Welcome to our first guest blog for Your Northumberland. First, a little introduction. I’m Harriet, chief writer and restaurant-picker, whilst Alex is chief route planner and pub finder. We are adopted Geordies, having lived in Newcastle for 4 years. We love the outdoors and food, luckily these two go hand-in-hand in this part of the world. This is our Northumberland... For our first blogging ,adventure we decided to go up to one of our favourite parts of the coast; Craster.
The plan was to walk the 5 mile path up along the coast to Dunstanburgh Castle and back across the farm track. According to our AA walking guide taking 1hour 45 minutes, leaving plenty of time for a hearty pub lunch at the Jolly Fisherman, or so we thought. We whizzed up the A1 in Derek’s little KA (we take our friend Derek walking with us when we can’t find a dog to adopt) and soon arrived at Craster- about 45 minute drive from Newcastle. We parked in the car park for a reasonable £2 all day fee and started our walk, first down to the harbour.
A short break at the harbour, to take some photos and for some faffing whilst Derek runs back to the car park to check he’s locked his car, and we are on our way again. We soon join a muddy path of families and fishermen trekking across the fields, the former wrapped up warm in colourful hats and scarves, the latter carrying bucket loads of tackle. For some reason it doesn’t seem right to be amongst a crowd on our frosty Sunday stroll, so we drop down to the rock pools to the right of the path, which are just beginning to ice over.
It is down here where we get our first majestic view of the skeletal like structure that is Dunstanburgh Castle. You can’t help but imagine how imposing and incredible it must have been in its hay day. We rejoin the footpath further up the coast and walk up to the ruined castle. We don’t however pay to go in like most, in my opinion the real beauty is to be seen from the outside (plus we were saving our pennies for lunch).
Walking round the side of the castle was one of the trickier mud negotiations, but we made it. Embleton bay appears around the corner and it would be hard to suppress the child-like urge to run around kicking up sand. This is one of our favourite beaches in Northumberland and I am not disappointed even in the icy conditions. In the past we have continued walking up to Newton by the Sea to the Ship Inn, but hunger calls and we decide to continue along our mapped route and walk back to Craster.
We up the pace when we realise it is approaching 2pm. Past the golfers, through a farm and along the farm track; we turn around and head back South. Being set back from the coast by about ½ mile we appreciate the beauty of Dunstanburgh Castle from new angles; it really is my favourite castle. The path hooks a left and takes us over the Heughes which are really quite an impressive natural landscape. Some minor map negotiation errors cause us to head purposefully towards a new stone wall which isn’t on the map- watch out for this! We arrived back to the sleepy fishing town at 3pm exactly, just missing last orders for food at the Jolly Fisherman, which stop, at 3pm, exactly.
I do aim to support local, especially as part of my job at Taste North East www.tastenortheast.co.uk but they make it so difficult sometimes with their opening hours! Instead we head back to the car and off to the Snowy Owl at Blagdon. Part of the Vintage Inn chain the Snowy Owl lacks seaside charm but at least we can count on it being open, at what I would class as optimum Sunday lunch time.
We pop ourselves down at a table, noticeably much more mucky than the other diners, and there is that great smell of an open fire crackling away somewhere in the large pub. They have actually just done the pub out, to coincide with the opening of Northumberlandia right on its doorstep, and it does have a warm and welcoming atmosphere. We order, to my disappointment not a single local producer on the menu as far (as I could see) and eagerly await our food. I go for a duo of venison (just to play the wild card) and the boys opt for classic gammon and chips.
The food was just slightly above average. The mash tasted like smash and the venison shepherd’s pie thing added absolutely nothing to the plate. However the venison itself was tasty and I can’t remember the last time or if I’ve ever had venison before so I was happy to give that a go. Peas are peas. Apparently the gammon was good and came with both egg and pineapple which is always a bonus, although it did leave Alex and Derek still hungry. Our waitress was friendly and service was quick, we also had a 20% discount voucher which came in handy.
Our advice to you would be; wear wellies and get up early so that you make lunch at the Jolly Fisherman! Enjoy!
Harriet and Alex
For more information about Craster and Dunstanburgh Castle visit our Craster Guide!
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)