Woolly says – The drive north had been a long one. Having started in Stourbridge Zoe, Jo, Handsome Jack and I had headed to the National Glamping Show as our first stop of the day, well we are glampers after all. It proved to be an interesting show with the humans and I both gaining some great ideas for next season. With plenty of brochures and free bags loaded into the car we set off for our drive northwards making excellent time until hitting a closed motorway, which required an extremely long diversion through the tiny towns of Boston Spa and Wetherby along with the other thousands of drivers all attempting to do the same which caused carnage on the roads.

As dusk arrived, we finally arrived at the small coastal village of Alnmouth in Northumberland, with its population of 445. Located at the mouth of the River Aln, the village once had a port that supported a small fishing industry and engaged in national and international trade. The morning brought drizzle and lots of it as we stood at the mouth of the estuary trying to admire the view before trotting back to the car for the short dive to our main destination of the day.

Alnwick is a market town in Northumberland, the town dates to about AD 600 and thrived as an agricultural centre. It has become a major tourist destination following the first two Harry Potter films being released due to the castle being used as a location for the movies…more about that shortly. Having parked up we set about finding breakfast which proved to be an easy mission with the old train station now turned book shop and café.

Walking into Barter Books was a revelation of the written word, rows and rows of wonderful reading matter to feast my eyes on and whilst the women and the mutt found a table and ordered breakfast I scooted from one aisle to another trying to take it all in. My joy nearly exploded as I spotted a small model train track running overhead in part of the store, I raced through the rows of books to see how many times I could spot it on its circuit round.

Having calmed the overexcited mammoth down and managed to remove the large quantity of marmalade that he had gained from his breakfast we split up for the next part of the morning.

Woolly says – While Zoe headed down to the castle Jo, furry paws and myself crossed over the road to look at the rather impressive column which had been erected by the tenants of the town to the 2^nd Duke of Northumberland for reducing their rents, personally I could have spent the money on far better things like pistachio’s but who am I to judge. Having walked round the base and waved at the lions that were watching me we walked back down the slope.

Passing the war memorial which had been unveiled in 1922 we admired a small cottage across the road that had a fine display of flowers while looking at the lovely stone coloured houses and shop fronts.

The Playhouse Theatre sported an interesting carved mural but was nothing compared to the gate way that I saw next.

The Bondgate Tower, also known as the Hotspur Tower or Hotspur Gate, the only part surviving from the medieval town wall, named after Sir Henry Percy, also called Harry Hotspur, the eldest son of the 1st Earl of Northumberland. It was rather splendid as were the flower beds in front of it.

As we wandered further on, I saw a sign for the Hardy Museum, a possible link to the famous writer, Thomas Hardy I thought. Nooooo Mr Hardy and his family before him had produced fishing rods and fly’s, the museum was small and held lots of information about fishing and the reels and rods they manufactured.

Back outside and we headed across the road to the town square which had a small market taking place, the Town Hall and the town cross were lovely.

Across the busy road from there was a former drinking fountain which has supplied the town with its water from 1765 until modern systems took over.

More lovely buildings caught my eye as we headed back to the station ready to swop Handsome Jack over so that we could take our turn to visit the castle.

Alnwick Castle was the home of the most powerful medieval northern baronial family, the Earls of Northumberland. It was a staging post on the Great North Road between Edinburgh and London. Built following the Norman Conquest and renovated and remodelled a number of times. It is a Grade I listed building, now the home of Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland and his family.

Ivo de Vesci, Baron of Alnwick, a nobleman from Vassy, Calvados in Normandy, erected the first parts of the castle in about 1096. It was besieged in 1172 and again in 1174 by William the Lion, King of Scotland. From 1253 the Percys took over.

As we walked towards the impressive façade it appeared immensely large, the gate house welcomed us providing us with some stairs that took us down to the servants dining halls, larders and prep areas. High ceilings with archways were wonderful to look at.

Arriving back outside we admired the castles stonework and turrets that seemed to sprout everywhere.

Passing into a courtyard with the café we stopped to admire the Percy coach, a vivid yellow which had been the state coach for the Percy family since 1825. A large statue of Henry Hotspur on his mount nearly filled the courtyard itself.

Following the inner bailey round we arrived at the Fusiliers museum set in one of the many towers it was filled with uniforms and memorabilia from the regiment along with the stuffed remains of one of their doggy mascots called Drummer, I’m not sure that our mutt would want to be stuffed or that we would want that either.

The gun terrace gave us views across the lands as well as some very impressive looking cannons that I know my bestie Sion would have been delighted with.

As we arrived at the next tower, I craned my neck upwards to try and see the characters that appeared to be on the top of lots of the buildings but were way too high to see properly.

The Constables tower came next and was amazing with all of its displays of rifles, bugles and powder kegs.

Deep in the bottom of the tower was the gaol with a further sub-basement where prisoners had been lowered and left to die, not a nice way to go.

A short walk along the battlements gave us further views of the castle before we descended to the ground and headed into the state rooms.

Sadly, the state rooms were in the ‘no pictures’ category but I can tell you that they were magnificent with incredible ceilings and walls, well worth a visit.

With the castle completed Jo and I headed back to the car where we joined Zoe and the mutt ready to start the next part of our journey, to the north.

An hour or so into the journey the humans let out a cry ‘the border’, Zoe slammed on the brakes and suddenly I was outside and racing on foot to the Scottish border.

With pictures taken we retraced our steps and carried onwards, literally as we crossed the border by car the heavens opened, what a welcome to Scotland. The rain continued mile after wet mile, as we approached the Forth bridge traffic was crawling along as visibility was so bad. But as the reached the other side the rain suddenly stopped, and we were able to pick up speed again.

Another hour and a half passed before we arrived for our rest stop.

Dunfermline is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, and was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries.

The earliest known settlements around Dunfermline probably date to the Neolithic period, growing by the Bronze Age. The city was first recorded in the 11th century, with the marriage of Malcolm III of Scotland, and Saint Margaret at Dunfermline. As Queen consort, Margaret established a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, which evolved into Dunfermline Abbey under their son David I in 1128, and became firmly established as a prosperous royal mausoleum for the Scottish Crown. A total of eighteen royals, including seven Kings, were buried there between 1093 and 1420 including Robert the Bruce in 1329.

By the 18th century, Dunfermline became a regional economic powerhouse with the introduction of the linen industry and produced industrialists including Andrew Carnegie.

Having parked up we headed towards the Abbey which was beautiful, we stood and admired it from every angle but sadly due to the time it was closed to be able to see any closer, we wandered through the grounds of Holy Trinty which is when Zoe spotted something very unusual, certainly nothing I had ever seen before. The top tower of the church had words on it, the first word we saw was ‘King’ but as we walked further round I spotted the word ‘Robert’ followed by ‘Bruce’, it was incredible and I could only think that it must be linked to Robert the Bruce.

We wandered back towards the car admiring the lovely park and nodding to the statue of Mr Carnegie on route before hitting the road for the last hour of the journey and the search for food.