A trip to Dunstaburgh Castle & Craster

We decided to take a family day out to Dunstaburgh Castle during our trip to Northumberland.

The castle is north of the village of Craster.  We parked in a car park in the village (£2 to park all day) and took a lovely walk to the castle.  It was a glorious day so put lots of sun cream on Baby M, put him in his pushchair and got walking.  We went with my mum, dad and their dog Maddie too.  A true family day out.

The walk to the castle is lovely, through fields along the coast line.  The fields had sheep and cows in, they didn't seem bothered by people walking by.  Dogs must be kept on their leads

Dunstaburgh Castle was the focus of fighting during the War of the Roses.  It was build in 1313 by Earl Thomas of Lancaster.

You don't have to go into the castle grounds to admire its wonder however as English Hertiage members we got in for free.  Adult tickets cost £4.30, Child £2.60 and under 5's are free.

There were nesting sea birds (which were creating one hell of a racket) but it was great watching them flying to their nests.

It takes about 35 minutes to walk around the ruins of the castle and the views into the sea are amazing

You can also walk up into the 2 turrets of the keep.  The steps are spiral and get tighter as you go up so I only went about half way as heights aren't my thing

We then decided to walk to the beach.

If you do go to the castle and then the beach don't do what we did and forget the baby carrier.  It was really difficult along parts of the path with the pushchair and my dad and Mr M ended up lifting it over rocky parts.  We then got to the point where Mr M just carried Baby M and we folded up the pushchair.

It was worth it though as the beach was lovely.  Plus saying it was the school holidays and a glorious day it wasn't that busy either.  We had a lovely picnic.

This was the first time Baby M had been on a proper sandy beach.  It was also the first time he stood in the sea.  My parent's dog loved it too

We walked back to Craster and had a lovely cup of tea and cake in the Shoreline cafe, whilst we were in the cafe the local Sea King flew by and the crew gave us all a wave.

I would definitely recommend this as a day out for the family.  There is so much to see and do.  We walked 10 miles, according to my Fitbit.

We had a great time


This post has been added to Coombe Mill's #CountryKids link and Red Rose Mummy's #WHWH.  Go check what other families have been up to for great ideas for days out.

A trip to Alnwick Garden

We had a lovely visit to Alnwick Garden. 

My folks caravan is in Rothbury and every time we visit we drive through and also stop in Alnwick but we've never been to the Garden. 

You can park in Alnwick, spaces can be sparse due to the fact it's free or there is parking specifically for the venue which costs £3 for the day

We weren't really sure what to expect.  We decided just to go to the Garden however you can also get a joint ticket to visit Alnwick Castle too.  As a MASSIVE Harry Potter fan I was really tempted as the castle was used in the films for many scenes set at Hogwarts but the tickets were a little pricey (£26.25 per adult) so we decided to go to the Gardens this visit and do the castle another time.

A ticket for the garden costs £13.75 per adult (£13.06 if you buy online before you go).  We used English Heritage membership cards which gave us a 20% discount so our tickets cost £11.  Baby M was free although he got his own ticket which I loved.

You get a map of the garden (which we gave to Baby M and it ended up lost) but we decided to walk in an clockwise direction around the garden.

The first thing you notice when you walk into the garden is the impressive water feature.  It's beautiful.  we were also surprised at how big the garden was.

We started our walk around the garden and first we came to the Poison Garden.  This section is behind a gate and you can only enter with a guide.  This is included in your ticket price. 

We went on a really hot day so were informed that it gets hot in the garden so to take shade when we could during the tour.  We were surprised how many plants that they had in the garden that we have in our own garden!! It made us even more aware that you need to watch kids in the garden to make sure they aren't eating things they shouldn't.  They also had a cannabis plant which they have a special license for and is in a cage.  Most surprisingly the guide told us that they had a group of children in the garden recently who didn't know what stinging nettles were, or that if you are stung you should use a dock leaf.  I found this slightly depressing.

We then continued our walk round and went through the cherry tree grove.

Next we came to the Oriental Garden, which was stunningly beautiful

We then stopped for lunch.  There is a cafe in the garden and ice cream and fish and chips eateries just at the entrance but we took a picnic.  We found a shaded area in one of the ornamental gardens. 

We had great views down the water feature

We then went down the other side of the garden visiting the Bamboo Maze and Serpent Garden.  No snakes in sight but lots of little water features.  There is a big one that shoots up water and due to the hot day there were lots of children running around in this feature enjoying a chance to cool off.

The garden was so much bigger than we expected and we had a wonderful day. 

This post has been added to Coombe Mill's #CountryKids and Red Rose Mummy's #WHWH, check out both blogs for other great days out and see what others have been up to