Holy Island's Lindisfarne Priory

We stopped off at a small cafe after our adventures up the hill at Lindisfarne Castle. We warmed up in the cafe for about a half an hour before setting off again to see the other main attraction on Holy Island, the Anglo-Saxon era Priory. Along our walk to the priory we spotted lots of mossy stone walls. We love mossy rock walls, but the photographs never really do them justice. 

Mossy wall

Non-mossy wall

Lindisfarne Priory was established by St. Aiden in 634-ish AD. He was a Celtic monk who lived on the island of Iona (just off the Isle of Mull, in Scotland. We visited Mull and Iona last year.) for many years. When he was consecrated as a Bishop in 634, he began walking across Scotland and England, teaching the locals about Christianity. He set up his monastic center on the island now called Lindisfarne. It was a great location, as it was isolated, yet at low tide the monks could walk to the mainland Northumberland or directly to the local King's house in Bamburgh.

St. Cuthbert, the patron saint of Northern England, was a Celtic monk and hermit who was the bishop of Lindisfarne from 684 - 686 before resigning and retiring. I couldn't quite figure out why Cuthbert's so highly regarded, aside from the fact that he was and is famous for his piety, diligence, and obedience. 

Viking Doomsday Stone

Many Anglo-Saxon era stones and carvings have been found during various digs, such as the Viking Doomsday Stone (above) depicting the devastating Viking raid on the priory in 793, the first of many Viking raids in the west. If you've watched the TV series Vikings, the first season portrays this raid in all its gory glory. 

Anglo-saxon game board

A happier Anglo-Saxon era stone was found during excavation: a board game! If you look closely, you can see the heart (bottom right), spade (bottom left), diamond (upper left), and club (upper right) that we still use today in cards. 

Lindisfarne Priory

The priory St. Aiden built in the 600s was built in wood and is long gone. The stone priory seen in these photos was built originally in the 12th century with several additions and upgrades through the 15th century, including battlements and turrets during the increasing boarder conflicts with the Scottish in the 14th & 15th centuries. 

Lindisfarne priory

As is the case with most abbeys, monasteries, and priories in England, this one was disbanded, demolished, and the Monks sent on their merry way (if they were so lucky) when Henry VIII and England separated from the Roman Catholic church.  

Lindisfarne priory

The priory would have housed and educated a lot of monks during its heyday. The monks in turn would have taken care of the sick and poor, as well as administer to the population's religious needs. Tending to the sick, poor, and needy was a key focus of religious centers such as this one back in the day. It's a far cry from today's mega-church millionaire preachers… but I'll stop before I get on a soap box :-) 

St. Cuthbert statue and priory in the distance

Changing topics, then! Since it was early Spring when we visited, the daffodils were out in all their glory!

Daffodils! 

Right next to the Priory is the island's main church, St. Mary's Church. It, too, was founded by St. Aiden, but the existing church was built in the 14th century.

This church is really, really old! 

Bits of the church were updated in the 16th century, but for the most part, this church is over 700 years old! It's fairly small, but really quite pretty.

Inside St. Mary's 

I still light a candle for my Mom in every new church I visit. Its a nice way to remember her and I'm sure her spirit enjoys 'seeing' all the placed I go. 

 I lit one of those candles for Mom

Holy Island's Lindisfarne Castle

Bill and I had ourselves a little getaway over Easter weekend. We decided to drive up to Northumberland, an English county on the east coast, just south of the Scottish boarder, and check out several of the key sights the county has to offer. 

As you read in our last post, we spent our first day driving up and visiting Alnwick Castle. That night we made our way to a sweet little bed and breakfast on a farm on the coast. The only downside to the whole day was that all of the restaurants our BandB host suggested were booked solid, so we ate somewhere that had availability. I'll just say that I had probably the worst meal I've ever had since living in England and we'll leave it at that… 

Castle on the left, mainland to the right

The next morning Bill and I got up bright and early and had ourselves a delicious breakfast and then hopped in the car to head over to Holy Island while the road was still passable. Visitors to the island must strictly follow the tide map as the road to Holy Island is only safe to cross during low tide. More on that in a separate post; today I'll focus on Lindisfarne Castle. 

Holy Island selfie!

The island was founded by St. Aiden in 635AD and became one of the main centers for Christianity during Anglo-Saxon England. In Tudor times, the island was a key defense location during Scottish/English boarder skirmishes, and in 1543 over 2000 soldiers were stationed on the island to help subdue the crazy Scotts :-) 

Hiking up to the castle

A fortress was built in 1570 on Beblowe Crag, and that fortress is the basis of the still-standing castle. After the unification of England in Scotland in 1603, soldiers remained in the castle, but it eventually went empty and then into disrepair. In the early 1900s, a rich magazine owner fell in love with the empty castle, bought it, and employed his favorite architect to spruce it up so it could be used a summer holiday cottage. By the late 1920s, he sold it, it was sold again, and by the 1940s it was given over to the national trust. 

Getting a wee bit closer

The castle, all the way on the tippy top of the crag, would have made lounging about outside quite difficult as it was quite cold and extremely windy. Plus, there's not a lot of outside up there, only a wee walking path up and then a small patio. But the Edwardian interior looked nice and cozy. 

Castle scullery (kitchen)

The rooms were all fairly small, but well thought out. The scullery had all that the kitchen staff would have needed, as well as the winding gear and weights for the still-working portcullis (gate) to the lower battery. It was still a working castle, after all. 

Castle dining room 

The dining room was, as usual, one of the main entertaining rooms and it was said many a champagne bottle had been drunk in here. The fireplace also hides an older bread oven that was used back when it was a fort full of soldiers. 

Castle sitting room

The sitting room was also cozy and had a good number of windows along one side. They had an old, crackly recording of a 1920s song playing quietly from the victrola.  Upon closer inspection, the victrola wasn't actually working and it took me a minute to realize there was a small speaker down the amplifier horn!  

Sitting room detail

The bedrooms were austere, but had everything one would have needed back then. I heard a mother talking to her 4 or 5 year old son, explaining how the newspaper and books were some of the few pastimes the occupants would have had back when they lived in the castle. The boy turned to her and said incredulously, "They didn't even have an iPad?"  

One of the castle's bedrooms

They may not have had an iPad, but each bedroom had at least one window like this one that the inhabitant could look out and watch the clouds roll by. That's good for what, five whole minutes of entertainment? 

Looking out onto Holy Island and beyond

Or, you could always take a hip bath. That's not a hipster's bath, but a bath where you would have water all the way up to your hip! 

Another castle bedroom with hip bath (towel draped over the end)

Once we reached the top floor of the castle, we realized there was one more outdoor space, the small balcony. The views from up there were very beautiful, but unfortunately, it was even windier than at the castle's entrance three stories below. 

View from the castle's balcony

On our way out, Bill had to take one last look at the castle's still-working wind indicator. If you look closely, you can see that it's indicating the wind is blowing south. When we first arrived, the wind was blowing west-southwest. While Bill was interested in how it worked, I got a kick out of seeing that Holy Island was in the center and the defeated Spanish armada was all around the island being pursued by the English fleet.  

Wind-o-meter

More on our day on Holy Island in my next blog post (or two).

Fancy Some Quidditch at Alnwick Castle?

Northumberland or Bust! 

Alnwick Castle

One of the fairly nearby places we've wanted to explore is Northumberland. Less than a three-hour drive away, it's a beautiful seaside county just south of the Scottish boarder. We decided to spend Easter weekend up there, staying both Friday and Saturday nights, and exploring the area. On our drive up on Friday, we stopped and explored Alnwick Castle (pronounced Ann-ick), home of the Duke of Northumberland.

My attempt at quid ditch

Although Alnwick Castle has a long and storied history, I know it as the home of Hogwarts' Quidditch training field of the first two Harry Potter movies. The current (12th) Duke of Northumberland is (or, more likely, his people are) pretty savvy and let you practice your broom flying in the field… after paying admission, of course!

Alnwick Castle, AKA broom flying class

This castle was also used in the first season of Rowan Atkinson's Black Adder, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, staring Kevin Costner, Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett, and more recently, one of Downton Abbey's Christmas specials.

Entrance to the castle courtyard

The castle was first built in the early Norman period (1066 - 1200AD) and has had many a restoration and facelift in the almost 1,000 years since. It was often raided in Scottish/English border disputes until the late 1500s, and was besieged at least five times in the years 1462 - 1464 alone during the War of the Roses.

Inside the castle yard

More recently, the castle has been a dormitory and school for girls during World War II, and part of the castle is currently used by American students from the St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

Another view of the castle courtyard's entrance

As with many of these noble manor houses, we were only allowed to photograph the outside. But we were able to go through the state rooms, such as the

• guard chambers: decorated with hundreds of pistols, powder flasks, horns, swords, soldier pikes, etc. 
• ante-library: a fancy sitting room.
• library: 3-stories tall and lined with books… and a roped-off area with sofas and a flat screen TV; yes, a family still lives here.
• saloon: guided ceiling, mirrors, and art frames, ornate furniture) this is where the men retired to gamble, drink, and talk politics.
• drawing room: more gilded and ornate finery, this is where the ladies retired to do needlework and gossip.

Castle courtyard

• dining room: an ornately carved wooden table set for 20 with golden candelabras, green damask chairs and matching wallpaper. 
• breakfast room: a much less highfalutin dining room.
• china gallery: a purpose built hallway showcasing the Duke of Northumberland's hand-painted china collection.
• chapel: re-built in the 1700s, this 5-row, 10 pew chapel was last used by the family for a wedding in the 1970s.   

Castle's back yard

Walking around the castle walls, many of the former guard towers have been converted into mini museums showcasing different historical artifacts found on the property. We saw items dating back to Roman times and earlier celtic. They also had shields and other military equipment dating back to the 14th century. 

One last view of the castle...

After several hours exploring the castle and a quick stop in their tea room for a spot of lunch, we headed back into Alnwick city centre to check out a a used book store we saw as we drove through to the castle. 

Barter books

Barter Books is EXCELLENT! The owners converted the old train station and the shop is beautiful, quirky, and rather extensive. If you ever find yourself in Alnwick - don't miss the castle, or the bookshop! 

And remember, it's pronounced Ann-ick!

Tea, Marble, and Mummies in London

My Mom's cousin, Lynne, and her daughter-in-law, Sonia, came to England! They spent what sounded like a fabulous time down in Bath and Cornwall before heading up to London. As fates would have it, I was only able to go down to London for one of the days they visited, but we sure made that day a fun one! 

Puttin' on the Ritz

Lynn offered to take Sonia and I for afternoon tea at The Ritz - what a treat!! I booked the 7:30 direct train from home so that I could arrive in plenty of time to make it to the Ritz for our 11:30 booking. Sadly, my direct train was cancelled, so I had to scramble to get to Leeds and, luckily, caught the next train to London (I even got a seat!) that was to arrive only a half-hour later than my original itenerary. The train arrived even 10 minutes later than that, so I had to rush to the tube and then rush to the Ritz. I made it just a few minutes late, breathless and a bit frazzled, but I made it! 

Tea, sandwiches, scones, cakes. Oh, my! 

The afternoon tea was delicious! The staff was beyond gracious, even offering an arm to Lynne as she walked down steps. The doorman held the world's largest umbrella over all three of us as we walked the ten feet from door to taxi. We felt like three princesses! 

Because it was fairly miserable weather that day, we decided to head directly to the British Museum for the afternoon. I had just visited the British Museum (to see my recent Solo Trip to London post here), but it is so large, there was plenty still to see. Lynne and Sonia wanted to see the Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles, and the Egyptian mummies. I had only seen the Rosetta Stone, so almost everything we saw was new to me. Seriously, I could probably go to the British Museum two or three more times and still see whole new wings, the place it just that big.  

Bust of old man 

Horse

After a quick stop to see the Rosetta Stone, we made our way to the ancient Greek section, eventually seeing the Elgin marbles. Along the way we got another tourist to take our photo with one of the marble horses. I like this photo because you get a good idea of the size of some of these statues, whereas the more up-close pictures shows the detail much better. 

Big horse!

As Lynne explained it, Elgin was a British military leader way back when who saw all of these amazing statues in and around the Acropolis in Greece that were deteriorating. He had them chopped off their foundations and shipped to England for posterity. Greece wants them back, and this is still a point of contention between the two countries. 

Greek marble

I took a lot of photos of the Greek statues, but I think among my favorite were the flowy female figures. How the sculpters were able to chip and chisle the movement of fabric and shape of the body underneath the gowns out of hard, cold marble amazes me. 

Flow-y marble dress

Another flow-y marble dress

After being amazed by the skill and beauty in Grecian sculptures, we made our way upstairs to the Egyptian mummy exhibit. This exhibit prooved to be very busy as it was half-term (school holiday; spring break) in England and every school-age kid loves mummies... and their parents love a free museum! That said, the three of us all really got a kick out of the exhibit, too. I kept looking at the mummies wondering what this person would have thought had they known hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people would oogle at their mummified body in a museum every year.

I want my mummy! 

The museum not only had wrapped mummified bodies, but also skeletons, partially un-wrapped mummies, and a fully unwrapped, mummified body. 

This poor dead head and his facial reconstruction

Partially unwrapped mummy

Mummified body

The museum also displayed the body of a murder victim. Stabbed in the chest, this poor guy (or criminal?) fell as is and the surrounding earth naturally mummified him. 

Naturally mummified murder victim

After the mummy exhibit, we made our way up to the Viking artifacts I had looked at a few weeks before. And then it was time to say goodbye. Lynne was nice enough to share her cab with me, so I was able to head directly back to Kings Cross without tromping across London in the rain. 

The train ride home was uneventfull, and I was back home at a fairly reasonable hour, as I had to get up the next morning to pack and depart for our weekend adventure to Northumberland. More on that trip in upcoming blog posts... 

Pi Day… AKA Nerdy McNerdsville

This year I ended up making four pi(e)s for Pi Day… that's a lot of pi(e)! 

Bill actually helped co-ordinate Pi Day festivities at work, so I made two rosemary pecan pi(e)s and two deep dish apple pi(e). 

Rosemary pecan pi(e)

I only have one pie dish, so I went to the shop to find the aluminum throw-away kind, and the only kind I could find already had pre-made Keebler-type crust included, of which I am not a fan. But I did find square, disposable cake trays, and figured I could make that work! 

Pi(e) are squared

I even came up with a bit of math humor that my nerdy husband really appreciated. The two apple pi(e)s were made the day of the event, and I ran out of time and forgot to photograph them. They weren't as photogenic as the pecan pi(e)s were, anyway!