Scotland 2023 Day 8: Alnwick Castle and Finishing the Drive to Edinburgh
The Cookie Jar's Bistro was the site for our quiet breakfast room, where we both enjoyed a continental breakfast (as we still didn't have much appetite for a hot breakfast) Corn flakes and toast for me, fruit, yogurt, and toast for E. Nice char on the toast – well done, English!Alnwick Castle surprisingly wonderful. Arrived as gates were opening at 10A (making the long 100 ft? walk from our hotel). Quick detour to wrong area – the kids section devoted to living Harry Potter-ish adventures, since Alnwick featured in HP 1 and 2 – then finally found the inner bailey where we met the 1030A history tour. Very interesting! Landscape by Capability Brown incredible to see (and to think about the “making of” too). Post-tour we took in several other parts of the castle, including the public rooms of the Percy family home, the wall walk, and a couple of the towers. Had lunch there, where they had both a generic café as well as a fryery.
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| Statue of Harry Hotspur, who was (probably) born at Alwnick Castle. An heir of the powerful Percy family, he supported the usurper Henry Bolingbroke (later Henry IV) before rebelling and ultimately being killed by Henry V. |
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| A view of Alwnick Castle from the Outer Bailey. In the original design, the mound that the castle sits on would have been more obvious, for it would have been surrounded by a deep and steep dry moat filled with (among other things) stakes and other obstacles. |
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| Walls around the Outer Bailey. The Abbot's Tower, nestled in the corner, is now the Museum of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. |
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| Many of the tower battlements have statues on them. They are unusual in the fact that each statue is unique and performing an action that would have been appropriate for a castle inhabitant. |
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| The entrance to the residence off the Inner Bailey. We met our guide here for our tour of the exterior of the tower. Following the tour we went inside, where no cameras could be used, to see where the Percy family lived (and still lives). |
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| Around the top of the towers are both more statues and, under the battlements, coats of arms. Essentially, those shields represented both Percy allies plus those they had defeated. They were declaring to all comers the scope of their power by displaying these. The shield between the two towers is the royal coat of arms, showing yet another powerful ally (when they weren't in rebellion, of course). |
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| A picture from the river side of the castle. The river was moved away from the castle around the 1780s by Capability Brown, but prior to that was much closer - perhaps near the foreground wall. As such, it would have represented yet another formidable obstacle to anyone trying to capture the castle. Although the castle changed hands several time in history, it was never taken by force. |
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| The nine half-round towers were a later addition to the castle and increased its defensive capabilities because the rounded projections would have increased fields of fire for archers. |
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| In the late 1700s the landscape architect Capability Brown completely changed the surroundings. Dozens (hundreds?) of small patchwork farms would removed, the land leveled off (or hills created for landscaping purposes), the river moved, and every tree carefully planted with an eye to creating viewing lanes or blocking views. Everything in this shot, back to the horizon, was part of Brown's work. |
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| I believe this was a photo showing a later, Victorian-era addition, which included a library on the second floor. |
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| A view of the main castle taken from the Wall Walk along the Inner Bailey. The lower green area in the right foreground would have once been the home of the castle kitchens - the black streaks running up the walks are remnants of smoke from the kitchen fires. |
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| A broader view of the Inner Bailey. On this particular day we could have spoken to some of the construction/renovation experts at the popup tents. In original use, this whole area would have been used as a field for military drill, plus it would have house a market and lots of bustling activities where the peasants would have taken part in castle life. |
Finally got into New St Car Park/Rental Car Return and dropped car off w/o fuss. We apparently had 1/16th of a tank left – which was probably still good for another 30 miles or so. Rolled our suitcases up a couple of blocks and arrived at The Inn on the Mile. Room is nice, although not as luxurious as The Cookie Jar nor as warm as the Radisson York – but still nice.
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| When I booked the room I'd had a "treat yo-self" moment and purchased this bottle of Prosecco along with some chocolate cookies. Both were waiting for us in our room when we arrived. |
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| Our bedroom. Those two windows looked out directly onto Lawnmarket AKA The Royal Mile. As we were on the corner there was another window behind me looking out on South Bridge Road. |
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| The bathroom. Sadly, couldn't figure out how to get the towel warming rack to work! |
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| The view immediately outside our window |
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