Yorkshire Road Trip day 6, and Lulu reaches Wuthering Heights! After a restless night for both of us, we don’t surface much before 8:00am, which is especially unusual for Kev. We grab some breakfast and, after paying for our night at Marfit Head we set off.
We’ve had a few lovely, easy (for me anyway!) driving days, and we start out with high hopes. Kev has been looking forward to this leg of the journey over the Yorkshire moors, with views as far as the eye can see.
The drive is not what we’d hoped!
Lulu Reaches Wuthering Heights Out on the Wild and Windy Moors!
The wind has picked up a lot this morning and, as beautiful as the moors are, it is impossible to enjoy the scenery. The drive is intense! Unexpectedly, the traffic is surprisingly heavy for mid morning on a Wednesday. There is no let up in the side wind, and Lulu seems skittish and heavy.
Kev handles it all brilliantly, as always, as does Lulu, but it is exhausting and I think we are all glad to get to the site.
The site is, as they all are, immaculate. Check in is smooth, we select our pitch, pick up our wristbands for the showers, polish off our tea and biscuits, and head into town. On first sight the route to town from the site seems treacherous, but once you cross the road, the path along the verge is a lot better than it looks and we arrive at a gated footpath which, in turn, leads to a bridge over the River Tees. The path follows the river for about a quarter mile and then leads uphill. We emerge from the trees into blinding sunlight.
Barnard Castle- the Castle
And then there is the castle.
We love a castle, no matter how ruined, and Barnard Castle is a fine example. If you take the river walk into town as above, you emerge from the trees at the end of the path where the great stone edifice looms into view straight over you. The immense stone walls are still solid and imposing, with the round tower wonderfully evocative of how impenetrable it would have looked to potential invaders, with its huge windows, and narrow arrow slits still visible.
With our apparent inability to learn from our mistakes, just as in https://www.duncombesroaming.com|luluvantravellers|yorkshireroadtripday5|luluandthechickens/ we didn’t book a ticket here either, so could only view it from outside. Opposite the castle there is a beautiful space, which was full of people enjoying the brief sunshine, and some lunch on the many benches, and lush green lawns.
The town itself is, unfortunately, a little disappointing. After so many days of quirky shops, villages of chocolate box beauty, it’s busy, noisy and a little humdrum. There are still some impressive buildings, and a couple of nice pubs especially the Three Horseshoes www.three-horse-shoes.co.uk but it was, in our humble opinion, totally underwhelming.
You may miss the coast but you can’t miss the Fish & Chips!
We did, however, indulge in some fish and chips. We’d hoped to get to one of the coastal towns for fish, but couldn’t quite fit it into our schedule, but we did have a recommendation for the best chip shop in town.
Katies Fish & Chip Shop www.katiestraditionalfishandchips.co.uk has an excellent reputation, and it did not disappoint! The fish was moist and boneless, they even removed the skin from Kev’s for him, so we knew it was definitely cooked fresh. The chips were hand cut and cooked to perfection, even the mushy peas seemed better than usual, and it all made it back to Lulu in one piece!
As we’d dined early, we spent the evening playing Ludo again, (it’s now 3-1 to Kev, I think I might need to switch games!) and writing up a couple of days of blog pages we need to catch up on! This is also the point at which we change direction, and start making our way south, back towards home.
Clitheroe tomorrow, another whole new destination for us both. See you there!
Kev & Mags X