| Shaped by time and tide |
|
|
|
Page 2 of 2 Boats for the Farnes set out from Seahouses, once a working port and now a family resort: lines of B&B signs with, in summer, 'No vacancies' tagged on, and shop windows full of buckets and spades, fishing nets, beach mats, frisbees, lettered rock and - every season's must-have - windbreaks. A stroll around Seahouses, stopping at the detailed information boards, gives a fascinating glimpse of the village's previous incarnation. From the mid-1700s lime was the main source of income - the kilns still stand on the quayside. A century later herring had taken over, with as many as 300 fishing boats crowded into the harbour. Except for lobster and crab, fishing has gone. But the herring heritage lives on... as kippers. Seahouses claims to have produced the world's first kipper and, for decades, smoking was a major activity in the village. Today, just one traditional smokehouse remains - Swallow Fish. Here herrings - mostly from Iceland - hang for up to 15 hours in the warm darkness over dim-glowing fires of wood shaving and oak sawdust. No dyes or additives are used. Buy them next door in the Fisherman's Kitchen or by mail order - Rick Stein does. For a warm welcome and a wallow in times past, call in at the Olde Ship where the walls are crammed with maritime memorabilia, including a nameboard from the Forfarshire, and where you'll hear firsthand reminiscences about how, for example, Scottish herring boats leaving harbour used to be played out by a piper - as recently as the 1960s. Turbulent geologyBeadnell, just south of Seahouses, boasts more lime kilns, the east coast's only west-facing harbour, and some fascinating rock formations and fossils - best explored with the Beadnell Geotrail leaflet, one of a series focusing on Northumberland's turbulent geology. Beadnell Bay, a spectacular sweep of sand 3.2km (2 miles) long, is popular in summer.A curlew's cry southwards, Embleton Bay is as lovely but lonelier, ending in a rocky promontory and the eerie profile of Dunstanburgh castle. Built in the early 1300s, Dunstanburgh had a short life. Like Bamburgh, it was a Lancastarian stronghold and, during the Wars of the Roses, was similarly devastated and left derelict. The skeletal ruins - painted several times by Turner - are in the care of English Heritage and can be visited. Access is by foot only: an easygoing 2.4km (11⁄2 miles) from the old fishing village of Craster. Huddled above its harbour, Craster rivals Seahouses for kippers, oak-cured in Robson's Victorian smokehouses. Enjoy them instantly in the restaurant across the yard. Below Craster the beach becomes more rugged until you reach Alnmouth, a dazzling expanse of sea-edged sand or sand-edged sea, depending on the tide. Originally a port on the Aln estuary, the village was traumatised in 1806 when a great storm changed the course of the river: Church Hill became an island and the harbour started to silt up. So Alnuth reinvented itself as a holiday centre: peaceful, picturesque and proud of its two golf courses, one being the second-oldest in England. Five miles further on, another estuary, another river - the Coquet. Just inland, a horseshoe loop in the Coquet encloses Warkworth and its impressive castle, slandered by Shakespeare in Henry IV as "this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone". In fact, the remains - towering over the village - are well-preserved and certainly worth a visit. So is the village. Historic highlights include the rare fortified bridge; St Lawrence's church, scene of a barbarous massacre in 1174; the Market Place, where the Old Pretender was proclaimed King of England; and a hermitage, cut into the riverside and reached by ferry. Neighbouring Amble, on the estuary itself, is very different. This workaday port, initially developed for the coal trade, is now known for its marina, still-in-use fishing vessels, year-round car-boot sales, first-class cod n' chips and, offshore, Coquet Island's colonies of seals and seabirds. But there is no need to take a boat trip to catch up with that most companionable of seabirds, the eider. Cuddy's ducks bob happily around Amble Harbour. Friendly, fearless, everybody's favourite - and fittingly an emblem of the Northumberland coast. Credit: all photos by Catherine Dell |
