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Route No 135f - Thursday
21 April 2005
Fenwick to Holy Island - 9km.
St. Cuthbert's Way
Northumberland
Map: OS Explorer 340 Holy Island & Bamburgh at 1:25000
Note: the route is marked on the OS maps and
is well signposted
Old
farm machinery store near Fenwick |
This
was it - the last short leg to the finish. We had breakfast
at 7.30am to allow us an early start. We needed to walk
across the tidal causeway, have a look around the island
and meet our lift for home all before the tide closed the
causeway at around midday until around 5.00pm. We left our
B&B just after 8.00am and crossed the A1 - lots of very
fast traffic, and made our way across the fields to the
next hazard, the east coast main railway line with trains
traveling at 125 miles an hour. After a good look and listen
we scuttled across as fast as we could and continued to
the start of the causeway near Beal. We started our crossing
at 9.00am. It was a lovely day and the sunlight across the
wet sands looked absolutely beautiful. There was a heron
stalking through the reed grass near the causeway as we
set off, and a little farther on a young woman was getting
her horse out of a trailer. She mounted up as we approached
and rode off across the sand until rider and horse disappeared
as a tiny dot in the haze across the sands. |
|
It
seemed easy going across the causeway with its flat even
surface, or maybe it was just that the end was in sight.
Anyway whatever the reason we crossed the 5km of causeway
in just an hour and by 10.00am were passing the car park
where we had arranged to be picked up a little later.
We continued into the village to the ruins of Lindisfarne
Priory and had a look round the ruins. The the next priority
was a coffee shop. We left our boots and rucksacks in
the porch and went in. Large cappuccino and large slice
of coffee and walnut cake. A funny mixture of modern and
traditional coffee shop fare, but very tasty. There was
a very vocal group of elderly ladies in the coffee shop,
out on a day trip and my wife volunteered my services
to take a group photo for them. This took about as much
organising as a wedding group, but eventually everyone
was in except for one abstainer and all was well.
|
Heron
stalking through the reed grass near the causeway |
The
start of the causeway near Beal
Then we set off back to the car park. My daughter and
son-in-law were coming to meet us and were already waiting
when we arrived. We set off back across the causeway
at about 11.15am after a wonderful week's walking. The
strange thing was in the whole week we had not encountered
anyone else walking the St. Cuthbert's Way route in
either direction. In fact the only other walkers we
had seen were local dog walkers. We had had the wonderful
hills all to ourselves. As well as getting us much fitter
the whole experience does your mind good too.
Looking
along the Pilgrims Path across the sands
Statue
of St. Cuthbert in the Priory Gardens
|
Rider
setting off across the sands
Me
at the first refuge point on the causeway
Lindisfarne
Castle from the Priory gardens
The
ruins of Lindisfarne Priory - journey's end
|
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