Borderlands

August 4

It’s somewhat fitting, but depressing nonetheless, that we started our excursion with Hadrian’s Wall and we end with Flodden Field. Back to that question of who do we wall in and who do we wall out? Much blood has been shed trying to answer this through the years. Perhaps the worst of it occurred here in September 1513.

Back to Henry VIII’s time and the ongoing battles between the English and the Scottish kingdoms. James IV of Scotland and the Earl of Surrey met each other here on this borderfield in a battle referred to on the signpost as the “killing fields.” In a slaughter reminiscent to the last southern stand, Pickett's charge, at Gettysburg in 1863, the Scots started the attack and marched across what they thought was a field. Unfortunately for them, due to heavy rain earlier in the day, they ended up wading through muddy boggy ground, falling out of line, and losing 10,000 men, their King and many nobles. It was the end for the Scots. The final wall fell.

4,000 English soldiers died that day, too. And every year since, there is a commemoration of the event on the first Thursday in August. We know this because we were there when a local English couple set up their seats to watch the proceedings. It was pouring rain, but they said they never missed a year. They told us that 200 horses come from Coldstream to this spot, the English ground for a memorial service given by a Scottish priest. Then the procession leads to the far ground (the last horizon line in the photo) where there is a memorial service given by an English priest. The man we met was a hedgecutter and he claimed that the reason the English was due to their weaponry; the Scots had pikes and the English had bills (used to cut hedges).

It was pouring. We wanted to stay and see the event, but it was nearing lunchtime and we knew better than to keep the kids stuck in a car in the parking lot waiting for horses that we would get stuck behind on our way to Scotland.

So, off we went. A few more stops in the bordertowns of Scotland, but not nearly as much as we had hoped for. The weather was getting worse and we wanted to get back safely. We were fortunate in this choice, we found out later that much of the area had severe flooding and some unfortunate deaths in places we had just visited.

I’ll leave you with our last stop on the borderlands; Keslo Abbey. It was built around 1113 by David I and it became one of Scotland’s richest medieval abbeys. Monks of the Tironensian Order, founded in France, woke at 2 AM, attended at least seven services through the day, prayed for the abbey’s benefactors, and went to bed at 7 PM. This abbey suffered during the ongoing border wars, but the monks held out and only left after the Protestant Reformation in the mid 16^th century.

I was struck by the use of this space afterwards. Some of the sandstone graves left little written trace of the Keslo occupants, while others contained such detail. I’m a bit embarrassed at having taken photos of them. Both saddened me, but poignantly, helped remind me of our fortune now in the living. A sentiment I tried relaying to Eleni, but somehow in the beauty of being six, got lost. “I don’t know about that.” Dragging me away, “Come on, Mommy! Let’s play over here!”

And, so we did.

Back to Kathleen's home for dinner.

Our borderlines intact.

Minding the children

August 3, 2011

What a gloomy look the morning had for us here! But, it’s amazing what an hour can do. By the time we had breakfast and were lining up to get on a boat for the Farne Islands, I was putting sunscreen on the kids. These amazing seabird islands are three miles offshore of that fishing village we visited two days ago, Seahouses. We saw all sorts of birds on our 1 and ½ hour trip.

We even saw puffins!

View of the castle from our boat. St. Cuthbert made an appearance today. We went past the tiny chapel built in 1370 in memory of him and his favorite hermit outpost on Inner Farne. But Cuthbert plays second best to Grace Darling on this tour. Grace was was the lighthouse keeper’s daughter on Outer Farne who, in 1838, braved the North Sea in a tiny rowboat to rescue 9 people grounded in the middle of a storm. Grace Darling this and Grace Darling that.

I'll have to check in with Alex and Neil on the exact names of these birds. I can accurately state that there were hundreds of seals!

We had a picnic lunch in the shade. This sign was on the back of an ice cream truck, but the point was not lost on Alex and Eleni.

Then we set off for Bamburgh castle. It was built in the 11^th century and was the first English castle to fall in 1464 during the Wars of the Roses. In the 19^th century, Lord Armstrong cleverly restored the castle (his various collections fill the place) and his family still lives there. It’s quite impressive and we all were interested in parts of it, but at different intervals.

Take note of this big sandy pit in the middle. We'll be there soon after our walk around!

Alex trying to carry the knight armor!

Curtain made by Russian Prisoners, from their uniforms, in the Crimean War in recognition of their Humanitarian Treatment.”

The real excitement, of course, was the beach and that big sand pit you saw.

Fully sanded, we ate dinner in Bamburgh and headed back for our last night in Northumberland. This was number 3. We're out of outfits for the kids. Some creative cleaning in store for the evening...

Tide timing

August 2, 2011 (Happy anniversary Matthew and Sandy and Clare and Raph!)

When twilight arrived last night, we played cards, read (endearing moments: Alex has been reading the Hobbit to Eleni), and then slept happily snuggled in our tent. By the setting of the sun, around 9 PM, we were out. There is definitely a natural rhythm to camping.

We woke up around 7 AM and hopped in the car in search of breakfast (I was mainly just interested in some coffee!). We visited a small village called Budle, but there was nothing open until 10 AM! Waiting for that time would obviously not work (for those of you who know my desperate need for caffeine in the AM! Yikes!).

Do not fear. We finally found coffee and food and packed a small picnic for later. Our goal for the day was to visit the small island (only 2 square miles) off the coast.

Holy Island, or Lindisfarne, is connected to the mainland by one long and narrow road that is only available for crossing over at low tide. This timing was a cause of great stress for Eleni; in the same manner that she constantly questioned us yesterday, “When is my warrior training?” Eleni kept at us with “Don’t we need to go back now?” and “What time is it?” and “Will we make it?”

St. Aidan founded this famous monastery on the island in 635, but the real claim to fame belongs to the monks of Lindisfarne and St. Cuthbert. The monks who worked and prayed here also painted the illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels, that make their way into most Art History books. But, the real show stealer for Holy Island is St. Cuthbert. He was a prior in 664, left for a life of solitude on the Island of Inner Farne and then became Bishop here in 685. He died soon after and was buried here at the Priory. The miraculous bit is that when they exhumed his body 11 years after his death, he was found undecayed! So, Lindisfarne temporarily became his shrine.

In walk the Vikings. The Vikings raided Holy Island repeatedly between 793 and 875 AD. When the Monks finally fled, they brought their two treasures: the Lindisfarne Gospels and the body of St. Cuthbert. Phew! The illuminated pages made their way to the British Museum and St. Cuthbert’s body finally found its resting place in Durham.

In walks Henry VIII. Lindisfarne was finally reestablished as a priory in the 11^th century, but closed after the Dissolution in 1537. No worries; soon after, in 1550, Lindisfarne Castle was built. You can see it looming in the distance here.

In walk Alex and Eleni. While I was decidedly more interested in the design of the gravestones and the building, they were more interested in preparing to defend the priory as a base in the off chance the Vikings were to attack today.

We had our picnic lunch near these Dicken-esque boats and then, perfectly timed, the rain came.

To Eleni’s chagrin, we made it back to the mainland in time! There is something to the marked tides; the mixed feeling of adventure and possible isolation were constantly present. It’s thrilling (especially for a six-year-old), but this is also unfortunate, as the name Holy Island implies more of a spiritual pilgrimage and that was something that barely crossed my mind. Timing was a curse in that sense.

We set off for Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is the northernmost city in England and is famous for its thick Elizabethan walls and its English and Scottish background (It changed hands between the two between 1174 and 1482). Our timing was lousy. We were a bit done by this time of day and it was raining, so the biggest adventure for us was having a cup of tea and cakes in the “Thistle Do Nicely” tea shop. There was mention of “let’s walk around the walls “ (around a mile circuit), but that wasn’t popular with 75% of our group.

What was popular was a repeat visit to the seaside. In the late afternoon, Alex and Eleni revved up for their run around on the beach and dunes (outfit #2 demolished). We ate our meal in Bamburgh and then set up for another evening with the setting sun as our clock.

We ate our meal in Bamburgh. These photos are from our walk in Bamburgh after dinner.

As ever, following this war time advice (?), we set up for another evening with the setting sun as our clock.

Keeping out the barbarians and sand

August 1

We are unofficially investigating boundaries now; what are the walls and what gets kept in and what gets kept out? I feel like I’ve already done this dissecting with our packing for the year. This time, packing was easier. We packed our bags for four days of camping and equipment necessary into our rental car and the four of us set out further north.

Due to our upcoming journey to Italy, an easy place to start examining divisions is one of the most famous of Roman boundaries: Hadrian’s Wall. This 73 mile barricade was commissioned by Emperor Hadrian and built by 16,000 men between 122-128 AD. It’s purpose was not defensive, but instead meant to mark the border between the Britons, who were under the civilized Roman law, and the barbarians, so called anyone not sensible enough to submit to Roman rule. A milecastle (gateways and a small fort) was built at every Roman mile along the way (altogether 80) and there were two observational turrets in between (altogether 160).

When Rome fell, so did the protection of this wall. The frontier garrisons stopped being paid, and consequently abandoned around 409 AD. Birdoswald, where we stopped to see the wall and had some warrior training with the guides there.

Alex was surprisingly mellow about this. In fact, he didn't really want to put gear on at all, except that his sister was and that competition could not be ignored. She asked us pretty much every five minutes, "Is it time for my warrior training, yet?" Finally, the big moment came...

We stayed here for around two hours or so until it started to rain. We followed the wall for a ways.

We stopped in the market square of Alnick (pronounced "Annick").

We walked around for a bit and had a cup of tea next to Ye Old Cross, which had some dusty bottles in the window and the following sign,

“These bottles have been here for over 200 years. Whilst putting them here the man collapsed and died. It was said that if anyone tried to move them they would suffer the same fate. They have never been touched since.”

Alnwich Castle is featured in the early Harry Potter movies. We only saw the outside, but it was quite impressive!

We set up our campsite in Waren Mill, close to Bamburgh Castle and fishing village of Seahouses. We had fish and chips in the harbor until it started to rain again.

Despite the rain, Alex and Eleni couldn't resist the dunes. And, you can imagine the boundaries that they came up with here. What does this wall keep in and keep out? Despite my attempts to elevate this posting to historical themes, I keep going back to packing. Unlike Hadrian's wall and the barbarians, I was unsuccessful at keeping out the sand, and Alex and Eleni promptly went through outfit #1 (2 more to go).

Limestone wanderings

July 31

Cousins have left. We are walking again...

I feel like we are on the edge of the earth when we visit these Limestone slabs. We've found fossils in the past, but this time, the big attractions were the mega sized spiders hiding in the cracks.

One of the hazards of walking in England: The Stinging Nettle (Mind you, this is far preferable than my experiences with poison ivy and deer ticks in the States!). The way to take the sting away is to rub Dock leaves on it.

We haven't visited a Church since York. We visited this 19th century one today. No worries; there was no rebellion and it went well.

Next, we visited a local Church fair.

And, all is well.