Walworth Castle near Darlington / County Durham
As it is Ann’s birthday at the end of the month, and as our Catherine, is taking Ann on a health spar weekend for her birthday, Ann & I decided to take a ‘long weekend’ trip to a Best Western Hotel in County Durham, called The Walworth Castle.
Upon arrival, we were upgraded (must be our gold member cards… lol) to a four poster suite, with a large lounge area, bathroom, and down a short corridor to our four poster bed, in the turret section of the hotel (the 3rd window up in the image above).
We stayed in and around the hotel, for our arrival day on the Friday, getting to know the layout, restaurant and bars, before exploring and walking in the hotel grounds and nature trials around the castle lake and falconry centre.
On the Saturday, we went for our full English breakfast, before driving to Durham, to park the car in one of the 3 ‘park & ride’ centres. The weather was great, with good reflective Infrared light, so as you can imagine I was well happy… after the bus dropped us off in the city, we made our way to some of the fine views on offer, starting with a view of Durham Castle…
Durham Castle on the River Wear
Bridge on The River Wear
We walked down to the river and a gentle stroll to another bridge along the way, where we started up a steep set of steps, which at the end was an ancient road, leading up to Durham Cathedral…
Cobbled street up to the Cathedral
After stopping for a well earned rest, and a soft drink to refresh us (not that sprite these days lol), we walked up the final leg to the Great Durham Cathedral. Of course, many of the younger generation have seen the inside of the Cathedral before… The cloisters, where the film set the Harry Potter series of films, I’m sure we can all picture the scenes, but here is a view of them below…
Entrance to the Cathedral
The Cathedral Cloisters
One of the Cathedral towers taken from the cloisters
After our visit to the cloisters, we took in the history of the cathedral, visiting the many chapels, and buildings around the cathedral site, before heading back down to the main shopping areas of the city… along the way, we found a quaint tea shop, which we entered for a spot of afternoon tea.
We managed to find a Tesco Direct, to get some wine, soft drinks and nibblies for our room, to have after dinner, whilst watching TV. for a relaxing evening…
Next day (Sunday), it was very much a re-run of the day before, except on the way into the city, we stopped off at an area near Sunderland Bridge Village. When I was a young lad, my Aunt & Uncle, lived in this village, and in my early teens, I would visit them for a week each year, to walk in the surrounding area, leaving their house in the early hours of the morning to watch, badgers in the woods, foxes around the fields, and generally keeping my own company until darkness fell, when I would return and spill the recollections of the day to my Aunt & Uncle… sweet times… Ann and I re-visited some of the special places of my youth in the village, and found our way down to the river, where I spent some fantastic days, watching and waiting for the wildlife to emerge…
Remembering special days on the river…
On the Monday morning, we packed and spent a leisurely time over another fantastic breakfast, with the Hotel’s award winning ‘black pudding’ (Ann gave me her’s, as she’s not that fussed on BP). We settled our tab, and headed for the highway so to speak.
We decided not to take the motorways back, and headed over the moors on the A66 to Barnard Castle, before dropping into Kirby Stevens and onto the M6 at Teebay in Cumbria… some outstanding views to be had, along with a much quieter and relaxing route.
Of course, we had another motive for going this way… this was to call at Killington Lake Services, on the M6 in Cumbria. This is a regular stop for us on the way home, and we actually look forward to the long standing routine.
Not only does it have a Costa Coffee Shop, serving a welcome break, and as friends know… Ann & I should have shares in the Franchise… the amount of time we spend at them chilling out… lol. Anyway…
Killington Lake Services, has it all…. superb views over the lake to the Cumbrian Fells, long established Bird nesting islands to the north end of the lake, picnic areas, as well as other franchises in the complex.
The lake was man-made 200 years ago, and dug out, on Killington Common, to supply a constant amount of water to the canals of Lancashire, which carried goods from the internal heartlands to the coast (mainly Liverpool) and back.
Killington Lake