Brinkburn Priory

First thing after breakfast we set off to visit Brinkburn Priory, which is a place neither of us have visited before. The Priory is in a lovely, tranquil, shady setting but I thought that the nearby dilapidated manor house detracted from the setting as did a group of photographers with tripods getting in the way of our outside shots. The priory had been booked for a wedding at 12pm and the bride was walking about the grounds in curlers and what looked like night clothes. As we were leaving we could hear sounds of organ music as a choir rehearsed for the wedding.

We headed off towards Rothbury where we hoped to find some prehistoric rock carving that were nearby. I think we must have been on the wrong road because we failed miserably to find their location. We carried on to Rothbury where I hoped to visit a nice clothes shop that I have frequented before. I was sad to see that it had closed down, although I did visit the nearby shoe shop and purchased a pair of shoes of a type I have been trying to find for some time.

Wallington Hall

We deliberated on where we should go for lunch. Cragside was nearby but we elected to go to Wallington instead as we had only been there on one previous occasion. After lunch in Wallington’s tea shop we visited the house so that we could enjoy the gardens at our leisure. We enjoyed the house with the sun lighting up the rooms; on our previous visit it was raining and this made the rooms rather dark.

Wallington Restoration

Wallington Walled Garden

We took the short walk to the walled garden where we noticed that many of the garden statues had gone and that there was scaffolding around the glass house. We meandered the garden in the sunshine making up for our last visit which had been cut short due to the rain. We sat outside for afternoon tea and a shared flapjack next to the garden’s seasonal cafe. After finishing our tour of the garden we headed back to Alnwick via the scenic route. I called in at Barter Books quickly to pick up the book on prehistoric rock carvings that I had seen when we called in briefly on our day of arrival only to find that it had gone! It seems that rock carvings were off the day’s menu.

Wallington to Alnwick

We went back to the B&B to freshen up before dinner at Lilburns. The food was excellent and if we had been staying in Alnwick a little longer we would have returned for another visit. Mr C decided that he wanted to visit the nearby real ale pub before returning to the B&B for the evening. It was an interesting experience… We were greeted by the sight of a giant leek placed on a table near to the pub entrance. It transpired that the annual garden competition had taken place recently and that although large in proportion this leek was not the winning specimen!

10 Comments CherryPie on Sep 26th 2016

10 Responses to “Newcastle & Alnwick – Day Five”

  1. lisl says:

    You certainly get around, Cherie – I would like to visit that Priory

  2. JD says:

    Looks as though you enjoyed meandering along all the back roads there :)

    I think the cup and ring markings you were trying to find are somewhere along the road from Rothbury to Hexham, not too far but I don’t think there are any signs pointing the way. As you say, you will need the OS map.

    And I see you arrived just in time for the ‘leek-show’ season :)
    http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/remember-picture-gallery-leek-growing-7773333

    • CherryPie says:

      The instructions in the guidebook said four miles out of Rothbury (0n the road you mention) there is a road on the left. We investigated the road out of Rothbury and then took the road that was four miles out of Rothbury. Then we explored a little more… We will get there next time ;-)

      Thank you for explaining the Leek phenomena to me. It explains some of the conversations in the bar. The leek in question was much larger than the one shown in your link and apparently it was nowhere near as large as the winner!! The not quite prize leek was given to one of the other locals for them to enjoy as a culinary experience :-)

      It was a pub for locals and I felt quite at home in it, but despite being a Real Ale pub it wasn’t quite the pub for Mr C ;-)

  3. Beautiful photos – the Priory looks a wonderful place to visit. The Rothbury prehistoric carvings have always fascinated me – what a shame you missed them and the book :(

    • CherryPie says:

      It was one of those holidays ;-) But I know we will find them next time we visit, I have the coordinates now so a good Ordnance Survey map will show us the way :-)

  4. Wendy says:

    Lovely photos. The first photo is beautiful – so atmospheric. This is a part of the world I don’t know and would love to visit. I would have to ignore the leek – my own leeks this year are very poor!

  5. The hall is absolutely stunning.
    Love the owls too!