Here we are again, finding time to continue our circumnavigation of the UK using our invaluable 'The most amazing places on Britain's coast' as our inspiration.
May 26 - June 3
Crosby to Blackpool
Google Maps
from 'Amazing Places'
Staying at the rather nice Southport CAMC site, we explore the coast from here down to Crosby, just north of Liverpool. Writing this, we're about to move to the CAMC South Blackpool site, so here's a recap...
Southport, with a population of over 94k, is a slightly faded but rather wonderful historic town with many examples of Victorian buildings, a number being restored. The town's pier is the second longest British pier, the surprise being that a large part of it is over the land as a result of the shifting sands in this area causing significant coastal build up since its construction.
The Atkinson, an arts centre in a beautiful restored building absorbs a lot of our time here; a great start.
Heading to Crosby, just north of Liverpool, we walk and gaze at Antony Gormley's art installation Another Place, his many 'Iron Men' gazing out to sea.
A 20 minute walk takes us to Crosby Marine Park and Seaforth with its two large lagoons; the cormorants mentioned in our faithful guide are notable by their absence.
Heading north again, we stop at Formby, a long trek through the dunes leading to a large and busy beach with views of the many ships heading for the Mersey at Liverpool.
The old Formby Church of St Luke houses the gravestone of Richard Formby, the 7 foot tall armour bearer to Henry IV and Henry V known as Richard the Giant.
We drive and walk through the massive dune system of Ainsdale Nature Reserve before heading back to base. Much work has stabilised the previously neglected but shifting dunes and, like much of this coast, difficult flood protection work has been completed. It's a haven for birdlife and Natterjack toads.
A day spent in Blackpool takes us back to times that we visited with the children so many years ago. There are more holiday beds here than the whole of Portugal with crowds flocking to the Tower, Ballroom, Sands and the famous Pleasure Beach with truly terrifying rides. That's over 10 million people. We content ourselves with ascending to the top gallery of the Tower and exploring the well kept seafront with its modern tramway.
For a complete contrast we head to Lytham and St Annes (Lytham St Annes) which are far more sedate towns and resorts with some wonderful Victorian houses. St Annes, in particular, was a resort for the more wealthy in those (and possibly current) times. A memorial to a lifeboat crew lost in 1886 stands here - unfortunately erected in front of the public toilets.
To the west, the sprawling village of Freckleton has a notable brick built church from 1837 which we could only admire from the outside. A major battle of the Civil War took place on the marshes here.
Sunday sees us exploring north of Blackpool....
As we walk along Skippool Creek on the bank of the River Wyre for a km or so, we pass dozens of moorings, some with modern boats but many with expired craft looking a bit dilapidated. A sailing club offers meals for hungry passers-by.
After another riverside walk at the Wyre Estuary Country Park we head north to Fleetwood with its three lighthouses, needed in times gone by because of its position at an exposed point with its thriving fishing industry in those days. The docks have been redeveloped into a marina and shopping complex although the fishing industry described in our 'amazing places' guide has now all but disappeared, as has as the pier. It's a well-kept town though.
The Mount gives a good view of the western side of the promenade and boating lake.
Heading for the Mount from our faithful motor...
We stop at the seaside town of Cleverlys briefly and then set off in search of Marsh Mill, built in 1794, but find that it has been almost totally enclosed by a housing area of dubious architectural merit. In any case, a notice declares it to be closed.
The Mill's in there somewhere...
Taking a pause because of a rainy day we spend it cheering up the 'van interior, which has been slightly neglected since we downsized and don't have a big enough drive to park it on. It's due for a service when we get back. How many thousands of miles have we covered since we bought it twelve years ago?
Slightly better weather is forecast tomorrow so we'll hopefully finish our last couple of explorations of this area before the long slog back in the wind and rain..,
...We finish our stay in the area with a visit to the rather impressive Lytham Hall. Owned by fourteen generations of the Clifton family until the gross expenditure and gambling of latter members resulted in its loss to creditors (Guardian insurance - now GRE), it's now part of the North West Heritage Trust and presented in an exceptional way. So we can't use our English Heritage membership but, for us, it's worth the £11 entrance fee.
The journey back is straightforward but the weather pretty horrendous as we battle the HGVs on the M55, M6, M1 and M25. Still, we make it an reasonable time with a couple of stops, taking the M6 toll to escape from dense traffic and also stop at Norton Canes Services, which is, amazingly, where I went to primary school (well, Norton Canes, not the Services).
Where next?
16th June - 14th July
Berwick, Edinburgh and Perth
On the road again, we head to Berwick upon Tweed for a brief re-visit before crossing the border into Scotland to continue exploring.
A moan...
This really hacks me off. It's becoming much more common - sometimes leading us to move to the next services because we just can't park.
We stop over at a CAMC site at Staveley, near Chesterfield, making an easy two day run to Berwick, arriving in time for a walk around the town.
The view from our home on wheels..
The Berwick Bridges again..
We have just one more day here and a few places to visit, so we head out northward into Scotland full of anticipation, starting our exploration at Eyemouth. We spend too much time here really walking along the working dockside, then visiting the excellent little museum, which is home to a colourful tapestry commemorating 'Disaster Day' of 1881 when 189 fishermen lost their lives in a sudden violent storm.
Locally made momento to the lost fishermen - their loved ones looking out to sea.
Moving on to St Abbs, there are pretty old cottages around a small harbour. Rock stacks a short way offshore are covered with sea birds.
Further north at Coldingham, we stop at the priory, now a parish church but once part of a grand medieval priory that suffered under Cromwell's guns.
The beach here is a local hot spot for bathers, beach huts surrounding the small bay, complete with a lifeguard station.
We head to Pease Bay - our super guide describing a pretty bay surrounded by wooded glens but we find nowhere to park and the whole bay is taken over by a holiday park of large mobile caravans with only a narrow pedestrian access.... Is that progress!
We move on, finishing the day at Cove, a small village with an unusual feature; it has a 55m tunnel to the beach, now privately owned, but was once the main link to the curing house for the fisherman in times gone by. The house is now a residence.
Friday sees us collecting supplies before a one hour trip to our new CAMC campsite at North Berwick, passing the Scottish border on the way. It's a wet trip and we arrive in rain with the front of the 'van covered in messy road spray- and there's a new rule here - No Cleaning Cars and Vans. Luckily a local goblin gives the 'van a wipe over while we had our backs turned; there can be no other explanation.
Saturday brings sun and light cloud which is ideal for the walk to St Abbs Head, so we backtrack and spend most of the day walking to the Head, finding a path back to the start alongside Mire Loch.
The Head and surrounding land is looked after by National Trust Scotland and an enthusiastic group of staff at a major nesting site encourage us to use their monoculars to observe and film the nesting birds here, of which there are thousands.
Highlights of the next few days include:
The ancient town of Dunbar, with its 18th and 19th Century grand houses and wide main street has expanded considerably since those times. Although the fishing fleet has declined, some boats remain in the attractive harbour.
This was the birthplace of John Muir and a statue of the man sits in the main street outside the old whitewashed church.
Its Fathers' Day and after chatting to daughters on the phone, we take a seafood lunch in the harbour; Idyllic.
The John Muir country park provides some 8 miles of beaches and dunes, frequented by surf schools; we explore the park and also spend a little time on the beach.
There's drizzle in the air on Monday 22nd so we take the opportunity to spend time at the excellent Museum of Flight which houses one of the few preserved Anglo-French Concordes, a 'plane that was so very far ahead of its time, entering service in 1976 until 2003. There is still no supersonic passenger aircraft in service. It's uplifting to see this wonderful 'plane again.
There is so much to see here, including this old comet airliner, a British first (as a commercial jet aircraft) until metal fatigue resulted in terrible accidents and the grounding of all fleets for modifications.
We arrive at Dirleton for a late pub lunch before visiting the crumbling castle and wonderful gardens, our National Trust membership giving us free access as it's looked after by the National Trust of Scotland.
We finish the day by visiting smart Gullane with its church ruins (abandoned after being engulfed by drifting sand) before curling up in the 'van to recap on the news; Kier Starmer has resigned today and it looks as if Andy Burnham will take the reins. Two years seems to be about right for a UK PM these days; what the hell is happening?
After a day of rest on our rather nice local beach, we head out on Wednesday to see a few sights before we say goodbye to this stretch of coast tomorrow.
Here's a 'loupin-on' stone outside the church in the village of Aberlady with its main street of 18th & 19th Century Gothic- detailed houses; the stone enabled riders to mount their horses in a dignified manner... especially in their Sunday best.
Tantallon Castle sits perched on the cliffs to the east of North Berwick
There's a great view of Bass Rock from the Castle's ramparts. The Rock has an interesting history but is now home to a large colony of gannets.
We complete the day with a longer visit to North Berwick, a short drive from our campsite. It's an upmarket town with nice places to eat, a good selection of smart shops and nice beaches each side of the harbour. We eat seated on the harbour wall; a lobster and crab roll is £24, which tells you a lot about this rather lovely place.
We think of donning the walking gear and climbing the extinct volcano that overlooks the town but, fortunately, we're out of time..
So here we are at CAMC Edinburgh campsite after a drive of just over one hour. We're here for ten nights, which should give us time to explore the city, visit some must-see sights and also complete more of our coastal tour.... but that's after the heavy rain and violent thunderstorms forecast for around 3am.... while our daughters bake in temperatures of around 37 degrees in London and Leigh.
Thanks for getting us here Volvo, more work to do...
From the site, we check out Aberlady Bay with a long wooden footbridge entering the park.
From here we also have a look at Prestonpans, a small cairn at the eastern entrance commemorating the famous battle of 1745.
The 17th Century Market Cross is topped by a royal unicorn.
Edinburgh
We plan to spend three days in the city while we're at the site so for our first trip we use the bus to head into the centre. Here's our itinerary:
Calton Hill for a brilliant view of the city and Arthur's Seat. We view all the ancient monuments and get an even better view by ascending the Nelson Monument...
...and here it is with the Portuguese Gun in the foreground...
That's a timeball on the top which drops a 13.00 so sea Captains can check their chronometers, essential for accurate navigation by the stars.
The National Monument of Scotland from the top...
...and the old Observatory, now an arts centre
Heading down to the Old Town we're puzzled to see what looks like a sniper atop of a building near Holyrood by the Scottish Parliament Building. Getting closer, the street is cordoned off with armed Scottish soldiers each side. We stop opposite the entrance with a fair number of others, then King Charles arrives in a few minutes.... Surreal.
Walking from here up the Golden Mile to a pre- booked visit to the famous castle is a reminder of the history in this wonderful city.
Rub Hume's toe to become so wise it's possible to get a first .... or so they say.
The Castle visit was wonderful of course.
The building on the right houses the Scottish Crown.. We unthinkingly queue to see it but it's just an empty cabinet.... then the penny drops; it's being used for the official opening of the Scottish Parliament where we saw King Charles.. Would have been good to know; no sign explaining why - guess it's security. When we ask if that's the reason, 'yes' is the answer..
We alternate visits to the city by bus with trips to see coastal highlights, keeping one eye on the weather... Let's have some Edinburgh highlights in one place though:
Taking a walking tour from our favourite - Lonely Planet, we meander through the wonderful Old Town and its warren of alleyways and streets..
The Castle again
There's so much more uplifting stuff we discover before finishing with an upmarket Haggis. Mine's gluten free plus a glass of a highland malt.
We have around 100 photos and so much more to say but that's definitely enough for now.
Around Edinburgh
While at this site, we don't forget our mission to see everything in our magic Amazing Places book so let's see what's within reach from here.
Leith is an upmarket town with the dock areas restored with nice pubs and restaurants. It's the home of the former royal yacht Britannia and it's fascinating to see how this was used as a diplomatic floating palace. It's also interesting to see the levels of 'class' in the crew. Only the best wine for the many officers at dinner each night of course. Were we paying for all that excess? I think we were.
Musselburgh is known as the 'honest town' after caring for the dying Regent of Scotland in 1332 Its once fine 18th Century buildings are now looking a little tired.
Portobello, once a favoured beach resort of Edwardian day trippers has maintained its seaside attraction and, on our Sunday visit at least, was in great form.
.......................
We take a quick trip into Queensferry, primarily to get a close up view of the famous Victorian Forth Rail Bridge, which we'd also seen close up from the other end. Queensferry is, though, a surprise; it's a lovely old town with quite a history. The bridge towers magnificently over the town.
The very grand Hopetoun House is the seat of the Marquess of Linlithgow and makes a great visit; it's furnished to display and celebrate its many 18th Century contents. The family live in one wing of the house, while we help fund the whole enterprise by paying the entry fee. We're lucky to see it as the day after our visit, it closes for a couple of months as Netflix take it over to film a new, secret, series.
The House of Binns is the ancestral home of the Dalyell family and the first to be taken into the care of the National Trust for Scotland; they've done a great job in preserving its essence. Remember Tam Dalyell, the influential Labour MP, once Father of the House?
Continuing our cultural immersion, one of Scotland's most important artillery posts from the 16th Century to the 1st World War was at Blackness Castle, looking out over the Forth. It's well restored to its 1870 form.
Bridgeness and Carriden, a suburb of Bo'ness carries a replica distance marker slab from the Antonine Wall, which wound its way across these parts. We also see an old winding house and the capped off mineshaft in an adjacent field.
The Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway, HQ of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society houses a recently constructed high quality museum with a large number of indoor exhibits including a number if well preserved Scottish-made steam engines. We take the short steam headed train trip.
It's great to see so many active volunteers here, working to preserve the world class achievements of our early pioneering engineers. It seems to me that we do so often under value our industrial heritage.
Bo'ness town flourished during the industrial revolution but now shows signs of decline, although there were some recently constructed apartments in evidence.
We drive through Grangemouth's massive industrial area which is dominated by the cooling towers of the old BP refinery and the massive construction and maze of piping of the Ineos petrochemical works.
We've seen so much here - and could see much more; we're a little sad to leave, but leave we must.
July 5 - Heading to Scone
The weather's a bit cool and drizzly but, despite that, we have a straightforward drive of just over one hour up to Scone, just NW of Perth. It's a Camping and Caravanning Club site and we get the usual warm welcome and an escort to our pre-booked pitch.
It's the British GP today and I always watch this live if possible... and so I do at 3pm. Sue stays awake to watch England beat Mexico, with a 2am kick-off so our full first day here doesn't involve much energy...
...So, up late and dozy, we head into Perth, some 15 minutes away with the Volvo. Our first port of call is the stylish, brilliantly presented Perth Museum housed housed in the old city hall; the architect has done a brilliant job here. The jewel in the crown is the multimedia time journey leading up to the viewing of the mythical Stone of Destiny. The stone is only to be removed from here to London to be part of the coronation of a new monarch. It's then returned.
After all this excitement, we are welcomed onto the large, immaculately kept central St. John's Kirk, founded in 1126.
After lunch in the museum café, coffee and a cake in an excellent coffee bar close to the Kirk and a wander around the town, we gather some essentials from Sainsbury's Local and head back to base to plan the rest of the adventure before we head back to Leigh on Sea early next week...
Meanwhile on we go. It's Tuesday....
Scone Palace - next to the mound where Robert the Bruce and other Kings of Scotland were crowned has an important place in the history of the country (see link). Rebuilt by the third Earl of Mansfield in 1803, the palace continues to be the property of the family; now a business, the current Earl stays occasionally.
The Palace..
The Chapel..
The site of Crowning of Kings, sitting on the Stone of Destiny..
Stanley Mills is a excellent museum which was once a large water driven textile mill. Arkwright was a genius in devising and implementing complex weaving and other automated machines in the textile business; he was deeply involved in the development of Stanley Mills and some of the original machines remain. Half of the vast mill is now converted to flats with the remainder devoted to the museum. The extremely dangerous and hard life of the workers is clear - but there was also a very strong camaraderie in the workplace and the town of Stanley that was created to house the workers.
Wednesday - let's explore...
The Hermitage is a beautifully restful wooded place by the river Braan. We walk to the Black Linn Falls, best viewed from the folly Ossian's hall, a small folly built over the falls by the Duke of Atholl.
Walking along the Braan, we pass the oldest and largest remaining oak from the medieval forest.
Walking on and crossing the river Tey, we reach the rather nice town of Dunkeld and take a drink at the hotel bar/coffee bar on the river bank.
Travelling on, we reach the smart town of Pitlochry, clearly catering for large numbers of tourists. We take a pub lunch here and spend time visiting the Dam and its power station. Completed in 1950, it was updated in 2000 and it's still going strong; hydro electric power makes a significant contribution in Scotland. The visitor centre is clearly aimed at educational visits with working models (Great Fun). The café overlooks the Dam and serves a nice coffee.
The dam design incorporates a fish ladder with monitoring cameras so that Salmon returning to spawn can be counted and monitored as they ascend to the top of the dam.
Finally we head to a viewing point (Queens View Visitor Centre) on Loch Tummel. The centre's closed by the time we get there but the viewing point was worth the effort.
An accident on the A90 on the way home closes the road but the Volvo's built in Google gets us home via a circuitous B road or two in time for a latish meal which we eat outside. It's hot at last, well 26⁰ - not the 30⁰+ in Leigh on Sea, that is.
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