the promenade ...

There were was plenty of evidence of the aftermath of Storms Arwen and Barra, with bulldozers working to shift all the sand that had been blown up from the beach ...

You can make out the piles ready for returning to the beach at the bottom of the above photo. Lesley and I were both fascinated by the almost identical lawns on the row of cottages looking out onto the beach.

Whilst very open to the elements it was a lovely wide promenade ... with great views across the beach ...

... where there were some very hardy people actually braving a swim ...

... and back across to Berwick ...

It was easy to see how much sand had actually already been shifted back onto the beach, and from talking to some of the workers, we found out that more machinery would be brought in to spread it further away from the promenade wall ...
We walked pretty much all the way along the prom ...

... before deciding to head back along the beach ... towards Berwick ...

It wasn't long before we all had our heads well down ... hunting out pretty pieces of seaglass ... finding plenty of bits worthy of bending down and picking up ...
Before we knew it we were pretty much back where we started ...

It was time to head across the bridge and into Berwick ... but I think I'm going to have to tell you about the rest of our next in my next post 😀

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8 comments:

  1. Spittal Beach is one of my 'happy' places - we have had such joyous holidays in Northumberland over the years.
    I know what you mean about the frivolity of normal blogging equally the need to maintain a normality.

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    1. I can certainly understand why it would be one of your happy places Kate. We loved it … just dead simple … but lovely 😃

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  2. I love the sea glass!
    I think we should carry on blogging. It's a tonic to hear about nice things ( like your trip) in times like these, when we feel so helpless. X

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    1. Thank you. I agree … reading others’ positive posts gives a few moments of welcome escapism at the moment. I put the sea glass in a glass jar with some twinkly lights … it looks really pretty and is a lovely reminder of a lovely day 😃

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  3. Another lovely post & I love exploring with you. My paternal side has links with Northumberland, but more of the west around Alston. Please keep blogging & try & spur me on too. Take care & hugs.

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    1. Thank you Susan. We certainly do have some lovely places in this country, especially around our coastline. Northumberland is certainly something special. You take care too 💜

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  4. You really do take a lovely photograph! B

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    1. Thank you… though I can’t take credit for all of these, a lot were taken by Lesley, who does have a very good eye for a great perspective 😃

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Thanks for taking time to comment on my blog. I love to hear what people think about what Martin and I have been up to.