The manor house was radically altered in the nineteenth century, and remained a family home until 1953.*

The present condition of the manor house interior is the result of extensive dry rot that nearly destroyed the building forty years ago. Wooden plugs in the walls reveal where damaged panelling was stripped away. The ground floor and basement levels may be visited at present, but much remains incomplete, awaiting full restoration.

The conversion of the monastic buildings into a new house followed quickly after the closure of the priory in 1536. That new but rambling house with its medieval core was radically altered twice in the nineteenth century (c. 1810-11 and 1830-37), fortunately retaining a substantial part of the monastic refectory.*

*From English Heritage Brinkburn Priory handbook

Brinkburn Priory lies in a secluded and enchanting setting, tucked away in woodland within  loop of the River Coquet. It was founded in the 1130s as a community of Augustinian canons, although the earliest surviving buildings date from the end of the twelfth century. Never a wealthy house, and frequently troubled by Scottish raids, it was one of the first monasteries to be closed at the Dissolution in 1536.

After the Dissolution the priory church was used for a while as the parish church, while parts of the monastic buildings were adapted to form a manor house. The condition of the church rapidly deteriorated, but after years of neglect it was carefully reroofed and restored in the mid-nineteenth century, and stands today as one of the finest examples of early Gothic architecture in Northumberland.*

*From English Heritage Brinkburn Priory handbook

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.

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.

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.

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!

Count Maurice Maeterlinck