The Coast

Spittal is at the north end of a beautiful stretch of sandy beaches running down to Newcastle, dotted with small, pretty towns and wonderful castles. Lindisfarne is less than ten miles away, after Cocklawburn, Cheswick and Goswick's enormous beaches. To get there you can cross the Pilgrims Way at low tide, or drive across a causeway, also limited by the tide - make sure not to walk when the tide's coming in! Budle and Bamburgh come next, then beaches all the way down to Craster, which is, of course, the place to buy your kippers. Even in summer these beaches are pretty quiet, and simply wonderful.

In the other direction lies the spectacular rocky coast of East Berwickshire in Scotland, with Eyemouth, St Abbs Head, Burnmouth, the harbour at Cove and Pettico Wick all being very pretty. The coastline up as far as Dunbar and Tantallon Castle is well worth a visit, as is North Berwick, the "Biarritz of the North"! On the way past, pop in to the lovely Oldhamstocks, where my grandmother was born.

Castles, Battles and Abbeys

Within thirty miles of this house you can find some of Britain's finest houses and castles. In no particular order, Bamburgh, Alnwick, Floors, Mellerstain, Manderston, Abbotsford, Floors, Cragside, Chillingham, Thirlestane, Norham and Dunstanburgh are all reasonably close by. Cragside and Bamburgh were built and renovated by Sir William Armstrong, Britain's biggest industrialist and arms manufacturer, and are both quite extraordinary. Alnwick is forty miles south, dominated by its massive castle and gardens. The town itself is lovely, and the White Swan Hotel has the dining room from RMS Olympic, Titanic's sister ship. Anglers can make a beeline for Hardy's fishing tackle HQ on the road out to the A1.

The road from Alnwick to Rothbury, another very pretty town well worth a visit, takes you past the glorious Cragside. If you keep heading west you'll get to Otterburn, scene of "Chevy Chase", and the dramatic road over the border and up to Jedburgh, from where you get back to Berwick via Kelso. These two towns once had wealthy abbeys, sacked by Henry VIII in the Rough Wooing of Mary, Queen of Scots, and finished off by the Scottish Reformation. Jedburgh Abbey is particularly well preserved, and gives some idea of just how well some of these monks lived.

The Borders

The border area of England and Scotland has some of Britain's remotest and most beautiful countryside short of the Scottish Highlands. Lying roughly between Berwick and the Solway Firth, the area up as far as Moffat, Peebles and Eyemouth, and down to Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall includes some wonderful sights and towns. The Kielder Forest spans this area, with two hundred square miles of trees, and some of Britain's darkest skies: well worth a visit.

Edinburgh

If you've never seen Edinburgh you really must go. Sherlock Holmes and Jekyll and Hyde have their roots here, and it was the scene for the terrible crimes of Burke and Hare. Princes Street and its views up towards the Castle are world-famous, and for good reason.

Newcastle

I know Newcastle well from my Durham University days, and it's a great city with great people. Should you witness the nightlife on a cold one in February you'd swear you were in St Tropez, at least from the clothes the kids are wearing. They're toof oop there, man. The Pitcher and Piano on the quayside near the Tyne and Millenium Bridges is quite an experience on a Friday or Saturday night.

Touristically the city has wonderful Victorian architecture, a great shopping centre at the Metro, the aforementioned Tyne Bridge and Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North, not to mention the mighty Toon Army at St James Park. Not much further south is Durham itself, home of one of Britain's greatest cathedrals on a bend of the River Wear.

Golf

Far and away the best course nearby is Goswick, which is ten minutes from the house. It's an exceptional links course designed by James Braid and others, and is wonderfully natural in its isolation. For me the only comparable links for leaving humanity behind is Silloth, on the other side of the country. Goswick gets rave reviews, and as I am lucky enough to be a member there I fully understand why! It's outstanding value for money, has no airs or graces, and is very welcoming. The members are there for the golf, and it shows.

The golfing experience doesn't end there though. Half an hour from the house are the world-famous courses of East Lothian, from Dunbar and North Berwick through Muirfield, up as far as the two excellent Musselburgh courses (there is a third, nine hole course, the daddy of them all, in the middle of Musselburgh Racecourse). These are great courses whatever your level of play, and you will find Muirfield much easier to get onto than Augusta or the Old Course: you just need to tell the Secretary when you're coming - not that it's any easier to score on! Not only that, you'll get the best lunch in Scotland (never yet have I managed to play there in the afternoon). The clubhouse also doubles as a golfing museum, with paintings any golfer will recognise, and the original "Black Ball" ballot box.

North Berwick for me is slightly disappointing: overpriced; with too many quirks and oddities for my taste, but some of the holes are outstanding just the same. Next up are the two Archerfield courses alongside the Renaissance. I've not played that one, but the two Archerfield courses are super, and very enjoyable. I am one of very few people who saw the pro and designer, D.J. Russell, going out in twenty-nine shots at the Lytham Open of 1988. My partner and I also managed to finish one, two (nett) on Archerfield's Fidra course (eagle, albatross) to win by one hole the last time I played it. Perfection!

The three Gullane courses are next door, alongside New Luffness, which has a good claim to the best greens in golf - at least Bobby Locke thought so - and is a delightful course. "Old Luffness" is now called Kilspindie, and is a fairly short, but beautiful, golf course. Just next door is the newish Craigielaw, which is excellent, and a very good test. Next up is the lovely Longniddry, and then Musselburgh on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Not one of these courses is more than fifty miles from the house.

Heading south from Spittal there is Bamburgh - very scenic, but with some blind shots: stunning views of the Castle though. My own favourite is Dunstanburgh Castle - quirky and a lovely links course: highly recommended! There are also Alnmouth (aka Foxton Hall) and Alnmouth Village (both very old), Seahouses and others I have yet to play ...

House, beach and castles

Spittal

The village of Spittal sits at the south of the mouth of the Tweed, south-east of Tweedmouth and across the river from Berwick. It is cut in two by the main East Coast Edinburgh to London railway line, which runs about a hundred yards behind the house (the top half is called High Spittal, or Highcliffe). Spittal was named after the medieval hospital of St Bartholomew, since disappeared without trace. Many of the village's occupants were salmon fishermen or miners in half-a-dozen small collieries between Tweedmouth and Scremerston, and likely not averse to a bit of smuggling too.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century the Spa Well near the house attracted visitors to Spittal to take the waters, and also led to the building of several guesthouses, and particularly the very fine Wilson Terrace opposite this house. We know our house was not here in 1837, did exist in 1852, and suspect it was the first to be built near the Spa Well, but we don't know exactly when it was built. It likely served as a guest house for genteel partakers of the waters: both Spa and sea.

The village at the height of its popularity had seventeen pubs, and a reputation for rumbustious behaviour. This has changed greatly in the last hundred years, and any local noise is pretty much entirely down to seagulls. There are still three pubs extant: the Blenheim, the Red Lion and the Albion - all good in their own ways - and also a shop next to the Blenheim which sells outstanding pies, pastries and cakes made on the premises (they're very popular - get there early).

There is an excellent PDF file from English Heritage about the history of Berwick, Tweedmouth and Spittal. It contains a pretty photograph of the War Memorial garden and the houses behind.

The Beach

Spittal's defining feature is its magnificent beach. It's very clean - there's very little plastic or other rubbish in evidence. Seaweed is the thing you'll find the most of as you walk along its length, with an occasional jellyfish. There are rockpools too, up towards the cliffs. Please don't bring the residents home with you!

On most days you'll be able to see Bamburgh and Lindisfarne castles from the beach, and to their left, the low-lying Farne Islands (home of Grace Darling). At night, the Farne and Longstone lighthouses are visible, and the rivermouth entry and breakwater lights. The beach is also a great place to stargaze on a clear night, or to see the Northern Lights.

You'll encounter rocks at the south-east end of the beach, and a stream flowing from the cave. It is, in fact, a relic of the mining at Scremerston, dug out to drain groundwater from the mines. It's drinkable - dogs enjoy it after running up and down the beach. Geologists apparently enthuse over the rocks up there - they certainly take loads of photos. Just up from the cave is Spittal Crag, or Spittal Quarry, a vertical rock wall for expert-level rock climbing.

Local Facilities

Spittal is a small village, and isn't packed with shops and noisy attractions. On Main Street, there are three pubs and a shop, a couple of churches and a few guest houses.

Down at the beach there is a small waterpark and also the Family Fun Centre for the kids. On the promenade you'll find the Forte Brothers' Italian Pavilion with ice cream, cafe and snacks; also somewhere to shelter in the unlikely event it's raining ;-)

The bigger shops are in Tweedmouth, where you can find Asda, Tesco, a small retail park with Homebase, Argos, a Marks and Spencer Foodhall and in the rest of the town, several chip shops, Chinese restaurants and a pizzeria. Please note that on a Sunday the main shops are only open from 10am until 4pm, due to English retail law. In Tweedmouth Main Street, however (near the Old Bridge, the Foulis chip shop and the Harrow pub) there is a Spar Store which is open until 22:00 most nights.

The Swan Centre is near Farmfoods in Tweedmouth, off the roundabout at the end of Billingdean Terrace, the first road coming out of Spittal, and offers swimming, gymnasium and fitness facilities until nine or ten pm through the week.

Tweedmouth

Tweedmouth lies north and west of Spittal, and along with Spittal was the larder and workshop for Berwick. Tweedmouth starts just over the Royal Borders railway bridge, and becomes Spittal just after the bends in Dock Road near the lifeboat station. Heading south-west it stops before East Ord and the A1 road. It is bigger than Spittal, and has many more shops, jobs and infrastructure to serve local builders, farmers and other trades and businesses. Unlike Berwick, it has always been English, as has Spittal. Much of Berwick's housing also lies in Tweedmouth.

Tweedmouth has a working docks, which can take surprisingly large ships. Most of the trade is agricultural; barley, fertiliser and the like. There are also a few commercial salmon fishermen who net fish as they head into the river Tweed. They're the ones the dolphins don't catch, of course. If you look at Google Earth's close-up photo of the docks you will see hundreds of strange white crosses in the water - they're swans. Somehow the river mouth supports very large numbers of the birds, which congregate near the bridges and the docks.

Berwick

Berwick lies some forty miles east of Edinburgh, and only ten miles south, and is the biggest town for thirty-odd miles around. It is a shopping hub for the area, with Morrisons, Tesco and Asda all nearby, as well as many other smaller shops and local suppliers. Much more than that, it is steeped in history, being apocryphally still at war with Russia, and having changed hands over a dozen times between Scotland and England. Berwick was a garrison town for many years, and a strategic strongpoint between Scotland and England, depending on which country was in charge at the time. The defensive walls soaked up more of Queen Elizabeth I's money than any other single project, and has also been an important port and market town. It has one of the finest old bridges in Britain, next to two impressive newer ones. At one time the river was the border, but now Berwick is a few miles into England. This has left some anomalies: Berwickshire is in Scotland and now has nothing to do with the town, and Berwick Rangers F.C. play against Scottish teams, not English.

It's a very easy town to get to, at least by road or rail: in both cases it's on the Edinburgh to London routes, just off the A1 and the first mainline station after Edinburgh, with a train every half hour (forty minutes to the middle of Edinburgh or Newcastle). The road time each way is about one hour. During the day you can get the B1 bus from the house into town. Alternatively, if you're feeling fit anyway, it's a half hour's walk from the house to cross the old bridge, which luckily has a very good pub just after it, called The Barrels. Just beyond, Bridge Street has three restaurants and leads to Hide Hill and Sandgate, and more pubs and restaurants. You can instead push up the steep West Street to get straight to Marygate and the town centre.

The locals are called "Berwickers". Whatever you do, don't call them Geordies. Well done if you can understand anything they're saying when two of them get going, although they tone it down for outsiders. The accent is a variant of the North-East England one though - completely different to the Scottish borders just a couple of miles away.

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