NORTHUMBERLAND

Sandra's trip to Northumberland.

Dorset Federation arrange a holiday every year and after a break in Covid it resumed this year with a 5-day trip to Northumberland.
In the past they’ve visited, to name a few, Brittany, The Monet Gardens and the Floriade Festival but Northumberland was somewhere I’ve never visited and always wanted to so I joined the trip with three others from WeyBay - Rosemary Heather, Judy Backwell and Trish De Jonge.
Our 7 am start from Dorchester was a bonus as we arrived at our hotel in Northumberland by 4 pm.
Over the next few days we visited Alnwick Castle, Beamish Museum, the Farne islands and Holy Island.
We were so lucky at The Farne Islands as after a very rough boat ride there were hundreds of puffins who delighted us all with numerous fly pasts round our boat. The puffins only inhabit the islands from April to September so as it was only 2nd April, we were fortunate to see so many.
The trip’s icing on the cake was our visit to Holy Island. After three beautiful sunny days (needed for Beamish Museum which is mainly outdoors) the weather was misty for our day at Holy Island. Lindisfarne Castle looked magical as we walked there over the causeway that can only be crossed at low tide.
A pretty special few days enhanced by a super hotel and enlivened by meeting other WI members from around Dorset many of whom we had met on other Dorset WI activities. 

Sandra Jones