Berwick-upon-Tweed - our first 2021 holiday

With life slowly returning to how it used to be Hubby and I decided to have a week in Berwick-upon-Tweed. 

Much as we love our house we both needed a change of scene, but why did we go north to Berwick?

Northumberland has been on Hubby's to visit list for a while and we thought it would be quieter than going to the south. I am still nervous in shops and busy places, using my hand gel all the time, even if touching handrails and doors.

Our journey looked a long one on the map, nearly 230 miles predicted to take over 4 hours. With check in at our Haven caravan being 1-2pm we set off bright and early. In actual fact the M1 was not as busy as expected and a much nicer journey than going north on the M6.

Berwick is a lovely town with the River Tweed separating it from Tweedmouth. Three bridges cross this wide tidal water: the oldest is currently closed as it's being repaired. The Royal Tweed Bridge is the road bridge, concrete in construction with four spans it's quite impressive, however not as impressive as the Royal Border Bridge.

This superb railbridge has 28 spans and sits at 121ft above the river. It was designed by Robert Stephenson and opened in 1850 by Queen Victoria. It was quite surreal to see the modern LNER trains crossing this nearly 200 year old structure, I would love to have seen a steam train travel over it before electric pylons, oh for a time machine!

We did an enormous amount of walking over the week, far more than I expected; 35 miles in total over the week. Considering on November 2nd 2020 my limit was the end of our cul-de-sac I am delighted to now be out and about, my new walking boots make a huge difference. 

Having somewhere new to explore certainly helps and Berwick had so much open space including ramparts that surrounded the town. Each route around the town gave a different view: inland over the rail bridge, towards the sea over the road bridge, eastwards towards the lighthouse, and out across the North Sea. One of my favourite views, and rest stops, was in the Castle Gardens looking over the River Tweed going  upstream. Although all these views around the town are superb the walks did involve a lot of steep slopes and/or steps, this view was from the top of a very steep slope.

Just 2.5 miles from the Scottish border Berwick has changed hands many times, being Scottish or English at various times in history. There is much military evidence all around; the town walls are Medieval, the ramparts date back to Elizabethan times and the Town Hall is Georgian. The hexagonal Bell Tower is part of the walls built by Edward I and the first Britiah barracks were built in the 1700s. We couldn't visit the Barracks and Main Guard as it isn't re-opening until mid May.

The views when walking the ramparts are amazing and we were very lucky that our first few days had clear blue skies. The path all the way round has plenty of benches for anyone wanting to sit a while (me); being quite high up we could see as far as Lindisfarne and Bamburgh. Surprisingly we saw very few ships, not even small fishing vessels. 

The Haven Caravan Park was an ideal location, close enough to walk to town but also close to the start of many coastal walks as it reached as far as the cliff top. Either side of the site was a golf course so plenty of greenery all around. At low tide it was amazing to see the seabed rock formations appearing, I have not seen circular ones before.

On our final day we walked into town and out towards the lighthouse. The 43ft red and white lighthouse is at the end of the pier. Although located on the Berwick side of the estuary it was built in the 19th century to protect Tweedmouth, a trading port but has no passenger boats. It was a blustery walk but the right choice as we had blue sky whilst the town was hit by a sudden downpour.

I will be writing two other blogs about our time in the north covering our trips out, this one has been just about Berwick-upon-Tweed itself. It was just the holiday we needed, a very gentle pace of doing new things but not rushing around to see lots of places. 

We found a lovely pub, The Pilot Inn, on the way to town and enjoyed our first pint in (outside) a pub since last summer. After a walk to Tweedmouth we tried some local seafood accompanied by a rose wine from Majestic (yes there is a Majestic in Berwick). 

Whilst away we were given the heads up by our daughter that Costa were celebrating their 50th and had ground coffee and pods on offer at 50p - seriously! Of course we headed straight into town to make the most of the offer, any excuse for a coffee.

On our last night we walked slightly out of town for a final pint at Meadow House. A tricky walk as it involved firstly crossing the golf course (proper footpath) and then the main A1 with no crossing, the cars and lorries do appear quite quickly. 

Thank you Berwick-upon-Tweed and Haven for a lovely, very much needed, holiday. We hope to visit again one day as there is so much more to see and do.