Killing ground.

Hazy but warm this morning, we decided we wanted to do a bit more looking around and finish our tour of the walls here in Berwick before heading home.

Being at the Castle Hotel on Castlegate we started by looking at the remains of the castle almost hidden behind the station. 
Built in the 1100’s, probably by David the 1st of Scotland, the castle was increased and refortified over many years as the town and the border changed hands 13 times during two centuries from the late 13th to the late 15th. It has been in England since 1482. Then the Victorians, bless them, removed some of it to build the railway and used some of the stone for the Royal Border rail bridge.

Queen Elizabeth 1, in the mid 16th century, spent a fortune building the ramparts that can be seen here, now largely grass covered, and these flat areas stretched between the two gun emplacement were where the enemy of the day were fired upon from both ends. You can walk around a good half of the town on these very attractive and well kept walls. In addition there are remains of medieval walls, some of which were rebuilt in the 18th century, which you can co time the walk on especially around the harbour area.

We finished with a coffee on the Quayside overlooking the R Tweed and all the bridges.  The Old Bridge or the Royal Border Bridge built by James 1st and then the newer Deco style road bridge built in 1927 and beyond both the Royal Border rail bridge. Extra

Earlier in the visitor centre we watched a short film on the history of the town which was excellent and it showed them making an embroidery to celebrate 1000 years of the town in 2019. Apparently it was determined that the Tweed would be the border in 1019 and the town, be it Scottish or English developed from that time. The embroidery was on display - a bonus. 

It is a very different place, lots of Northumberland flags flying but lots of nods to the Scots too. Their football team play in the Scottish league and it was the home of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers regiment.

A really interesting place, we’ve been before but don’t know why we’ve waited so long to revisit. Will certainly be going again!