Northumberland 2024 - Day Four

Sunday morning and Stewart had to leave us to head home and prepare for his big day representing AberNecessities (www.abernecesseties.co.uk) at Holyrood Palace. He subsequently sent us this photo from that day:

Three options were available for the walk today. Rob was keen to drive down to Hadrian's Wall (about an hour away) but the rest of us didn't fancy spending two hours in the car, especially with the England - Slovakia match on TV at at 5 pm. Ken initially favoured a local hill walk but most of the rest of us preferred to take the relatively short drive to Craster for a coastal walk, so 6 of us headed east while Rob went south.

Two cars - Dave and Gordon - parked just outside Craster where this sign showed some of the local attractions and walks:

We started off walking away from the village - Ken had notions to see Howick Hall (https://howickhallgardens.com/):

Not a National Trust property and we knew dogs wouldn't be allowed in the house but we hoped to be able to walk through the grounds and access the coast but when we asked we were told no dogs anywhere! So we walked away and headed to an alternative route:

Initially we walked south and we came to a small beach for refreshments and a bite:

It was close enough to noon for Gordon to pour the drams. From that point we took the coastal path north towards Craster. There were a couple of nice bays and beaches on the route:

Finally arriving at Craster we made a bee-line for the lovely and hugely popular Jolly Fisherman Inn (https://thejollyfishermancraster.co.uk/) for lunch. We were fortunate, given how busy it was, to find a large outdoor table for 6 unoccupied. The Jolly's Famous Crab Sandwich and Posh Fish Finger Sandwich went down well.

Ken's plan had been for us to head further north along the coastal path towards Dunstanburgh Castle after lunch, but time was marching on and there was some anxiety about getting to the pub early to make sure of decent seats for the England match so we just walked back to the cars, passing the harbour and viewing the castle in the distance:

Our route was:

We met up with Rob again in the Turks Head and he told us about his day at Hadrian's Wall and the Sycamore Gap/Robin Hood tree. Here's some of his photos:

We didn't have to move far after the match as we were dining in the pub. Rob bought the traditional end of holiday drams:

Great little holiday. Over to Jeb for Mallaig September, 2025.