The day began with Sarah bringing breakfast to our room on a trolley with wheels. We had never experienced such a service before. Sarah expressed surprise at the fact that we had slept so well. Apparently the night had been punctuated by the sounds of wheelie bins careering down the road and garden furniture toppling over. But now, looking out of the window, although it was dark and grey, all appeared to be calm. Agnes had moved on.
Here are a few photos of our room at Belmont House:
Before leaving, I couldn’t resist slipping outside to a magical landmark. Just behind Belmont House is Shielfield Park, home to a football club, Berwick Rangers now playing in the fifth tier of Scottish football. On 28 January 1967, on this ground, Berwick’s part-time professionals beat Rangers of Glasgow 1-0. It was giant-killing on a David v Goliath scale. It brought a frisson of joy to a twelve year-old lad going through a tough time at a new school. The lad, now nearly 70, walked around the ground but couldn’t get a glimpse inside. At one end, a tree covered bank was surmounted by a low breeze-blocked perimeter wall. There were a handful of loose breeze blocks on the ground which I piled into a plinth and carefully stood on top:
It was hard to imagine 13,365 souls packed into this neat little stadium – the record attendance from that day in January 1967 has never been surpassed. Back then knockout cup competitions were hugely important in terms of kudos and money even for the most successful of clubs. Rangers (the Glasgow version) picked their strongest XI including nine internationals. Their manager responded to the defeat by refusing to select either of the forwards playing that day ever again. Within weeks both were transferred out of the club. One of them, Jim Forrest, was incredibly prolific – famous for scoring 57 goals in a single season. By a quirk of fate, Forrest had died on the day before – 27 September 2023 – at the age of 79 – the day we had trudged through Tweedmouth and over the old bridge into Berwick.
We left Belmont House by a taxi arranged by Sarah, which whisked us over the newer bridge to Berwick’s railway station. Our train was destined for Penzance, and for the first twenty minutes or so, the left hand window provided glimpses of the coast and landmarks of our walk north. We didn’t continue to Cornwall, but alighted at Derby to catch the little train that would carry us to our home city.
All had worked out extremely well, from the railway journeys to all the aspects arranged by Shepherds Holidays – the accommodation, the baggage transfers, taxi transfers and guide/maps for the walk itself.
And the weather behaved itself. Our only rain lasting more than a few minutes was as we walked towards Belford at the end of our fourth day of walking.
The walking itself was pretty straightforward – we kept the North Sea to our right and we didn’t go wrong! The terrain was easygoing, which was probably just as well given that we hadn’t followed a long walk for over four years. Our longest day’s walk was from Warkworth to Craster when the Outdooractive tracker told us that we had walked 14.8 miles. But that was not arduous and we were in the pub at Craster by four o’clock!
We took a day out to visit Lindisfarne having not been before. And it was an excellent decision. Blasted by the wind and pummelled by the sea, Holy Island would be a special place even without its Priory and castle. We also enjoyed clambering around Warkworth and Dunstanburgh Castles. It’s a shame that we hadn’t factored in enough time to visit Bamburgh Castle. Another time, perhaps.
But if you were to twist my arm and ask me to commit myself to declare what I enjoyed the most about our walk, I would have to say the unique beauty of the Northumberland coast. Salt marshes, creeks, dunes and acres of spiky marram grass! And we were lucky with the tides, managing a great deal of walking on the sand with the mesmerising rhythm of the waves, the constant suck and whoosh of sea against sand. It was a beach holiday without bucket and spade.
Oh! I nearly forgot! The kippers – the Craster kippers were very special.