My travel diary entry - Scotland Day 4

Ever since I started reading Harry Potter books, I had been fascinated by Hogwarts. That is the main reason I signed up for this tour - Holy Island, Bamburgh & Alnwick Castle.

Our first stop was Holy Island located in the Firth of Clyde off the west coast of central Scotland, inside Lamlash Bay on the larger island of Arran. We crossed over from the mainland by the causeway into the island village of Lindisfarne. The Lindisfarne Castle dating back to the 16^th century, loomed high and I was fascinated by its precarious position in the North Sea. Our guide said that due to this location, the castle had to withstand attacks not only from the English and the Scots but also from the Vikings and hence it was frequently fortified.

I wandered through the Priory where I was mesmerised by the Lindisfarne Gospels, an illuminated manuscript gospel book in the unique style of Hiberno-Saxon or Insular art, combining Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic elements produced around the year 700 in a monastery off the coast of Northumberland at Lindisfarne and which is now on display in the British Library in London. The Lindisfarne Gospels are presumed to be the work of a monk named Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne in honour of God and Saint Cuthbert - Northern England’s most popular Saint.

The art is what differentiates it from the Bible I have at home – pages made of vellum, text written by pens cut from either quills or reeds in a dense, dark brown often almost black ink, huge range of colors derived from animal, vegetable and mineral sources and obtained locally or imported from the Mediterranean, and in rare instances such as lapis lazuli from the Himalayas. Lavish jewelry was added in the binding later in the 8^th century. In the 10^th century, the oldest known English translation of the Gospels was made - a word-for-word gloss inserted between the lines of the Latin text by Aldred Provost of Chester-le-Street.

We sipped some ‘Mead’ brewed by the monks on the island and listened to their pilgrimage up to this monastery as has been the tradition since ages – walking from the mainland, waiting for the tide and crossing the causeway all the way up to the monastery.

This was a day of castles and the next castle was Bamburgh Castle. This castle was home to a fort built by native Britons till it was captured by Ida an Anglo Saxon ruler. The Vikings destroyed it and in its place built a new castle which was captured by the English to subsequently become an important outpost. Its ownership has been held by the Earl of Northumbria, the Forster family of Northumberland and currently by the Armstrong family.

We continued south to the town of Alnwick which is home to the Alnwick Castle which has been home to the Percy family for over 700 years and is so beautiful that it is called the ‘Windsor of the North’.  The fans of the Harry Potter series would have seen this castle in the films ‘The Philosopher’ Stone’ and ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ and those who love Robin Hood could not have missed it either in the two films made. I also read that Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth also features this castle.

There are two parks - one which straddles the River Aln that flows past the north side of the Castle and the other is Hulne Park and there is also a deep ravine to the south and east, separating the castle from the town.

The adjoining Alnwick Gardens initiated by the Duchess of Northumberland are a sight to behold. Initially it had a formal garden and a cascading fountain then a tree house complex which is the largest in the world was added. The Poison Garden and the pavilion with the visitor center were then added and still there are many additions pending as per the original design by the Wirtz brothers of Belgium.

On our return to Edinburgh, we traveled north to cross the River Tweed that flows over the border of England and Scotland. Tip: If you feel like salmon fishing and you do not possess the required license, you can still fish here on River Tweed because this is the only river in England where an Environment Agency rod licence is not required for angling.

We arrived at the historic border town of Coldstream. It is symbolic since it lies in one of the ways when both Scottish and English armies crossed the border during the centuries of conflict with England. It also rivalled Gretna Green in the number of runaway marriages in the 18^th and 19^th centuries; I must say that this was news to me because most of the runaway marriages in the romantic novels I have read almost always featured Gretna Green.

We went to the Flodden Fields which is the site of one of Scotland’s worst military disasters costing the lives of many lives including King James IV and his son. Tip: If you are in Coldstream in August unlike me who visited in June, then do not miss the Civic Week held to honour the dead in this historic battle of 1513.

When I returned that evening to Edinburgh, I realised that even a month may prove less to do justice to this beautiful place. At least, I covered some of each – castles, lochs, and glens which gave me a feel of what beauty lies here in Scotland. It also gave me quite a lot of ideas to plan my next trip to Scotland.