End of the Journey (North UK Series 3 of 3)

Posted on by nicole

Now that we’ve completed the North Coast 500 route we started to make our way back home towards London.

This post starts from Inverness heading back towards London. Check out our other posts on the journey north to the NC500 and the NC500 route.

In the two weeks we took to get back south to London we visited the following places:

Day 1: Inverness to Aberdeenshire

From Inverness we made our way to Aberdeenshire. We had plans to stop at a few places before heading to our accommodation however the weather was (once again) not great. We ended up only making one stop – at Huntly Castle – before calling it a day.

Huntly Castle is a ruined castle and was owned by the mighty Gordons. This site has had a castle on it since the 1100s – starting with a motte and bailey, then a tower house of the later Middle Ages, and finally to a stately stone palace of the Jacobean era.

There’s a decent amount of structure left on site which gives you a good idea of the castle years ago. Plus, based on the features remaining, you can really picture the castle as a grand structure with very “showy” features inside and outside. This showiness starts with the inscription along the roofline proclaiming ownership of the castle by the Gordons, to the carvings over the front door clearly showcasing their religious alliance. Inside the castle you can still see the grandness of the fireplace carvings – including one with carvings of themselves!

There’s lots to walk through and explore as you imagine the castle in the height of it’s days. The castle is definitely worth a visit!

Day 2: Aberdeenshire

We started the day with a visit to Balmoral Castle. The guided tours had only recently started again for the year, so we were lucky to be able to visit in early October (the winter season doesn’t usually start until later in the month). We had wanted to visit yesterday during our drive from Inverness but the tours were fully booked for the day – we would recommend booking in advanced to make sure you get the day and time you want.

The tour starts by taking you to the stable and car garage area. There is a building that has an exhibit with history about the castle and the royal family – including a wall full of pictures from the Queen’s Christmas cards since 1952!

From the exhibit we explore the castle grounds, seeing the old ballroom as well as the venison and mutton larder (complete with deer carcases being loaded into a van – remember this is a working estate and you never know what you might see). After the larders we continued to the front of the castle, the guide pointed out features and stories of the castle. We then walked around the side and got to enter the ballroom. The ballroom contained various displays with artefacts from within the castle.

The tour was very good and very informative. We were quite surprised with how open the grounds are to explore. We were told we could freely explore the grounds before and after the tour. There’s a lovely garden area to explore, or you can walk around the river, or through the fields to explore the great landscape.

After Balmoral we were planning to see a few more castles. Unfortunately, a large number of castles in the area were fully closed due to covid – a few were open for visits inside the castle, and a few others allowed visits to the grounds only. We decided to visit a few of the castle grounds to at least see some more castles (we would prefer to go inside, but outside is better than nothing).

From Balmoral Castle we headed to the nearby Braemar Castle. This castle is a very unusual design. There is a short wall around the castle, but it is right up next to the tower building. And the mini turrets look stuck onto the side of the exterior walls. I would really like to see the castle on the inside and hope to return to visit once it opens.

After Braemar Castle we made our way to Craigievar Castle – the pink castle. Again, this was an unusual castle design. First of all, the castle is pink (which I quite like) – it sure stands out in the green surroundings. The castle doesn’t have a huge floor space, but it is super tall – seven stories tall. The castle was only originally four stories, but they added the extra few over the years. If you look at the pictures you can see where the original roof line was! The other standout feature of the castle was the windows. They seem to be randomly placed and some are very small. We found out (thanks to the information board outside the castle) that a number of windows were filled in to reduce the amount of window tax due. Again, can’t wait to return to see the the inside!

Day 3: Aberdeenshire to Fife

We had a bit of a drive today as we make our way south, but we planned to visit two castles. Firstly, we stopped at Crathes Castle. Tickets to the castle and garden can be purchased on the day in the shop. When you get your tickets you will be given an entry time to go into the castle.

You get to explore quite a bit of the castle, including several rooms with painted ceilings. The walkthrough begins on the ground floor through the kitchen and storeroom. From there you head up the stairs to the bedrooms. The first room you arrive at contains original designs on the ceiling beams. Sometime in the 1800s the owner had the original ceilings touched up – enhancing the colors as well as adding new designs in some places. The ceilings are stunning to look at – I guess it’s nice to see the stunning designs and colors, but a shame that they aren’t fully original.

On the top floor of the castle you can view the Long Gallery – a long room with an amazing wooden ceiling. The design and carvings on the ceiling are fantastic.

Outside the castle there are beautiful gardens to explore. The gardens are divided into multiple areas and each one is as beautiful as the last. The castle grounds also contain several woodland trails that you can explore.

After Crathes Castle we headed to Dunnottar Castle. Dunnottar Castle is a ruined medieval fortress located on a rocky headland just outside of Stonehaven. The area is actually rather large and we spent well over an hour exploring all of the different areas – we would have probably spent longer but the castle was closing.

Day 4: Fife to Stirling

Most of the day was spent exploring St Andrews. We started by visiting the Castle, which included a small exhibit on the history of the castle and cathedral inside the gift shop. Once through the exhibit you head outdoors to explore the castle ruin.

There isn’t much left of the castle, and you can see a lot from outside the castle fence, but you do get to climb through a few of the rooms and there are information boards explaining the various areas. Unfortunately (due to covid), there were a few areas closed such as the underground mines and the dungeon.

After the castle we walked through town to get to the cathedral. A paid entry gives you access to the museum. The cathedral ruins are free to explore and open to the public. We quite enjoyed the museum as there are a lot of Pictish stones on display as well as carved tombs found in the area of the cathedral. Also, I have to say the staff inside the museum were so friendly and informative. Everyone that we ran into was so enthusiastic about the stones and wanted to discuss them, share interesting facts, or point out their favorite carvings – it was fantastic and we saw a few things that we may have missed.

Like the castle there isn’t much remaining of the cathedral but a couple end archways are still standing and you can see the bases of the columns that were throughout the cathedral. Even though there isn’t much remaining, you can still get a good idea of the size and grandness of the original cathedral.

As the cathedral turned to ruin the grounds were used as a cemetery. So around the walls of the cathedral (in what would have been the inside of the cathedral) are tons of grave stones, which is quite unusual.

After the cathedral we had a walk through the town centre, looking at a few shops, and checking out one of the St Andrews University colleges courtyard.

Day 5: Stirling to Coldingham

We spent the day exploring Stirling. We started with Doune Castle, then Stirling Castle, and finished the day wondering around the town of Stirling.

Before arriving at Doune Castle we discovered that the castle was used to film multiple scenes of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was also used to film Game of Thrones and Outlander. Even without the films, the castle is worth a visit.

The current castle was built in the late 14th century by “Scotland’s uncrowned king”, Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany. The castle went through several owners, and saw military action during the mid and late 17th centuries.

By 1800 the castle was ruined, but restoration work was done in the 1880s. The restoration work was done so that the castle could be opened to the public for tourists visit, which it has done ever since.

The castle has some great features, including an amazing kitchen with stunning arched serving windows. The great hall is well preserved, with a beautiful timber ceiling that was added in the late 1800s.

The castle is a great semi-ruined castle.

After Doune Castle we headed to Stirling Castle. There’s a lot to see at Stirling Castle, so make sure you leave enough time to explore everything.

When you first enter the castle, we would recommend starting at the Castle Exhibition. This provides a great overview and history of the castle, which will give you background on the castle before you visit the different rooms. The castle has an amazing history – changing hands between the English and Scottish several times throughout the years, as well as generations of royal residents and royal visitors.

In the castle you can visit The Royal Palace, which was the palace of James V. The palace is decorated and furnished to represent how it would have looked in the 1500s. In these rooms you will find replicas of the Stirling Heads and the stunning Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries.

There’s an entire room about the Stirling Heads elsewhere in the castle, including a few of the originals on display. There’s also a Tapestry Studio that explains the 13 year process of how the tapestries were recreated based on the originals (which are on display in New York). The time and effort that went into recreating these tapestries is incredible. I wish we would have known a bit more before seeing them – we probably would have appreciated them a bit more.

The Great Kitchens were only recently discovered in 1921, as they were filled in with rubble in the 1600s. The kitchens are quite impressive with their huge fireplaces and bread ovens. The kitchens are setup with tables, cooks, and food – you can really get a good idea of how the kitchens could have been years ago when the castle was occupied.

There’s several other areas to explore, so as mentioned before, make sure you leave enough time.

After visiting the castle, we spent a bit of time wondering around Stirling. The street leading up to the castle has some beautiful, old buildings. It would have been stunning back in the day with activity in the town and at the castle.

After exploring Stirling, we made our way to Coldingham for our next evening stop.

Day 6: Coldingham to Wooler

The following morning, after checking out of our accommodation we headed to Eyemouth Harbour to see the local seals. There is a van parked at the harbour that sells fish which you can feed to the seals. Unfortunately, at the time of our visit the van is only open on the weekends (and we were there on a Thursday).

We did however end up seeing several seals. There were a couple laying on the rocks across the harbour and several others swimming around in the water. There were also lots of swans swimming about. We could have happily stayed there for longer, but we had other things to see and do.

Next we visited Norham Castle – a beautiful ruined castle that can be visited anytime for free. The great tower is amazing and the five story walls are still standing. You can climb up to the first floor and explore the area. You can also see the foundations, or low remaining walls, from several other rooms within the castle. We both really enjoyed the exploring the ruined castle.

After Norham Castle we headed south to Holy Island. The island is only accessible by car during low tide so you need to check the local website to find out what times are safe to cross the road. Once you get to the island there is a visitor parking lot before reaching the village. We were planning to visit the Lindisfame Priory, which is only a short walk from the parking lot.

At the Lindisfame Priory there is a museum with history about the Priory and the island that is well worth a visit.

After the museum we walked to the ruins. There is quite a bit to see, a lot of the rooms of the Priory are still visible with low walls remaining. The famous Rainbow Arch is a great site to see – standing high over the ruin grounds.

Unfortunately, the Lindisfame Castle and gardens were not open during our visit due to covid, so we really only got to see a bit of the village and the Priory.

On the island there are tons of walks available as well. We didn’t have time to do much after viewing the Priory and the Priory museum as we had to leave the island before high tide.

Day 7 & 8: Northumberland Castles

The first castle scheduled for the day was Bamburgh Castle. We were quite excited to visit this castle as we had seen it a couple years ago, but only from the outside. We were driving from Edinburgh with my parents to visit a few other castles and ended up stopping in this town for an evening snack and drink. We pulled into the village and were amazed at this giant castle on top of the hill overlooking the village. By that time in the day the castle was already closed so we couldn’t visit at the time. But it’s fun to come back and actually go inside this time around.

The self-guided tour through the castle starts in the Great Kitchen. You can see the archways from the old fireplaces and stoves, but now the room contains a large wooden model of the castle – we didn’t realise it was wood at first! – and a number of pictures and items to view.

As you leave the Great Kitchen you walk through a couple other smaller rooms, again filled with amazing items on display. The rooms are beautiful, but the items on the shelves are just as fantastic.

After a few rooms you find yourself in The King’s Hall. The large room contains display cabinets along the walls and an amazing decorative teak ceiling.

At one end of the King’s Hall is the Cross Hall – which is probably my favorite room in the castle. I loved the red chesterfield couches and the huge standing globes. It’s beautiful.

After the King’s Hall you visit several other rooms including the library, armoury room, the new(ish) kitchen area, and the dungeons.

The grounds of the castle are quite large, and overlook the sandy beach with amazing views. At the other end of the castle, near the windmill, is the Armstrong Aviation Museum. This museum is full of history about the 1st Lord Armstrong – William Armstrong who was an inventor, industrialist and philanthropist. The museum shows a number of his inventions and world leading designs.

After Bamburgh Castle we headed to Chillingham Castle. Chillingham Castle is a stunning medieval castle known as the spookiest castle in Northumberland – after all the family’s crest does include a bat!

The castle was is ruin when it was purchased by Sir Humphry Wakefield in the 1980s. There are several pictures throughout the castle that show you the before state of the rooms. Sir Humphry took on the mammoth task of restoring the castle – and the results are amazing.

He didn’t fully restore every room in the castle. You will see that some of the rooms contain exposed stone walls, or half covered wood panels. There are holes in the ceiling and floors – but everything seems as it should. It’s an old castle, with imperfections and that’s exactly what you see as you explore the rooms.

The rooms are decorated and filled with antiques and collectables that all seem to fit perfectly as well. The rooms are full of stuff and it’s a bit overwhelming to know what to look at.

I would highly recommend purchasing a guide book, written by Sir Humphry himself. The pages are full of interesting information and stories about restoring the castle and the items filling the rooms. There are some great “ghost stories” about how some items found there way back into the castle, as if they were meant to be there. I love those kinds of stories.

During our walkthrough of the castle we ended up talking to one of the guides in the room. He was telling us all sorts of stories and we ended up running out of time to visit the remaining rooms. We hurried through the last few rooms and then had to leave as the castle was closing. We were both a bit disappointed about not fully finishing the castle, but knew that we would be back again soon.

That night we did a bit more research about the castle and Sir Humphry. Turns out there are holiday rooms available within the castle and on the grounds. While we were searching, we discovered a tour nearby (on former castle grounds) that takes you to view wild cattle, the only wild cattle in the world.

This was a funny one for us, as Ben and I were just talking about wild cattle. I randomly asked if there were wild cattle – you have other domesticated animals that are also wild, but I couldn’t think of ever hearing about wild cattle. A couple weeks later, we had our answer. There is in fact wild cattle, or at least as wild as cattle can be.

The Chillingham Wild Cattle aren’t free to roam (I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want a wild cow in my street), so they are in enclosed fields however they have no (or very little) human interference – which is why the are considered wild.

The tour is guided by a ranger that takes you through the fields. You get pretty close to the cattle, but still a good distance away so they don’t get spooked. The ranger provides all sorts of interesting facts including differences between the wild cattle and domestic cattle. The tour is fascinating – more than you would think a cattle tour would be!

After seeing the wild cattle we headed back to Chillingham Castle. Yep, we just had to go back! We decided to read the guide book before returning, as it was hard to read though all the information while walking through the castle (it takes a bit of time) and highlighted specific things we wanted to see when we were back in the rooms. We got to go through all the rooms this time and really appreciate all of the items on display.

Because we spent so much time at Chillingham Castle we didn’t get to visit a few other castles we had planned, but that was OK because we both loved Chillingham. We’ll have to come back and make sure we have time to visit the other castles.

Day 9: Hadrian’s Wall

After exploring the castles in Northumberland we headed back to Hadrian’s Wall. We started by visiting Chesters Roman Fort. At the site you can view the four tower gates, the barracks, the bath house, and several other buildings.

The bath house was my favorite. You can see the different rooms including the cold and hot pools, the dry room, and the locker rooms. I love how bath houses are such an important part of Roman life – they seem like such a luxury and yet here they are at a fort.

The museum room on site is amazing. There are tons of carved statues from this site and other nearby sites. The statues are all amazing and there are lots to look at.

After Chesters, we headed to Housesteads Roman Fort. This is another huge fort to explore. Each fort in the area all contain something slightly different. This fort included a large commander’s house and a hospital, as well as the barracks, towers, and a small bath house.

There is a small museum on site that contains more carved statues and artefacts from the site. This museum wasn’t as good at the one at Chesters Roman Fort, but had a lot of great history and information about the fort.

After visiting the Roman fort we walked along Hadrian’s Wall towards Sycamore Gap – this time from the other direction. The weather was so much better this time around and we had a great walk to Sycamore Gap.

Day 10, 11, & 12: The Lake District

Our last stop on the trip was The Lake District. We decided to stay at the YMCA Lakeside due to it’s location (right on the water) and the outdoor settings. The room was super basic (think dorm room style), but it was right on the shore of Lake Windermere. The weather wasn’t great the first day we were there so we jumped in the car to take a driving tour of the area and visit a few small towns as we went.

We stopped in Hawkshead, which was a super cute town with some great cafes and shops. The chocolate shop was amazing! Some of the best chocolate we have ever had. They had some delicious flavours to chose from – we actually went back a second time for more chocolates.

We also stopped in Grasmere to get some of the famous gingerbread. I am not a fan of normal gingerbread, but this was soooo much better than normal gingerbread. Super yummy! I wish we would have bought more to be honest!

After heading north to Keswick, we decided to start making our way back. We decided to return to our accommodation along the other side of the lake via Windermere.

Windermere is one of the larger towns in the area. We stopped later in the day so most of the shops were closed, but we found a great place for dinner. There were lots of places to chose from.

The next day, we decided to spend a bit of time near our accommodation. Ben wanted to get out on the lake, so he hired a kayak and he spent a few hours paddling around the lake. I stayed onshore and explored the wooded area around the lake, and enjoyed some reading time along the water’s edge.

Later in the day, we decided to head near Ambleside to Tarn Hows to walk around the lake. The area is beautiful along the water, with lots of trees. The walk is mostly flat and makes for a great afternoon stroll.

The morning we left The Lake District we booked an entry time at Stott Park Bobbin Mill. The bobbin mill was still running until the 1970s. The equipment inside the mill still works and while you are there you get a demonstration of how a bobbin is created using the old machines. It was a great visit.

Conclusion

After The Lake District we headed back home to London – our trip was over. Over the last seven weeks, had a great time exploring the UK. The main part of the trip was the North Coast 500. But we took our time getting to and from the coast route which allowed us lots of time to explore new areas of the UK.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *