Days Out

Our 2024 holiday: Beamish

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A photo of the main street in the 1900s town at Beamish

This is the eighth, and final, blog post about what we did on our 2024 holiday to Northumberland. Previously, I wrote about Cragside, and today is about our visit to Beamish.

‘Wait a minute’, you may be thinking, ‘Beamish isn’t in Northumberland’. And you would be right – Beamish is in County Durham. But we called in on the way home and so I’m counting it as part of the holiday.

Beamish is an outdoor, living museum – very similar to the Black Country Living Museum that we visited back in May. It’s split into different areas, each representing a different time period, from the 1820s through to the 1950s. I’ve been a few times, and all three of us last visited in 2019 for my 35th birthday.

Beamish is huge, and it’s now just about impossible to see everything in one day. So, as we’d been before, we strategised and focussed on visiting a few key areas that we wanted to see.

The 1820s landscape at Beamish. There is a thatched-roof cottage in the foreground

1820s Landscape

This is the area set 200 years ago, around Pockerley Old Hall, a farmhouse and one of the few buildings that was in situ and not rebuilt on the site. Elements of the farm have been there since the 15th century. At the farm, there are a few horses and pigs to see, and a brand new tavern where we had lunch.

This area is also is home to a waggonway, which was a predecessor to the railways and has a replica of Puffing Billy to haul visitors up and down a short section of track.

A old fashioned bus parked outside the church in the pit village at Beamish

1900s pit village

Jumping forward, and there’s the pit village – a small community around a coal mine, set around the peak period of coal production in the area. You can go down the Mahogany Drift Mine, which was a real mine – if you go down a closed off mine road and keep going you’ll end up about a mile away. The village shows how people lived – there’s a school, church and several miners’ cottages.

Two houses and a police station in the 1950s town at Beamish

1950s town

This bit was still being built when we last visited, and is now mostly complete. In a way, this felt like the oddest bit of the museum seeing as the houses are just like those that friends used to live in. You can go into the houses, and they have been decorated as they would have been when new. There’s also a playground and a high street with a toy shop, cinema and appliances shop. You can book to have your hair done in a 1950s style, and there’s a fish and chip shop.

It’s the first time in a while that a setting in Beamish reflects a time in living memory.

A tram and a bus in the 1900s town in Beamish

1900s town

Joined onto the 1950s town is the 1900s town, one of the older sections of Beamish and probably the most well-known. It’s expanded somewhat over the years and includes many transplanted buildings, including a bank, sweet shop, pub, co-operative store and a pharmacy. It’s certainly the busiest bit of the museum and the most complete.

This was all we had time to see – the weather was starting to turn, and we had a two hour drive home ahead of us, so we missed the 1940s home farm, the 1950s farm and the fairground.

A tram at Beamish

Getting around Beamish

Beamish is a large site, and unless you’re super fit, you’ll probably want to make use of the transport options provided. One of the things Beamish is known for is its tramway, which forms a circuit of the site and connects most (but not all) of the areas. At peak times, there are three trams in operation. They’re all heritage trams, although not all from the North-East of England – one is from Oorto, although painted as if it was from South Shields.

For the areas not reachable by tram – namely the 1900s Pit Village and the 1950s Town – there are a series of heritage buses running. These are all diesel, but there’s a plan to run electrically-powered trolleybuses into the 1950s town in future.

Wheelchair users can use a replica classic bus which has had a foldaway lift added at the back. It’s an on-call service reserved for those with mobility issues.

Accessibility

Accessibility at Beamish is pretty good, considering that there are lots of old buildings – you can tell that some thought has gone in to ensuring access where possible. But that doesn’t mean that every building is accessible, although the newest areas like the 1950s town are the most accessible. Indeed, the 1950s town is home to a Changing Places facility, and many of the buildings have lifts to access upper floors where needed. There’s an extensive accessibility guide on the web site.

Tickets for Beamish are valid from one year of purchase; as mentioned, it’s more than one day out and so you can visit as many times in the subsequent 364 days without paying again. At time of writing, tickets are around £28 each for adults and £17 for children. A Max Card discount is available on tickets bought on the day. However, I would recommend buying tickets in advance as we had to queue for quite a while to purchase them on arrival.

There are regular direct buses from Newcastle, Sunderland and Chester-le-Street. Chester-le-Street is also the nearest mainline railway station, served by regular Transpennine Express and occasional LNER and CrossCountry services. The bus services seemed well-used when we went, and drop you right outside the front entrance.

Our 2024 holiday: Cragside

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A photo of Cragside house, looking through the trees

This is the seventh blog post about what we did on our 2024 holiday to Northumberland. Previously, I wrote about Lindisfarne, and today is about our visit to Cragside.

Cragside was built for Lord William Armstrong, who you may remember from Bamburgh Castle. Unlike Bamburgh Castle, Cragside was never a castle and it started life as a small fishing lodge. But over time, it was extended into a large stately home, and hosted many famous guests, including royalty. Also, unlike Bamburgh Castle, Cragside is no longer in the Armstrong family, and today it’s one of the National Trust’s top tier properties.

What makes Cragside interesting is its claim to be ‘the original smart home’. As you will know from my various blog posts about Home Assistant, home automation is an interest of mine. Cragside was one of the first homes to have electricity, back in the 19th century. And, due to its remote location, this was powered by hydro-electricity rather than burning coal. There’s also a water-powered lift, and an early dishwasher.

The later extensions to Cragside are the most extravagant, including a massive marble fireplace and a huge billiards room with heated seats. There’s also a ‘lab’ where you get to see demonstrations of some of Armstrong’s innovations.

Greenhouses in the gardens at Cragside

Gardens and grounds

The Cragside estate is extensive, and there’s a ‘Carriage Drive’ which is a six mile, one-way circuit that you can drive around. We did the drive to be able to access the play area to let our eight-year-old burn off some energy at the end of the day, and saw a young fox on the way.

Away from the house, across a steep gorge (which is spanned by an iron bridge), are the formal gardens. These came into National Trust ownership later than the house, and some restoration work is ongoing. The greenhouses are home to a number of tropical plants that wouldn’t otherwise grow in the Northumberland climate, and again, technology is in use here. The huge plant pots sit on metal turntables, so that the pots can be easily rotated to ensure even growing.

We spent all day at Cragside, and still didn’t get to see everything. Thankfully, overnight accommodation is available in some of the old worker’s cottages, should you choose to visit for more than one day.

Accessibility

Although Cragside house was one of the first to have a lift, it’s currently not in use, and there are some quite narrow corridors. If you’re unable to climb stairs, then you’ll only be able to see the ground floor of the house. There’s a free shuttle bus that travels between the main car park, visitor centre (in the stables), house and formal gardens.

Entry is free to National Trust members, but as it’s one of their top tier properties, the prices for non-members are comparatively high – around £25 each for adults. It’s also exempt from many of the promotions that offer discounted entry. But it’s a full day out with plenty to see.

Our 2024 holiday: Lindisfarne (Holy Island)

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A photo of Lindisfarne castle on Holy Island

This is the sixth blog post about what we did on our 2024 holiday to Northumberland. Previously, I wrote about The Farne Islands, and today is about our visit to Lindisfarne.

Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is an island just off the Northumberland coast, further north (and separate from) the Farne Islands, which we visited earlier in the week. Unlike the Farne Islands, Lindisfarne is inhabited all year round, and connected to the mainland by a causeway.

Lindisfarne Castle

From a distance, the standout feature is Lindisfarne Castle, on the eastern tip of the island. Now in the custody of the National Trust, this ancient castle was converted into a holiday home in the early twentieth century. The interior is laid out as it would have been around 100 years ago, and each room is full of objects of interest. There’s plenty of information on offer about the history of the building, as well as its owner and architect. You can head up to the top for great views back across the island and up the coast.

The National Trust is also responsible for Gertrude Jekyll’s Garden, which overlooks the castle. It’s an interesting example of a garden that’s designed to both look pretty, and withstand the exposed coastal conditions. The plants have been specially chosen for the hardiness and their ability to survive sandy soil and strong winds.

A view of the village of Lindisfarne with the ruins of Lindisfarne Abbey to the left.

The village

There’s a small village on the island, which is home to a few pubs, shops, cafés and a post office, should you wish to get a special postmark on your postcards home. There’s also St Aidan’s Winery, best known as the producers of Lindisfarne Mead, which is produced on the island. We may have bought a few things there to take home.

Lindisfarne is also a very religious place, and you can go to the ruins of Lindisfarne Priory, which is now looked after by English Heritage. We didn’t go; having been to the castle, had lunch and done a bit of shopping, time was slipping away and we needed to get back across the causeway.

The causeway

The causeway disappears under the sea at high tide, so it’s worth checking the safe crossing times. Thankfully, these allowed for a decent day out when we visited, but we needed to have left by 3:30pm, otherwise it would be after 10pm until we could leave the island again by road. You’ll probably find that the shops, cafés, pubs and attractions vary their opening times to match the tide times, which means that if everything is about to close, you probably need to get back to your car and get away. There are warning sides all over the island about the dangers of getting stranded, and yet it’s still approximately a monthly occurrence.

Whilst raising the causeway, or building a bridge, has long been discussed, it’s opposed by residents. I suppose being able to drive onto an island that it regularly cut off from the mainland has its charms. Although personally, I think the French had the right idea with Mont St Michel, where you park on the mainland and travel across on a shuttle bus.

Accessibility

As well as the causeway, the island is reachable by boat from Seahouses. There’s also a bus service from the mainland. The main car park on the island charges £10 for all-day parking. The village is mostly on flat ground and shouldn’t present too many issues for people with mobility issues.

However, if you do have mobility issues, maybe give the castle a miss. It’s up a steep hill with uneven cobblestones, narrow doorways and lots of steps. Entry to the castle is free for National Trust members, or £11 for adult non-members.

Max Card – discounted days out

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A photo of a Max Card - which is a green, credit-sized shaped card. The serial number has been partially covered up.

If you’ve been reading the reviews of the places we’ve visited on our recent trip to Northumberland (especially to The Alnwick Garden and Bamburgh Castle), you’ll note that I mention whether there’s a Max Card discount available. A Max Card is a discount card available to parents of children with special educational needs or disabilities, and/or children who are ‘looked after’ (i.e. in foster care).

We recently got one, as our eight-year-old has additional needs. Each Max Card is valid for up to two years, and offers discounts to various attractions across the UK. The discounts vary – sometimes it allows free entry for the child, or it may be 25% off. The aim of the card is to make fun family days out more financially accessible to families with children who have additional needs, or who are being looked after. Having a child with additional needs can incur additional expenses – we recently paid out £400 for one of our eight-year-old’s assessments – and so being able to have discounted days out is helpful. It also offers good experiences for looked after children who may have experienced trauma.

Where you can use your Max Card

The list of venues is quite extensive. Many (but not all) National Trust properties are on there, and locally to us is Eureka, the national children’s museum. Whilst we were in Northumberland, we were able to get discounts on three of the places we visited. As well as museums and zoos, there are discounts available at places like Go Ape, theme parks and Haven resorts. All of the Merlin sites are included too, such as the Sea Life Centres, Warwick Castle and Alton Towers.

The discounts available vary by venue. In some places, it’s a percentage discount, whilst others may allow a certain number of people in your party to go in free as long as at least one full price ticked is purchased.

It’s worth noting, however, that most places will only accept a Max Card if you buy tickets on the day in person – many will not offer the discount if booking in advance online.

How to get a Max Card

Because of the eligibility criteria, you can’t simply order a Max Card online. Instead, they’re are available through a local distributor, which is usually the local authority or a charity. For Calderdale, where we live, the distributor is the charity Unique Ways, which supports parents of SEND children. There’s a £6 administration charge to collect the card, but we have already saved far more than this on our Northumberland holiday alone. It has also meant that we could join Unique Ways as members, and access their workshops and training courses, which I hope will be helpful to us in future.

Our 2024 holiday: Warkworth Castle

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A photo of the entrance gate to Warkworth Castle

This is the fifth blog post about what we did on our 2024 holiday to Northumberland. Previously, I wrote about The Farne Islands, and today is about our visit to Warkworth Castle.

One of the things that Northumberland is known for is its castles. We’d already been to Bamburgh Castle, and passed near to Alnwick Castle. Warkworth Castle is further south, and to the east of Alnwick and near Alnmouth. It’s an English Heritage property.

Unlike Bamburgh, Warkworth Castle hasn’t been extensively restored. Whilst the outer walls remain, most of the interior buildings have gone. The keep is still there but it’s not furnished inside – just a series of empty rooms. Although each room had a metal plaque labelling it, there was a real lack of information about what each room was used for. I’m sure Warkworth Castle had an interesting history, but I didn’t feel like I learned much whilst there.

Thankfully, there was a medieval falconry display by Raphael Historic Falconry taking place when we visited. Whilst I’ve seen plenty of falconry displays over the years, it was good to learn about how birds were used to hunt during the medieval period. They’re back again next week; if you are going to visit Warkworth Castle, maybe do so when there’s an event on, as otherwise you may struggle to fill even half a day there.

Accessibility

Wheelchair access is possible to ground floor, but not to the keep or any other indoor areas. Alnmouth is the nearest railway station, and from there you can catch a couple of bus services – there’s a 15% discount if you arrive by public transport. A car park is available on site. English Heritage members get in free.

Our 2024 holiday: The Farne Islands

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A photo of the Farne Islands.

This is the fourth blog post about what we did on our 2024 holiday to Northumberland. Previously, I wrote about The Alnwick Garden, and today is about our visit to The Farne Islands.

I’ve mentioned the Farne Islands in my previous posts about Seahouses and Bamburgh Castle. They’re a collection of 15-20 islands just off the Northumberland coast – the number of visible islands depends on the tides. People have lived on the islands in the past, but nowadays there’s no year-round human residents. They’re now looked after by the National Trust.

Whilst humans may no longer live there, plenty of birds and seals make it their home instead, and so there are plenty of boat tours from Seahouses to go and see them. We went on a two hour tour with Billy Shiels; ours was a ‘non-landing’ tour that visited several of the islands but didn’t dock at any of them. Other tours do land at one or two of the islands; if you’re a National Trust member then you can land for free but non-members have to pay a landing charge.

A photo of an Atlantic Puffin sat on a rock on the Farne Islands

Bird life on the Farne Islands

Probably the biggest draw for people visiting the Farne Islands is the opportunity to see Atlantic Puffins. They’re not there all year round – indeed, when we visited a couple of weeks ago, they were grouping up to get ready to fly out to sea. They’ll stay out at sea until the spring, so we were lucky to see them. Indeed, we probably saw thousands of them – swimming, flying, eating or just lounging around on the rocks. Puffins are one of my favourite birds – I’ve seen a few at a distance at RSPB Bempton Cliffs in East Yorkshire, but I had never been this close to them before. I managed to get lots of photos of them, and it was amazing to see them flying overhead.

Besides the puffins, we saw shags, razorbills, cormorants, oyster catchers, eider ducks, terns and kittiwakes. Indeed the kittiwakes still had some quite fluffy chicks in their nests on the rocks when we visited.

A photo of a grey seal sat on a rock, on the Farne Islands

Grey seals

As well as the birds, there were hundreds of grey seals. Many of the females were pregnant, so there will hopefully be lots of pups in the autumn. Whilst we saw plenty lounging around on the rocks, there were a few out swimming as well. At other times of the year, it’s possible to see thousands of seals on the islands.

The boat trips are not cheap – expect to pay around £25 per person for a two hour trip. But it was absolutely worth it – I keep using the word ‘amazing’ but I can’t think of any other words to describe what an experience it was. We got really lucky with the weather too – nice and sunny with not too much wind. It was definitely one of my top life experiences.

Our 2024 holiday: The Alnwick Garden

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A photo of the water cascade at the Alnwick Garden.

This is the third blog post about what we did on our 2024 holiday to Northumberland. Yesterday was about Seahouses, and today is about our visit to The Alnwick Garden and Lilidorei.

Alnwick is probably best known for its castle, and the gardens are adjacent and on land that was owned by the dukes of Northumberland. Whilst there have been formal gardens here for many years, these were mostly in a state of disrepair for much of the 20th century. Work to renovate the gardens started in the 1990s with a public opening in 2001. Since then, further phases have seen the gardens expand.

The Poison Garden

My wife Christine is a pharmacist, and so there was no question about us visiting The Poison Garden within the Alnwick Garden. Opened in 2005, this locked garden is full of poisonous plants; as such, entry is only permitted as part of a guided tour in small groups. The tour is good, as it underlines how many of the plants have legitimate medicinal uses as well as being poisonous. There are also posters about famous murderers who poisoned their victims, and what they used. It’s an opportunity to see a cannabis plant, as the garden is also involved in drug education and so has a license to grow one legally.

Elsewhere within the Alnwick Garden there’s a willow maze, which makes for a dark, tranquil space as the willow has grown over it, and plenty of water features. There’s also a more traditional walled garden at the top of the site, and a cherry tree orchard that would be fantastic to see in the spring. The Treehouse restaurant is in a massive treehouse – but you need to book table in advance. Other places to eat are available.

A photo showing an overview of Lilidorei at the Alnwick Garden

Lilidorei

Adjacent to the Alnwick Garden, but with a separate entrance, is Lilidorei – a new attraction opened in 2023 as essentially a huge kids play area. It has probably the biggest climbing frame I’ve seen, as well as sandpits and a walk around a series of themed huts. Each hut is supposedly home to a tribe, such as goblins, dwarves, elves, sprites and others. It’s probably most suitable for kids aged 4-10, and our eight-year-old loved it. There was an Olympics themed activity whilst we were there too.

Taken together, the Alnwick Garden and Lilidorei are a full day out. You can view the rest of my photos on Flickr.

Accessibility

Being a newer attraction means that accessibility is really good – there’s wheelchair access everywhere and a changing places toilet is available. Extensive accessibility information is available on the Alnwick Garden web site. There’s a car park nearby shared with the castle, and you can buy combined tickets for the garden and Lilidorei (but not the castle). A discount is available for Max card holders.

Alnmouth no longer has a railway station – the building is now home to Barter Books, famous for re-popularising the Keep Calm and Carry On poster. The nearest railway station is Alnmouth, from which you can catch a bus to Alnwick, and then there’s a free Alnwick Attractions bus that runs around the town during the summer months and school holidays.

Our 2024 holiday: Bamburgh Castle

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A photo of Bamburgh Castle taken from the car park

This is the second blog post about what we did on our 2024 holiday to Northumberland. Yesterday was about Seahouses, and today we’re going just a couple of miles up the coast to Bamburgh Castle.

Bamburgh Castle sits on a raised bit of rock by the sea, and there has been evidence of a castle on the site since around AD 547. The current castle is based on one built by the Normans in the 12th century, but much of the interior dates from the 19th century when it was used as a hospital. It then became a private residence for Lord William Armstrong, and it remains in the Armstrong family to this day.

As such, inside it is furnished as a stately home, although you can still go into the castle’s keep, and see some armour and weapons. Its long history means that plenty of archaeological digs have taken place, and some of the artefacts are on display. There’s also a separate museum focussing on Lord Armstrong’s inventions, in particular around aviation, although we didn’t go into it. There’s plenty of interactive things, which helps to keep it interesting for kids.

At present, there’s an exhibition about the Netflix series The Last Kingdom, for which the castle both serves as inspiration for the story, and a filming location. This is in the King’s Hall.

Outside the castle, there are the grounds, with a series of cannons and probably the best view of the Farne Islands from the mainland. The beach (which is publicly accessible) is also one of the best in the UK – we had a picnic there, although there is a café at the castle.

You can view the rest of my photos from our visit on Flickr.

Accessibility

Being such an ancient building, access to the upper floors is only via stairs. However, the downstairs area should be accessible to wheelchairs, and there’s a video to watch for those unable to access the rest of the castle. A discount is available to Max Card holders.

If you arrive by car, then you’ll need to pay £5 to park. However, your parking ticket is transferrable to other car parks in the village, including one by the beach. The same infrequent bus services (418 and X18) that call at Seahouses also serves the village of Bamburgh.

Our 2024 holiday: Seahouses

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A photo showing a view across the harbour at Seahouses in Northumberland.

This is the first of a series of blog posts about what we did on our 2024 summer holiday. We stayed in Seahouses, a small village on the Northumberland coast, in a rented holiday cottage.

Seahouses is nice – much smaller than other seaside resorts like Blackpool or Scarborough and less brash. There was just the one amusement arcade, for example, which was in a relatively unassuming building away from the seafront. The main reason for Seahouses becoming a village was its harbour, which is known as the ‘North Sunderland Harbour’, as it acted as the harbour for the neighbouring village of North Sunderland. This village has nothing to do with the better-known City of Sunderland in the next county to the south.

The name ‘Seahouses’ came about from the small houses built around the harbour by the fishing community, and mainly came into use when the North Sunderland Railway opened. That’s now gone, having closed in the 1950s, and there’s a car park where the railway station used to be.

Many of these ‘sea houses’ are now holiday cottages, and if you walk down one of the streets you’ll see that most of the houses have key safes outside. I suspect that, in the winter, Seahouses gets a lot quieter than during the peak summer tourist season.

What’s there to see in Seahouses

We arrived late on the Friday night, and so we had a wander around the village on Saturday morning. As mentioned, there’s lots of holiday cottages and the harbour. There’s also plenty of gift shops, restaurants and a few pubs. At one time, there would have been many smokehouses, selling smoke fish – indeed, it’s believed that the kipper was invented in Seahouses. Nowadays, there’s just one smokehouse left: Swallow Fish.

There’s plenty of seabirds to watch. As well as the usual seagulls, we saw oyster catchers, sandpipers and a couple of grebes in the sea. There are also several eider ducks in the harbour.

Seahouses is also the main launch point for boats to the Farne Islands and Lindisfarne, which we visited later in the week (blog posts to come). There’s also a lifeboat station which is home to one of the larger lifeboats, and a tractor to haul it to the sea – plus the usual RNLI shop.

It’s a pretty little village and, if you’re not staying, maybe somewhere to look at on the way through. You can view more of my photos on Flickr.

Accessibility

As mentioned before, Seahouses’ railway station was closed in the 1950s. The nearest railway station is at Chathill, but it only gets a token service of two trains per day towards Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and there’s no connecting bus service. The 418 and X18 run every four hours (so collectively there’s a bus around every two hours in each direction) which connect to Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alnwick, Morpeth and Newcastle. With this in mind, you’re probably going to want to drive to Seahouses, and it’s on the Northumberland Coastal Route which is a signposted route along mostly B-roads.

In terms of getting around once you’re there, obviously it’s a coastal village and so there’s a slope down to the shore. Whilst there are steps in places, you should be able to find an alternative sloped route where needed. A public changing places toilet is available in the village.

Back from our holidays

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This is another pre-recorded post – I’m actually writing this a couple of weeks ahead of time – but by the time you read this, we’ll be back from our 2024 summer holiday. We went to Northumberland, and stayed in the coastal village of Seahouses.

As mentioned in my domestic holidays post, we decided to have a holiday in England as my dad has had some periods of ill health recently, and wouldn’t have managed the driving that we normally do when we go to France. But it was also an opportunity to visit somewhere that I’ve only ever passed through; I haven’t had the chance to actually see some of the places that we’ve visited before properly. Which, considering that Northumberland is only three hours away by car, is a bit of a shame.

Consent

I also didn’t want to talk about where we were going in advance. Now, whilst this blog doesn’t attract the readership that it once did, I am also conscious that what I write here is public. And so I don’t really want to state exactly where I am at any given time, just in case someone uses that information against me. Of course, you may just decide that you like me and want to meet up with me, but I’d rather you didn’t – or at least, you contact me first and get my consent.

And it’s with consent in mind that covers my other reason for being vague about where I’m going. When it comes to my holidays, it isn’t just me going but my parents, my wife and our eight-year-old. And it’s our eight-year-old in particular whose identity I want to protect. I avoid using their actual name or gender on here, because they are too young to give informed consent for this to be public information. I don’t think they’re old enough to have a conversation about what a blog is, or that any information that I put up about them is public and likely to be available forever. Because even if I delete old posts (and a lot are missing), they may live on in places like the Web Archive.

Our eight-year-old watches lots of videos on YouTube Kids now (which is part of the reason for us cancelling Disney+), and many of these feature young kids. Now, obviously their parents are more comfortable with this, but it makes me cringe. It’s worth reading this Teen Vogue article about kids of influencers. I want my child to enjoy their time as a child, and I don’t want to have a difficult conversation when they’re older about all the things that I’ve shared about them in public.

Anyway, back to the holiday

Okay, so this blog post didn’t quite go the way I expected it to. Once I’ve had time to download and edit the photos that I’ve taken, I’ll be posting a series of blog posts about the things that we did whilst we were away.