Dunstanburgh

We met Lynne and Gavin in Craster and walked along the lovely grassy shore to this castle in bright sunshine. . It looks most impressive as you head towards it with the sea on your right, but I liked this shot of Mr C, admiring the ruin as we past beneath. The 8.5 mile walk took us along the beach to Low Newton where we sat outside the Ship Inn to have tomato and chickpea soup. I was astonished by the number of people on the walk - it used to get busy in the summer, but not on a Monday morning. Gavin said it had recently been voted by Sunday Times readers as one of the top 20 coastal walks in UK. I wish they’d shut up as it’s impossible to get parked in the summer despite the newish quarry car park that cost us £6.

Our return took us inland for a bit till we reached the golf course at Embleton. We had to skirt it then hit back to the dune path and returned by the castle.

We called in at Robsons smokehouse to get some kippers before driving home. It’s a while since I’ve done 22,000 steps.

#2 daughter has booked a villa with pool and aircon for all of us in Umbria in August. The flights are horrendously expensive but it will be 3 years since they’ve been away. We all love Italy so it’ll be great. It might be near enough Castiglione del Lago for #3 and husband to show the children where they got married 12 years ago. We’ll need to get Covid cancellation insurance I expect.