Scotland 2023 Day 7: Beamish Open Air Museum and Brinkburn Priory

Having slept poorly the previous night we both managed a good night’s sleep this time. Our room had the World’s Smallest Shower. It was even smaller than the small showers we’ve had on some of the cruise ships. It was so small that I was forced to use the house-supplied soap and shampoo, as there was no room for me to bend over to pick my stuff up off the shower floor.

We went down for breakfast where I had a barely adequate Eggs Benedict while E opted for fruit and toast. While packing up back in our bedroom we had another moment in common with the last hotel – the fire alarm went off! Guess it REALLY is time to go! As we were heading downstairs with our suitcases the alarm turned off, and at the bar we were told that someone had burned some toast.

We drove over to Beamish Open Air Museum – for a place that opens at 10A, it was already busy when we arrived. We were quite surprised at the scope and scale of this place. There was a lot of stuff to see and a huge staff of costumed interpreters everywhere. I thought the staff might have been high because we were there on the weekend, but when I asked I was assured that they have about 400 employees and they are fully staffed 364 days of the year! We had a delightful time!


The main entry to Beamish.  They had a VERY large car park, which was already bustling when we arrived at the nominal opening time.

This was, IIRC, inside an 1840's middle-class farmhouse, in what would have been the master bedroom.  I took almost no pictures at Beamish.  I was started to get tired of taking pictures...

On this day they had a number of horse-drawn conveyances out.  This was a special thing on the day we were there that is not part of normal operations.  You can walk around Beamish (but distances are deceptively long and involve very steep hills), take one of the vintage omnibuses, or hop on the electric trolley that circles the museum on the tracks seen here.


We grabbed a coffee shop sandwich on our way out around 130P and drove to Brinkburn Priory and Manor House, sharing bites of the sandwich on our way there. Brinkburn is out of the way and (probably) not very popular. I chose it simply because it was one of the few attractions that was naturally on our path between Beamish and Alnwick.  There was only one other car in the carpark when we arrived, although we saw a bunch in the “staff” lot – many of which turned out to not be staff. There was a wedding Open House for folks considering booking the site for their wedding, and many of those “staff” cars were folks who considered it their right to park there rather than where us commoners had to park. They had a nice small guide book which was nice, but there was only about 45 minutes needed to exhaust everything they had to offer, so we were quickly back on the road around 3P heading for Alnwick and The Cookie Jar. We grabbed a random parking spot on the street and only then noticed that we’d parked immediately in front of the hotel!


Details from some of the windows at Brinkburn Priory.  The attached manor house is basically an empty shell with plywood covered floors.  Although I'm sure they have plans to renovate it seems like Brinkburn is likely low on the spending priority list for the National Trust and it wouldn't shock me if another decade passes before anything happens.


I was struck by the sight of plants growing on the low roof of the Priory.

Everything about The Cookie Jar was lovingly done. A lot of thought went into the design of all the interiors that we saw with an eye to elegance and comfort. There was a very nice reception area with a couple of common sitting rooms. We received a quick apology that their bistro was totally booked for the evening and that they hoped we had other dinner arrangements elsewhere. The receptionist took us up to our room and showed us key things, like how to control the towel heater and the bathroom fan, both of which we probably would not have figure out. Our window overlooked the castle and was far and away the best room of the entire trip. Fresh cookies in a jar on our desk. A nice little booklet telling the history of the building – it had been a convent from 1880-1985.

The quite posh bathroom at The Cookie Jar.  I suspect the nuns never had it this good.

The view of Alnwick castle from our bedroom.  Ancestral home of the power Percy family, they still use it as their residence (at least, when they are in Alnwick) and undertake constant renovations and repairs.  

A street scene in Alnwick.  We're on our way to The Market Tavern for dinner.


This is basically shot from just outside the entrance to The Cookie Jar.  Yeah, we stayed this close to the castle.  There's a gate just off the right side of the photo that is the main entry to the castle.

I called the restaurant I had preselected as our destination for the night (Lilburns)…all found them booked up!! I called our backup restaurant – ditto! End up with pub/steakhouse (Market Tavern/Steakhouse) that could take us, but no later than 530P – which I was glad to take given the rejections I’d just experienced. Not the best meal in the world – we both did steaks – but we had a good time.

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