We heard about this place from a couple we met in a Seaton Sluice pub. It has a castle and a river and they recommended a visit. It’s only a 40 minute drive.

Using the fabulous Searchforsites website we are staying on a carpark for the evening for free. No facilities obviously but it’s a large flat site surrounded by fields, next to a path to the beach and only about half a mile outside the village.

When we arrive there’s one other motorhome and a couple of cars. We enjoy lunch and a cuppa before heading out for a walk to the beach. It’s raining a little and very blustery but the rain passes quickly and the sun comes out and all of a sudden it’s all looking pretty wonderful.

Back at the carpark the motorhome has left and been replaced by another smaller one and the cars have gone too. We get changed and walk into the village over a bridge across the River Coquet.

I pop into a jewelry shop and buy myself a rather gorgeous pair of earrings. We head up the main street towards Warkworth Castle sitting at the top of the hill on a mound overlooking everything. It’s impressive and of course closed but we knew that.

Now an English Heritage site it’s first stone buildings were erected back in 1139 and it’s dry moat is covered in lots of much younger daffodils trying to flower. Warkworth in 1715 was the starting place of the Jacobean rebellion in support of James lll who never became King.

The castle towers over the village and surroundings. Must be something to live so close to all that history.

Back down into the village we do our usual pub tour, starting at the Sun, then The Hermitage which we liked the ambiance of and then finally we ate in The Mason’s Arm.

Walking back in the dark and quiet we need our torch for the final bit to the van. Still only the two of us on opposite ends of the large carpark we can definitely turn up the volume on the telly tonight!

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