The Last Great British Adventure

Chillingham Castle - The most Haunted Castle in England!!

Kibby wasn't so sure about this place, especially since I made her walk through the spooky wooded walk to get from the car park to the castle. Notice Iain's ill-fitting Cars hat. He just had to wear his McQueen hat even though it is too small (note to any grandparents looking for a stocking stuffer).

Have you ever heard of Earl Grey tea? Well, this castle has been in the Grey family since about 1246. If you notice on top of the castle there is a gold-plated wind vane in the shape of a bat!! The bat is one of the family symbols and did quite a bit to unnerve Kibby before she even set foot inside!!

I have to admit that the place had a creepy feel to it. The fact that it was all decked out for Halloween with cobwebs and skeletons everywhere didn't help.

This room was where Edward I (the Longshanks) stayed while he made preparations to enter Scotland to fight William Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298.

This little sign cracked Kibby up. It was posted over a tattered yellow quilt that someone in the Grey family collected on a trip to America. This is typical of how the English view Americans:

Their torture chamber was pretty gruesome and was equipped with some of the wildest equipment we have seen including a real, and used, iron maiden (not pictured because it freaks Kibby out). Notice the stone carvings on the back wall.

Once Kibby made it through the castle, the garden was quite nice. Iain got drenched by the fountain in the middle by standing downwind of it right as a 20mph gust hit. He flipped out waving his arms in the air and laughing!!

Some nice field cannons in their original carraiges adorned the rear garden. Once finished, we headed back to the B&B south of Alnwick.

Warkworth Castle
Originally a motte and bailey castle started soon after the 1066 Norman conquest, it remains one of the largest castles in northern England. A well-built barbican and gatehouse with arrow loops, murder holes, a drawbridge, deep mote, and portcullis gate would have been quite impregnable.

This castle was given to the Percy family in the 1100s and they kept it until 1572 when the Thomas Percy was executed by Elizabeth I for participating in the northern uprisings. The keep, pictured here, was possibly designed by the master mason who built Durham Cathedral, perhaps the most innovative and technologically sophisticated mason of the time.

WOULD YOU BELIEVE WE RAN INTO A REAL KNIGHT TEMPLAR!!

Sophisticated masonry or not, he had only one thing on his mind......CHARGE!!!

Up the stairs into the gatehouse. Although the original stairs don't survive, the entrance would have been just like this; you can see the foundation slabs under the wooden posts.

Kibby plundered the beer cellar! It was completely full before she got there...really.
The lower level of the keep was where the soldiers stayed. There was one room for the soldiers and one room for their pages (each with ensuite toilets), two wine cellars and one beer cellar, each larger than their living quarters. Sounds like a great time!!

All that storming of the castle, sacking and pillaging wore Iain out. Here he is resting on tiles dating to the early 1500's which make up the floor of the Chapel's altar.

Once he woke up, Kibby put him through an ancient trial of knighthood by spinning him around 200 times and then making him run to Daddy.

Just a neat picture of an old spiral staircase. Next time you climb up one, maybe you will wonder what exactly is holding those stairs up?

Alnwick (aka Hogwarts)

Alnwick was used to film a large portion of the two Harry Potter movies and was, for all practical purposes, the school Hogwarts. A look at the village below really made us think of Hogsmeade. Wand shopping anyone?

Harry "Hotspur" Percy is Alnwick's and Northern England's hero knight. He had fought in battle when he was only 8 years old and knighted by 11. He was known for his quick temper which resulted in his nickname "Hotspur" (the English football club Tottenham Hotspur is named for him). He fought against the Scots killing the Clan Douglas Chief in hand to hand combat, fought the French on land and sea, and also went on crusade. He was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury fighting against King Henry IV (when he raised his visor to get some air, an arrow slammed into his throat) in a failed rebellion and alliance with the Welsh.

Tough times at Hogwarts...we kept Iain on a short leash!

A Nimbus 2007!!!

We saw it first...jealous anyone?!?!?
Below is the inner courtyard where they filmed the first flying lesson for Harry Potter.

Nice shot of the main castle and keep.

Cool lamp.

Alnwick has a remarkable collection of artifacts from the stone age through the middle ages. Because of the high Viking population in Northumberland during the Dark Ages, many of the artifacts had Norse influences if not outright from Vikings. All of them have been found on the extensive estate.

Kibby, Annie, and Iain taking a break by a cannon.

The MEN hanging out on the ramparts.

This gatehouse is all that remains of the once grand Alnwick priory.

Edlingham Church and Castle
This Church and Castle date to the 1100's. It is a nice fortified manor house that was never built into a full fledged castle and is situated in some beautiful terrain.
We took a short drive through the countryside so Iain and Annie could get their afternoon naps in after spending the day at Alnwick castle.

Dunstanburgh Castle

On our way up the Northumberland coast we hit two more castles!!
As Iain would say, "ANOTHER CASTLE!"

SHEEP!! SHEEP!! But Kibby liked the cute houses opposite the inlet.

The castle was a nice 1.5 mile hike from the car park along the rocky coast through sheep poop infested grass. It was a pleasant start to our morning and really got the blood flowing.

Dunstanburgh is, or rather once was, the largest castle in Northumberland. If fully completed, it would have rivaled the great "White Castles" built by Edward I in Wales. Although not much to look at, the gatehouse was one of the most complex of its day.

Iain and I posing for a glamor shot with the waves in the background.
On our walk back to the car, we tried our hands at some artsy-fartsy shots.
Bamburgh Castle

This has been a fortified site since the 400's when the native Britons fortified it. It subsequently passed through Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman, and finally English control. It was the first castle in England to ever be defeated by cannon. It is also a primary player in the recent Bernard Cornwell Viking novels he is writing which I am reading and thus why we just HAD to come here. Excellent condition and beautiful coast made it easily one of the top five castles we have seen.

The biggest bummer was that we could not take picture inside and there wasn't even a nice guide book that showed the interior. The King's Hall was easily the best great hall we have ever seen in a castle or manor house. Both stylistically and architecturally sophisticated, it maintained a balance between the light, space, and wood/stone carving. Plus, it had a huge selection of weapons and amour, as well as exotic furniture and decor.

But, we were bad and managed to snap this photo of Kibby's favorite bowl (located in the basement kitchen pantry, and away from the prowling security guards)

There was also a neat WWII museum with plane wreckage and a large anti-aircraft gun. Just to the right was a billboard that told the stories of British animals that assisted the war effore and received the animal version of the Victoria Cross, the Dickin Medal. There was a pidgeon who flew 20 miles in 20 minutes (yup, that's 60mph) to inform an artillery battery that they were shelling allied troops. There was a dog who was part of a small UK navy ship that was torpedoed, swan to shore only to find that his master wasn't there, swam back out to the wreckage, under fire, found his owner (who couldn't swim well) and then dragged him to shore. There was another dog who was captured by the Germans with his English soldiers and was the only animal officially registered as a POW during WWII.

Iain standing by an old cannon. In the distance to the right is the holy island of Lindisfarne. We could not make it there because the causeway flooded before we could cross. Another adventure for another day...

Haddington and Gifford - The Home of the Fergussons!!

Haddington was once Scotland's 4th largest city in the Middle Ages but is now a small village with about 9,000 inhabitants. It serves as the administrative center for the Scottish county of East Lothian which is why we needed to come here. It has a small library and archives section which has all of the church records dating to the 1500s.

St. Mary's Church in Haddington was built in the early 1400s after the previous church was destroyed by one of the many English invasions. The rear of the church was burned out in the late 1540s during a Scottish and French siege of Haddington to liberate it from an English occupation force. The church was finally repaired in 1970. Unfortunately it was all locked up and we couldn't get inside.

There was a nice river walk around the back with a picturesque foot bridge, the Nungate Bridge, leading to some nice houses on the other side.

A water mill with an attached granary was at the end of the river walk and on the road leading to our B&B built in the early 1600s.



Our B&B, the Maitlandfield House


Haddington High Street was full of colorful 17th and 18th century buildings with nice shops and tasty take-away food!!



I had a pint of Belhaven in the Gardener's Arms before I went to do my research and hung out with three old guys who were betting on some horse races. Once they found out I was an Scots-American with local roots, they all got buddy-buddy with me and I had to listen to their life stories and recent woes. Good thing I had a 2:00 appointment so I could excuse myself politely.


The trip to Haddington was fruitful and I got a copy of our ancestor's baptism:
"January 29 1661
Robert Ferguson had a sonne baptized named Robert
witnessed James Crow and John Greenfeild"


We drove down to the village of Gifford which was a planned village developed in the late 1600s and early 1700s from an area once called Yester (when my ancestors lived there). This church was built in the 1700s, well after when our Robert Fergusson lived there, but it has some components of the old church such as the bells and pulpit. The church was also locked so we couldn't get inside. Real bummer.

The Goblin Ha' Pub sits where the Yester Castle once stood. Underneath lies the "goblin hall" which is actually an old vault from the castle. The guys in here were very helpful in explaining the area to me. Funny what you can learn over a pint!! When they heard my name was Fergusson, they immediately said, "Oh yeah, definitely farmers. Good folks." I guess we never rose to any importance, but at least Grandpa Fergie will be happy to know that we weren't horse thieves!!

Gifford was planned out in an "L" shape with the church at one end and the market cross (pictured here) at the other.

The area is beautiful with rolling hills and extremely fertile ground. The local historians were saying that because the soil was so good, their crops could be harvested earlier than the surrounding areas and thus be sold at higher prices. Not too shabby.

Iain was sure to point out all the "SHEEP!! SHEEP!!"

Rosslyn Chapel and Castle

We were so close to Rosslyn that we couldn't resist the temptation to see for ourselves if the Grail was in fact there!!

For a more detailed explanation of our quest click here

Maybe it is here, under this tomb...Hmn.... X marks the spot? This mark was created by a mason, and we know the masons are a secret society closely linked with the Templars!!! The plot thickens...

The scaffolding was erected in 1997 because of earlier restoration efforts resulting in a negative reverse effect causing the stone to absorb too much water. The roof will allow the stones to dry out naturally. On the flip side, it allows visitors to walk up and see the roof line and intricate carvings.
Iain is such a cheese monster...
The iconic Green Man carving below one of the archways.
The middle figure is of a bagpiper
This carving depicts a knight with an angel riding with him carrying a cross. The image of two riders on a horse was the seal of the Knights Templar. Rosslyn was built by the Sinclair family designed to the dimensions of Soloman's Temple in Jerusalem. It has many Templar and Mason connections although it cannot be conclusively be called a Templar church.

This is the famous Apprentice Pillar. The story goes that while the master mason was traveling abroad looking for new ideas for the church, the apprentice carved this beautiful pillar. When the master returned, he was so jealous he killed the apprentice with his hammer. An image of the apprentice with a cracked head is in the church as well as a gruesome image of the master mason. This story is iconographic of rites of passage for masons today...apparently. Maybe the grail is inside this pillar?!?!?!?

Sir William Sinclair's tomb. He was a Knight Templar and the builder of the church. He died in Spain in 1330 while attempting to escort Robert the Bruce's heart to the Holy Land.

St. Peter in the underground vaultKibby and Annie in the vault....Annie REALLY enjoyed her stay.
Can you say SLUMPY?

On the otherhand, the most impressive thing to Iain were these two leaves.
Aren't they pretty?

While Kibby fed Annie in the car and supervised Iain in the driver's seat, practicing his racing skills, I walked down to Rosslyn Castle. Not much is left except the house which is still occupied and you could not go in. It was perched on top of a hill with a dramatic sheer drop off of the walkway. These pictures really do not give the height much justice.

I think the Holy Grail is a mantle-piece in their house!
Those Sinclairs!!!
Click here!!!

Various Family Shots - Grandparents eat your hearts out!!

A well earned rest after storming the castle

Kibby tells me that the coolest thing on the planet was behind this car and it just got in the way.
I think she takes after her Lucy when it comes to taking pictures from a car moving at 70mph!