Alnwick Castle

I followed a busy road towards Anwick's town centre and it delivered me to the old railway station, that is now a second-hand book store called Barters Books. A few years back, I'd visited Barters Books and found it quite an experience. If the forecast had been for rain, I'd have probably spent the whole day in there. Across the road from the bookshop, stands the tall Camphill Column. A stone lion stands proudly on the top and has a remarkably straight tail. It was built in 1814 to celebrate military victories over the French. After a short walk from the column, I found an entrance to the Alnwick Castle grounds. A few moments later I wasn't sure whether I'd walked into a Disney theme park. There was a massive wooden structure that was based on a treehouse. Later Google research revealed it to be a restaurant. Beyond it, there seemed to be a rather gaudy coloured structure that had a number of minaret type towers. Yikes. I was after an 11th century castle and I get this. I wandered over to some official looking buildings that looked like the entrance to the gardens and castle. I walked past a crazy golf course that looked even more psychedelic than the treehouse and minarets. The site was clearly closed and this was confirmed when I came across a sign on a gate saying they'd open up again at the end of March. A pity they couldn't have put the sign on the main entrance gate. I walked out of the site and followed the road down to the River Aln. I picked up a public footpath that ran  alongside the river upstream. At last, I'd got a wonderful view of the castle. I have to say, it is very impressive, and well worth the effort to get the view. At the other end of the path I re-crossed the river Aln using the Lion Bridge. The bridge was blessed with another one of these stone lions with a very straight tail. It was a short walk from here up into the town centre.

Harry Hotspur

The centre of Alnwick oozes history. As you might expect, it has a large number of antique shops, cafes and book shops. It has a large metal statue of Hotspur, or Sir Henry Percy, to give him his proper name. His father was the 1st Earl of Northumberland, which gives him the Alnwick connection. He fought in many battles with the Scots and French. It was the Scots who gave him his nickname Hotspur, in tribute to his speed in advance, and readiness to attack. His luck ran out when an arrow hit him at the battle of Shrewsbury. And yes, Tottenham Hotspur F.C. is named after him; for a time he lived in and owned land in the neighbourhood of the clubs's first ground in the Tottenham Marshes.

Hulne Park

My Google search of Hulne Park revealed that dogs and cyclists are not permitted. This seemed like odd restrictions when the estate covers 3,000 acres. It also warned that the park was only open between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. due to, '...a number or residents living in the park'. In fact for the whole of January, the park would be closed for a total of 14 days. Fortunately, today wasn't one of them. A bowl of disinfectant greeted me at the front gate with instructions that I should clean my boots before going any further, in an attempt to prevent the spread of avian flu. A further note said that I was being watched on CCTV to make sure I didn't skip their instructions. Fully cleansed I could at last make progress into the park, I was following the longer blue route. The routes are very well signed throughout the park and you don't really need a map. Some shotgun blasts rang out in the valley below me and I wondered if I'd misread the website, and today the park was scheduled to be closed. The blue fingerposts pointed me towards the direction of the gun fire and it wasn't long before the Tweed Trouser Brigade came into view. Fortunately, they were doing their business on the other side of the River Aln. My path followed the river upstream and I was glad to leave the gun happy folk behind.

Hulne Priory

The park was actually very pretty. Three buzzards circled and followed me upstream. My only issue was that the waymarked route was based around roads and tracks. It would have been nice to have gone off on to a woodland trail. Eventually Hulne Priory came into view at the head of the valley. I followed the road up to its outer wall and then passing through the entrance I was surprised to find a large open area where a number of cars had been parked. I'm not sure whether the vehicles were owned by the members of the Tweed Trouser Brigade or whether they were for the building workers that were doing some repairs to the priory. I had a wander inside the inner sanctuary of the priory and found quite a few of the buildings were derelict. I left the piory to the workers and continued my walk along the 'blue route'. A large raptor flew above some trees which caused some smaller birds to scarper. It was too big for a Buzzard, looked light underneath, and I wondered if it might be a Goshawk. I didn't have my long lens with me though, and so I'll never know.

Brizlee Tower

I made a temporary diversion from the blue route, on to the yellow route, in order to visit Brizlee Tower. The folly was set on the top of a hill and was built in1781 for Hugh Percy, the 1st Duke of Northumberland. I thought I might have been able to get to the top, but the door was locked. The folly was surrounded by trees and this restricted the surrounding views. The yellow route did a bit of a circular tour of the hill top and I was able to get some unobstructed views down into the valley, that were very impressive. There was also a curious cave on this route, that had a stone statue figure stood near it. Google research said that this was known as 'Nine Year Aud Hole' and the guardian is a Grade II listed, 18th century statue of a White Friar. Circular tour of the hilltop completed, I headed back downhill and rejoined the blue route.

Return

The blue route now followed a tarmac road known as Farm Drive. I was amazed at the quality of the stone walls on the estate. These weren't built with stone misshapes as preferred in the Dales, Lakes and Peak District. These walls were built with stones that had been carefully chiselled to shape. The estate owners definitely have had money to burn. At last I returned to the park's disinfectant bowl at the entrance. Hulme Park had provided great entertainment, but those hard roads had left my bones aching. I returned back through the town centre. Despite the twee shops, I noticed there was a Wilkos, Lidl and even betting shops. There were even a number of charity shops. Even so, the centre still retained that sense of history.

Back at the hotel, the carpark ice rink had melted to slush. Hopefully, it wouldn't refreeze overnight since I plan to get that beach walk done tomorrow.