Aug 2 – Kelso and Alnwick Castle

Another long day of driving around Scotland…and England.  We headed south with our tour bus this morning with a bathroom stop in the small town of Kelso.  The town square was worth a photo or two but not much else.

There was an interesting, old cemetery

and the ruins of an abbey.

The main destination today is Alnwick Castle, home of the Dukes of Northumberland.  Alnwick is pronounced Anik (A as in apple, silent L and W).  The castle is nearly 900 years old and is the second largest inhabited castle in the UK, after Windsor Castle.  And the castle is in very good repair.  In theory this tour was included on our tour because of some Harry Potter filming that was done here.  They filmed a broomstick scene here.  But we never really went looking for that site...it appeared to be where there was a very large crowd of people.

We first hit the State Apartments.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t take photos inside.  Then we had lunch at the courtyard café. 

We also spent some time at the Gardens.  Oh, my goodness.  

What a very Grand Cascade with lots of fountains.  It was quite splendid. 

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Video of the Grand Cascade
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There were long living tunnels along the side of the cascade with occasional fountains along them. 

At the top of the cascades was a large formal garden.  Many of the flowers were just a bit past their prime but the gardens were interesting to explore. 

Mary explored the rose garden.  There were huge masses of a wide variety of roses but many were also just past their peak. 

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More Alnwick Castle and Gardens
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Then it was the long drive home. 

We had one stop in Bamburgh that had a magnificent castle, also in excellent shape.  Unfortunately, this was just a rest stop so no time to visit the castle. 

We did walk up through the little town to St. Aiden Church and cemetery.

There was a croquet match going on at a large green at the foot of the castle.

On the drive we took a bit later we took a detour up the side of a hill for views of Berwick upon Tweed.  This coastal border town changed a number of times as the Scots and the English fought for control here.  It is now in England.

The town has a lovely old arched train bridge that crosses the River Tweed.

We were back in town in time for dinner.  We were dropped off on the opposite side of the main tourist area from our hotel.  So we walked a while and found a Pizza Express for dinner…then back on the walk to the hotel.