Scrapbook Inspirations

One of the great things about scrapbooking is that you get to see other people’s holiday photos and get new ideas of where to go.  One place has always stuck in my mind.  The now defunct scrapbook magazine ‘Scrapbook Inspirations’ had a contributor called Jane Dean.  She used to scrapbook lovely photos of Bamburgh Castle on the coast of Northumberland in North East England.  We finally got to go there on our recent trip.  What a castle!  What a position, high above the glorious white sandy beach!

I make no apologies for showing you lots of photos:

We sat here with this view to eat our sandwiches:

As you walk down onto the beach, you get this view.

Just look at this glorious beach!  Not many people in the sea it was freezing cold!  This is the North Sea after all.

The first reference to a castle on this site is 547.  The Vikings destroyed it in 993.  The Normans built a new castle on the site, parts of which form the core of the present castle.

It is now owned by the Armstrong family and is open to the public and for weddings and corporate events.  What a romantic place to get married!  And of course, it has been used for film sets, such as Ivanhoe (1952), El Cid (1961), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), and Elizabeth (1998).

 

Not far up the coast from Bamburgh is Holy Isle, or Lindesfarne.  It is a magical place that can only be reached at low tide over a causeway.  Somewhere else we had always wanted to visit.  The island has a castle and a ruined priory. 

Lindesfarne’s most famous inhabitant is St Cuthbert (634 – 20/03/687).  He became a monk after a vision, and went to Lindesfarne as Prior of the Abbey around 685.  He travelled around the north of England and was known for his charm and generosity to the poor.  He retired in 676, and moved to a nearby island and became a hermit, where he died in 687. 

His coffin was opened some 9 years later, and his body was found to be preserved.  The monks thought this was a miracle and a sign of his purity and holiness, and he was made a saint.  The monks carried his coffin about with them to escape Viking incursions.  Years later, after several resting places, his remains were buried in Durham Cathedral where they remain to this day.

We like this  connection between Lindesfarne and Durham!  And I love the idea of the monks carrying his coffin around the North of England for all those years!

Have you been inspired to go somewhere because of a scrapbook page?