Sunday 7th May 2023 You should be able to spot Doddington easily on an OS map of North Northumberland: towering over the Milfield Plain, a few kilometres north-east of the historic market town of Wooler, it’s covered in the black gothic script used by the Ordnance Survey to indicate sites of antiquity. In an area …
Mothering Sunday, 19th March 2023 For those who may not know (and I recently counted myself as such) John Martin was a popular painter and polymath of the early c19th (1789-1854) who led an impressively productive life among contemporaries such as Turner, Constable and Ruskin. He lies buried in Douglas, on the Isle of Man, …
12th June 2022 Route map for NYM 2-Abbey Tour (Day 2) by Durham Cow on plotaroute.com Reflecting on a fitful night’s sleep, our lightweight Nordisk Telemark UL2 tent (1 kg with poles and pegs) had felt much like I’d remembered it: compact but with barely enough room to stow gear. Diane’s was at her feet …
Monday, 21st September 2020 This afternoon, as part of my long-term, casual project to record the fortifications of Northern England and the Scottish border, I paid a quick visit to Staward Peel which, between 1272 and 1384, during the Scottish Wars of Independence and much of the Hundred Years War, was a virtually impregnable tower …
Saturday 5th September 2020 Historically, the counties and shires along the border between England and Scotland have seen their fair share of conflict. Never more so than during the medieval period when for several centuries, national armies and predatory familial bands known as Reivers would decimate those individuals or communities unfortunate enough to fall within …
