Breakfast was just as quirky as on previous days, never knowing when the toast would arrive. Today after a reminder the toast arrived late and cold. Too late to accompany my breakfast!

As we stepped out of the hotel, we found that the weather was wonderfully sunny with a bright blue sky and fluffy clouds. It was a little bit chilly out of the sunshine but lovely and warm otherwise. Our first port of call was Jedburgh Abbey, the size of which is impressive.

Shortly after we arrived a Scottish Heritage volunteer came over to us and gave us a guided tour of the abbey. The tour was very informative and after we explored the abbey further. I purchased a CD from the shop (the music was playing in the abbey’s museum) and was told that this music plays in the crypt of Dryburgh Abbey. We chose not to have an early lunch in Jedburgh thinking we might eat later at the Chain Bridge Honey Farm.

First we visited Dryburgh Abbey which is a beautiful ruin in a tranquil landscape setting with the graves of Sir Walter Scott and Earl Haig in its grounds. As we were viewing the crypt and listening to the music another Scottish Heritage volunteer came to impart some information about the abbey.

Next we made our way to the Chain Bridge Honey Farm for lunch on its Bus Cafe. I decided to have Honey Cake which was the obvious choice. The cake was delicious and because the weather was so nice we decided to sit outside rather than on the double decker.

We had arrived at the farm from Scotland via the Union Chain Bridge and had parked at the side of the road as we had always done in the past. It looked rather quiet with only one other car parked but when we got inside the Farm was buzzing with people. It was then that I noticed a car park that had not been there on our last visit.

There was also the new addition of a Bee Keepers garden. The garden was a delight, filled with plants to attract bees and butterflies. As we walked around the garden we noticed the entrance to the car park which we would have seen if we had arrived from the other direction of England rather than Scotland.

Before leaving we visited the shop so that I could buy some honey lip balm. As we were choosing our purchases a young lady brought a piece of cake to the lady who was serving and as she gave her the cake mentioned that there had been an article in a Scottish newspaper about their lip balm. Mr C told them both that I had been using their lip balm for years which they found pleasing.

We got chatting about Telford and Thomas Telford, who hailed from Scotland. The conversation got onto the Coach House where we have previously stayed and we learned that the owner was an opera singer and used to burst into song whilst serving the guests. That was news to us but, having met her once many years ago before she moved abroad leaving the Coach House to be managed by others, it didn’t surprise us.

We had some time to spare so we returned to Flodden Battlefield and the lanes nearby to see if we could locate the Cherry Pie Tree. This time we were successful. The tree hasn’t changed very much in all those years since I photographed it last time. Mission duly accomplished, we took the short walk up to the Flodden Memorial before returning to the hotel to freshen up before enjoying a Sunday Roast in the nearby Bluebell pub.

For some 750 years Durham Castle was the ceremonial palace of the Prince Bishops of Durham.  Since the 1980s it has been the home of the University College, the foundation College of the University of Durham.

Within the castle are many interesting features including the Great Hall and the Black Staircase, but the part of the castle that interested me the most was The Norman Chapel:

The chapel features an unusual array of carvings, some thought to show religious scenes and values, others simply decorative.  One of its capitals depicts a man with two dogs hunting a stag which may be a representation of St Eustace, who converted to Christianity when he saw an apparition of Jesus appear between the horns of the stag he was hunting.  Others include the earliest known representation of a mermaid in England, as well as leopards, a snake and a green man.*

In particular I was intrigued by the thought of the mermaid representation being the first in England.

Grey towers of Durham
yet will I love thy mixed and massive piles
Half Church of God, half castle ‘gainst the Scot
And long to roam these venerable aisles
With records stored of deeds long since forgot.’

Sir Walter Scott (From Harold the Dauntless)

*Durham World Heritage Site, A Guide to the Castle and Cathedral – Published in 2013 by Durham World Heritage Site.

The website Flodden 1513 has a wealth of information about the battle.

The year 1513 saw Henry VIII campaigning in France, leaving seasoned warrior, the Earl of Surrey, to guard Northern England.

Invoking the Auld Alliance with France, James IV of Scotland crossed the Tweed with a large well-equipped army. He took Norham, Etal and Ford Castles and established a stronghold a mile to the south of here, on Flodden Hill.

Surrey marched his forces north but avoided the Scottish position with a wide flanking move to the east, making his approach to the Battle from the north, via Twizel Bridge.

James was forced to relinquish his fortifications and move his troops and heavy cannon to the ridge of Branxton Hill. The English lines spread out west to east along the ridge on which Branxton stands.

Battle commenced in the late afternoon of 9th September 1513, when the Scots’ guns opened fire. It was dull, damp and muddy, having rained for most of the day.

In the following hours, these fields became the scene of bloody carnage in which an estimated 4,000 Englishmen and 10,000 Scots, including their king and many nobles lost their lives.

Sir Walter Scott describes the battle of Flodden in his poem Marmion.

From Flodden ridge,

The Scots beheld the English host

Leave Barmoor Wood, their evening post

And headful watched them as they crossed

The Till by Twizell Bridge.

High sight it is, and haughty, while

They dive into the deep defile;

Beneath the cavern’d cliff they fall,

Beneath the castle’s airy wall.

By rock, by oak, by Hawthorn tree,

Troop after troop are disappearing;

Troop after troop their banners rearing

Upon the eastern bank you see.

Still pouring down the rocky glen,

Where flows the sullen Till,

And rising from the dim-wood glen,

Standards on standards, men on men,

In slow procession still,

And sweeping o’er the Gothic arch,

And pressing on in ceaseless march,

To gain the opposing hill.

More of the poem can be heard on the following YouTube video:

***Index to my posts on Flodden.***