Hilary's St Oswald's Way Walk & Wollaton Park Wander

I am once again walking to raise money, this time for Nottinghamshire Hospice. I'll be taking two weeks to walk some of the 97 mile St Oswald's Way in Northumberland, then coming home to round it off with a Wollaton Park Wander on Saturday 16th July, when I hope lots of you can join me.




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Day 5. Lindisfarne

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   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
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Day 10. Howick: A Mad Search

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Oh, dear, poor Rachel. If she'd known what the morning held for us she may well have stayed in bed or gone off in a different direction to me! I had been delving into the St Oswald's Way guide book and discovered that along the Howick stretch of the walk was the site of a Mesolithic settlement. I suggested to Rachel that we could visit there in the morning and then return north to the lovely Craster to Dunstanborough Castle walk in the afternoon. The day was warm but slightly overcast as we set off.  Googlee maps, my trusty friend, gave me a clear indication of the Howick site. We drove down the coast. In my excitement I misread the entry in the Guidebook. I was expecting to see evidence of the original settlement, there is a photo of the 'tepee' shaped round house in the book. I did not note that this was a reconstruction! We arrived at a strip of wild car park on a track leading to a farm, just a few metres back from the cliff edge overlooking the sea. Googlee maps cl
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