After a ‘Northern Adventure’, on the way home we often stop off for lunch at Brough ice cream parlour and tea room. The food is delicious with the added bonus of views of the castle.

If there is time I am always tempted to walk up to the castle to take in the scenic views and contemplate the history of the ruin.

• The history of the site can be found on the English Heritage website.

Morihei Ueshiba

The good news was the bread for the continental breakfast was not stale. The bad new was that there was no bread at all. Leaving breakfast slightly underwhelmed, we put our luggage in the car and checked out of the hotel.

Our first stop was Barnard’s Castle to visit the ruined castle which we had found impressive as we drove past on a previous visit to Newcastle. Once inside we found the castle footprint impressive, the ruins and history less so. We enjoyed the town of Barnard Castle as we walked to and from the car park. I have added it to my list of potential places to stay when we next travel up north.

The guidebook for the castle listed a couple of nearby sites, including Egglestone Abbey which shared a family connection (Bowes) with the castle. We decided to visit, although we got a little lost on the way taking an unplanned detour through wonderful countryside. We found the abbey more captivating than the castle.

Continuing on our homeward journey, we stopped for lunch at the ice cream parlor in Brough. Everything is home made and served by the owners of the farm where it is situated. I chose a delicious blueberry scone and the lovely weather allowed us to enjoy our lunch sitting outside with views of  the ruined Brough Castle. After lunch I couldn’t resist walking up to the castle to experience the wonderful view over the countryside.

Our next stop was Wheelock Farm for afternoon refreshments then, as we neared home, we called in at a supermarket to buy some ingredients  for our evening meal. This brings us full circle to day one of our holiday and my book purchase ‘Simply Raymond’ from which we chose the simple and delightful dish ‘cod cassoulet’. A perfect way to end our holiday.

We were all packed and ready to go before we went down for our last breakfast in the Courtyard Garden. During breakfast we realised that there had been a bit of a mix up over the number of nights that we were staying, our hosts were expecting us to stay another night. Before we set off on our travels I had thought we had booked the extra night but on reading the confirmation letter to see we had only booked four nights, so I cancelled my extra days leave.  I mentioned on several occasions to Mr C that perhaps we could book the extra night… But he said he needed to get back to work, he he had booked one less day than needed at the beginning of our holiday so that had to be sorted in favour of less days off at the end of our break.

Our hosts were sad to see us go and when I got home checked the booking acknowledgement letter I could see how the confusion had arisen and I regretted not noticing it before we went away.

After breakfast we loaded up the car with our luggage, paid our bill and chatted with our hosts before paying one last visit to Barter Books to see if we could locate the book on rock carvings that I had first seen when we arrived in Alnwick. After having a quick search for the book ourselves we took the details to the desk and a helpful young lady went into the back room to check the catalogue. The book was still listed and we were directed to the appropriate section where we found that the owner of the shop had followed us. He told me the author of the book and asked a lady to assist us. She found a version of the book within two minutes and went to check elsewhere if the other version of the book was still available. It was only the binding that was different but she thought the other book may have a better binding.  She couldn’t find the other copy but I didn’t mind, it was the content of the book that I was interested in. I thanked her for her help and went to purchase the elusive book.

After this brief diversion we headed to Ripon so that Mr C could explore the Royal Green Jackets museum. The museum was excellent although there was one off putting moment when we heard a building alarm going off and we didn’t know if we should evacuate the premises and the museum staff were unsure because the fire alarm panel wasn’t showing a problem. It turned out to be the lift alarm where two people were stuck in the lift. Eventually the museum staff were able to rescue the two people. We had been told on arrival that the lift was slow but that was taking it a bit far…

When we left the museum Mr C realised he had parked in the wrong zone so we decided not to leave our chances to fate and travelled on to Brough and a lovely tea shop situated next to the ruined castle there before continuing on our homeward journey.

The alarm seemed to go off very early this morning…

Mr C quickly did his packing before we went for breakfast.  There was a lot of banter as Toby served breakfast.  When one of the other guests asked him if he was alright this morning, he looked at us and said  ‘No not really’ and we fell about laughing, much to the puzzlement of the other guests.

After breakfast we loaded up the car and settled up the bill with Toby who then went to get Leona so we could say our goodbyes.  We exchanged email addresses and Leona said next time we are in the area, we must call in to have a coffee together, because at the end of this season they will no longer be running the Coach House  It was a sad moment that we were all rescued from by another client turning up to pay his bill.

We set off on our journey home via Mainsgill Farm thinking we might have lunch there.  It was very busy and crowded and not what we were in the mood for so we decided to drive on.   Whilst we were there I noticed that Kevin the camel was not around but I noticed two younger camels who turned out to be Doris and Delilah. Later I found out that Kevin was no longer with us.  He will be missed, he was a magnificent creature.

After driving a little further we arrived in Brough where we found just the right sort of tea shop for our mood.  It was small, busy and quiet.  Overlooking the tea shop were the ruins of Brough Castle which we went to explore after lunch.  We then resumed our homeward journey.