West London Area - Long Weekend to Northumberland - w/c 6th June

Area Discussion West London
2

Providing I can get sufficient interest and take up, I will be taking a group for a long weekend in Northumberland, week commencing Saturday 6th June.  However, since properties in June are only let out on a weekly basis then people are free to stay for the full week, which makes sense given the distance and time to get up there!

The property I have in mind is Alma House in Seahouses, perfectly located at the coast to sample all the delights that Northumberland has to offer.  There are 4 doubles, 1 twin and an extra room which has a sofa bed.  This equates to 5 or 6 cars worth of people.  Sorry, no pets allowed.

To give you a guide on the price, then for 10 people it would work out at approximately £126 per person for the week.

Some of the things I have in mind are:

  • Trip to the Farne Islands to see the puffins
    * Trip to Holy Island/Lindesfarne (tides permitting)
    * Drive to Kielder Forest and/or evening visit to the Observatory
    * Jim Clake museum (twice F1 world champion)
    * Visit to NT Cragside - first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectric power
    * Exploring the vast countryside and coastal beaches and castles, including majestic Bamburgh.

I am wanting to get this trip finalised as soon as possible so that a deposit can be placed to secure it, therefore please can you let me know as soon as possible if you want to come along.

Attendees
1. Helen & Chris
2. Richard & Linda
3. Peter & Anna
4. Derek & Dorothy
5. Bill & Elaine
6. Bob


 

3

Helen thanks for organising this, please put our names down.

 

Peter and Anna

4

Helen, thanks for organising this, I hope we have enough people signing up to make it viable. It’s one of the bits of Britain Linda and I have never been to, and we are very much looking forward to it.

I have a specific interest in some of the places you mentioned and had a browse, links below.

Jim Clark was one of my heroes, and as a teenager I actually met him to get an autograph on the Lotus stand at the 1965 Motor Show in Earls Court.
http://www.jimclarktrust.com/

Astrophysics was a module I enjoyed at Uni and the Kielder Observatory would be interesting for me, so I had a look at their events scheduled for the week you suggest in June.
http://www.kielderobservatory.org/events/

As an Engineer and DIYer it has always been my ambition to see Armstrong’s classic innovation of hydro-powered electricity at Cragside.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cragside/

And then there is all that fantastic scenery and the varied and interesting driving!

5

Not everyone frequents the forum, so I’m hoping that the publication of STHT and our newsletter any day now will bring in more interest and fill the remaining places.

6

Thanks for the interest. The main bedrooms have now been taken. Just a room with a sofa bed available, will do this at a reduced cost if someone is desperate to come along and join us.

7

I’m interested in the sofa bed option - does that also make me desperate?

Bob

8

No, we’d be happy to have you! From the picture the sofa looks ok, I don’t think it will be that bad!

The cottage appears to be still available so I’ll make plans to get that organised this weekend and will email everyone with details etc.

Thanks everyone - should be a good week.

Bob, please bring the sunshine :slight_smile:

9

He did.

Having a good time up in Northumberland, beautiful sunshine so far, lots of good food and super accommodation,

Alma Cottage
Alma Cottage1024×473 89.7 KB

And a visit to Holy Island allowed the obligatory line-up

Holy Island cars
Holy Island cars1024×297 49.1 KB

And then on to Bamburgh Castle, but those are not car pictures

.

 Edit 12-06-2015. Added more pics

A visit to the Farne Islands is something not to be missed.  The birds are close enough to touch, and some of them will not just touch you but hammer you on the head, so wear a hat.

Cormorants nest
Cormorants nest1024×785 93.6 KB

 

and we also visited the Keilder Observatory, a couple of miles of dirt road each way making cars very dusty,

Keilder carpark fives
Keilder carpark fives1024×626 72 KB

 

And of course we could not forget delightful Whizzy

Whizzy
Whizzy1024×650 92.8 KB

 

A visit to Cragside is also a must, outstanding grounds and house, and NT

Cragside car parking
Cragside car parking1024×486 124 KB

 

We finished off with a visit to Alnwick Castle, a bit expensive on first impression, but actually outstanding value for money, far more there than can be seen in a single day, or even perhaps in several days.

Overall, our impressions of Northumberland were how beautiful and unspoiled it all was.  The scenery is superb, the visitor attractions are well organised and worth while, and Helen was a genius in choosing the only whole week (so far this year according to the locals) with wall to wall sunshine for total top-down motoring.

We’d love to do this again.

Many Thanks

10

I would like to add our thanks to Helen for organising this fantastic  holiday. We have been looking at our photos, which brought back so many great memories. This has been the best event we have every attended. Plus the best driving roads l have experienced in an MX5. Thanks again Helen for this fabulous event

Peter and Anna

 

11

Just wanted to add my thanks to Helen for all her hard work in organising the trip, both in advance and during the week itself.  I’m sure you felt like a teacher at times, Helen, trying to keep us all in order and making sure we all made our way safely to our many destinations.

It was a great week, as Richard has already described above. Thanks everyone for making it a fun time.

 

Bob