After many hours of driving – many lorries, caravans and motor homes- not to mention torrential rain – I am in a cottage in Seahouses, Northumberland. The sun is shining, the wind is blowing and the tourists are neither in the Algarve nor on cruises so the place is very busy.

This the cottage we are staying in. This is a traditional style for the area, although the conservatory may not be original.

Bamburgh Castle, famous from endless tv series over the years, is just up the beach.

After indulging the dog with a dip in the sea until her arthritis kicked in, we went to Alnwick.

Alnwick is the home town of the Duke of Northumberland, one of the biggest landowners in the country. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_Northumberland). This is their modest little castle.

Although the castle is famous for its gardens and there are currently socially distanced tours of the state rooms (COVID), we were not able to visit as dogs are not allowed, even in the garden.

The town is very elegant, mainly Victorian and Georgian (or older) and self contained enough as it is far from other big towns. The castle is just outside the town and the side streets seem to end in views of the park.

The whole of the English / Scottish border was at war, officially or unofficially, for several hundred years (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Scottish_border) until the two were united at the beginning of the eighteenth century. This means that there are a plethora of castles and other fortifications in this area. People were still building castles around here whilst, further south, there were grand mansions going up.