St Oswald's Way Wander and Wonderings

An incredibly bright, sparkling day and I decide to walk part of St Oswald's Way from Budle Bay to Bamburgh Castle whilst I wait for Rachel to arrive. The official route goes inland from Lindisfarne before joining the coast at the golf course above Bamburgh; but I walk from our hideaway cottage on Budle Bay, walking out to Budle Point then along the beach, instead of the cliff path. I check the map, its probably about 2 miles each way. I can do that.... The wind is almost constant along Budle Bay, but I love its wildness, and the sun is warm. The sea sparkles, the beaches are vast and open. It's an Armani colour palette of soft browns and beiges and that signature blue-grey or blue-green.   I walked with this wind in the winter, hunkered down into the hooded warmth of my padded coat but today the wind, though wild and blustery, is milder, my blue cardigan, that blends with sea and sky, is warm enough.  At Budle Point the wind lifts the soft white sand from the dune edges and ca

At the bottom of the Night Stairs in Hexham Abbey stands a tombstone to a Roman soldier named Flavinus. It was discovered beneath the Abbey floor in 1881. At nearly nine feet high it's the largest of its kind in England. I'm just sorry my quick phone snap isn't clearer. The original site of the grave marker is unknown but it's thought that it may have come from the nearby Roman settlement at Corbridge. This is where Wilfrid sourced most of the stone to build the original Abbey. Stones bearing Roman carvings and inscriptions can also be found in the 7th C entury crypt. The inscription at the bottom of the tombstone reads as follows, To the Venerated Departed: Here Lies Flavinus A Horse Rider of the Cavalry Regiment of Petriana Standard Bearer of the Troop of Candidus Aged 25, of 7 Years’ Service The scene carved on the stone shows a mounted Roman soldier riding over a cowering 'barbarian', a member of one of the ancient British tribes that the Romans defeated whe

  Yesterday, Susan, a friend who has been travelling and walking with in the past week went home to Nottingham and Rachel, another friend, who'll be joining me for the second week, won't arrive until tomorrow. So today I have the cottage on Budle Bay to myself. I woke early, about 4.30am, the view across the bay to Lindisfarne is so beautiful I can't bring myself to draw the blind in my bedroom, so |I wake with the dawn. Early waking has become a bit of a routine for me anyway, five or six hours sleep the norm, I don't know why, and mostly I don't fuss about it.  In true Hobbit tradition, I may have 'first breakfast' in bed, then fall back to sleep, before getting up for 'second breakfast' and starting the day. But, here on Budle Bay I'm out of the cottage by five, without breakfast. The tide is right in, filling the bay with water, and I cut through the dunes walking through head high ferns, the morning air full of the scent of wild roses and vo

  When I was a young teenager I read a novel by Gordon Honeycomb, called Dragon Under the Hill. You old-timers out there will remember him as a news reader from the 1970s. It was this book that gave me the desire to visit Lindisfarne some 45 years ago....and in November 2019 that wish was fulfilled with a day visit to the Island with my Irish friend Sarah. That's when I first heard the seals sing in a striking November sunset.  I re-read the book recently, it gives a great snapshot of the sexism of the 70s, whilst telling the tale of a boy and his father acting out an ancient struggle between Viking and Anglo-Saxon. The Island is now generally referred to as Holy Island, from the Latin Insula Sacra  used from around the time of rebuilding of the Priory in the 11th Century. I'm sure Aidan and Cuthbert would be happy about this, but I prefer the old English name Lindisfarne, Lindisfarena, named by the people of Lindsay , now Lincolnshire, when their influence spread this far nor

   And so I come to Lindisfarne, the official start of St Oswald's Way, which ends at Heavenfield, but I think this is the wrong way round and has more to do with offering a coherent system of Pilgrimage trails, rather than accurately depicting the life of St Oswald. Heavenfield was the site of Oswald's first great battle, where with inferior forces he defeated the Welsh invader, Cadwalla, and took back the throne of Nothumberland, whilst Lindisfarne represents the fulfilment of Oswald's ambition for Nothumbria to become a Christian kingdom.  Having regained the throne, Oswald sent word to Iona, where he had lived, in exile with the Irish monks and priests, after his father was killed in battle. Oswald asked the holy men of Iona to send a priest to help him fulfill his mission to lead the people of Northumbria back to Christianity. The original candidate, a rather pious man, found the Northumbrians abit too rough and ready and returned to Iona, suggesting it was a lost caus

 We left lovely Rothbury and followed the route of St Oswald's Way towards the coast at Warkworth, with its ruined, imposing castle. It wasn't the castle I wanted to visit, but the beautiful walk along the River Coquet. We had left behind the wild windiness and walked in sunshine, shaded at times by lush woodland that grows beside the footpath, whilst orchids sheltered amongst the long meadow grasses. We stopped at the mooring for the boat to the Hermitage before taking the road up towards the castle, walking beside golden barley and back to the town.  The afternoon took us Northwards towards our stay on Lindisfarne and the rain swept in from the west. By the time we reached the latter stages of the A1 we were driving in monsoon conditions, which continued as we crossed the Causeway. We had about half an hour before the end of the 'safe crossing' time, before the tide comes in and the Causeway is impassible. As we turned towards the Island a stream of cars were travelli