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Warkworth

Amble ‘The Friendliest Port’

Voted ‘Britain’s Best Coastal High Street 2015’, Amble is a bustling fishing town and working port situated just 1 mile south of Warkworth Village, on the Coastal Route through Northumberland.

With a good range of small, mostly independent shops, including a great little artisan bakery, excellent butchers, an Italian restaurant, award-winning seafood restaurants and one of the best traditional fish and chip shops in the North East on the quayside, it’s a fascinating little fishing port.  There’s a local Sunday market held every week on the old quayside, which is lovely to wander around as well as a little ‘Harbour Village’ with tiny boutique-style independent shops operating out of pods resembling old fishermen’s huts.

The views from the quayside are spectacular – of the estuary, impressive Warkworth Castle, Coquet Island and of course the beautiful sea, and the walk along the harbour front to the interesting Marina is just lovely – follow it with lunch or dinner in one of the super little eateries on the quayside and you’ll truly feel a ‘sense of place’.

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amble boat coming into harbour

Coquet Island

Lying just one mile off the coast of Amble is Coquet Island, an RSPB nature reserve. It is a safe haven for over 30,000 pairs of seabirds, some of whom travel from Africa to nest there. The island is protected under European Law for birds such as the Roseate Tern, one of our rarest nesting seabirds. Coquet Island now holds 90% of the UK’s Roseate Tern population.

Coquet Island has been a place of sanctuary since St. Cuthbert, an early Northumbrian saint who landed there in AD684. The Duke of Northumberland owns the island including its unusual square-towered lighthouse, which was built in 1841.

Read more information about Coquet Island and the boat trips you can take.

Where to Eat in Amble

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the old boathouse

One of the best eating places in Amble!  Customers drive for miles to visit this rustic fish restaurant to experience fresh fish and seafood, as well as the other tasty dishes on their menu. With a specials board that changes almost daily depending on what the fishing boats bring into the harbour, this bustling restaurant with a stunning harbour frontage is a must to sample the catches of Northumberland. Booking is essential even during the week, at all times of the year.

Tel: 01665 711 232
Click here to visit The Old Boathouse website

amble harbour view 3 daylight scaled

The Harbour Inn new to Amble is a family and dog-friendly restaurant and bar located in the heart of Amble opposite the harbour. On offer for you here is a variety of cuisines with a main focus on seafood, you are in a fishing port after all!  There is also a great selection of meat dishes on offer such as steak and traditional pub classics. We would strongly recommend booking in advance.

Tel: 01665 711664
Click here to visit The Harbour Inn website

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Owned by the local renowned chef, Martin Charlton (who also owns The Old Boathouse), this informal, rustic fish shack is a seaside delight. Offering quick, fresh, local food overlooking Amble Harbour, this is well worth a visit. Opening times vary according to the season.

Tel: 01665 661301
Click here to visit The Fish Shack website

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This pretty little restaurant is a hidden gem in Amble. It only covers about 20 customers so is very small and intimate. They serve delicious lunches and even great evening meals, bistro-style. Their food is probably the best in Amble, you won’t be disappointed!

Tel: 07853 449465
Click here to visit Jasper’s Facebook page

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The Market Tavern, on Fenkle Street, don’t be perturbed by the ‘pub’ appearance to the front. The Tavern restaurant is situated at the back of the pub and the food is fantastic. A fairly new addition to Alnwick, the steakhouse serves excellent food in a romantic, low-light atmosphere with lots of choices of locally sourced meats and fish. Booking in advance is highly recommended as the restaurant is very popular with the locals too.

Tel: 01665 602759
Click HERE to visit their website

The Dirty Bottles

Originally ‘Ye Old Cross Inn’ pub, it was nicknamed by the locals as, “The Dirty Bottles”, as the windows were full of old bottles that hadn’t been touched in hundreds of years. The current restaurant and bar has kept up tradition by adopting the local name and keeping the original bottles encased in the glass window! Now a taproom and smokehouse, they serve great cocktails, home-smoked meats and delicious desserts, The Dirty Bottles is as much novelty as it is good food.

Tel: 01665 606193
Click HERE to visit their website

Adam and Eve in Alnwick

Adam and Eve based in the heart of Alnwick town offers tasty Northumberland produce by using as many local suppliers as they possibly can. The menu’s here are seasonal, so we would highly advise to check on the website before you visit to see what’s on offer for you. As well as the amazing food here, the cocktails and selection of drinks are spectacular! Booking is recommended.

Tel: 01665 517330
Click HERE to visit their website

yan restaurant alnwick

Situated just inside Bondgate Within, Yan’s is a modern style restaurant with an excellent Cantonese menu. Yan’s is always full with locals and tourists alike as their takeaway menu is as good as the restaurant menu. Booking ahead is recommended at any time of the year as it’s very popular and the reviews are incredibly good. They also offer a takeaway menu but don’t offer a delivery
service.

Tel: 01665 603888
Click HERE for their Facebook page

Shopping

There are some great shops in Alnwick for you to have a wander around, both high street and boutique. There’s a great choice of supermarkets in Alnwick – Aldi, Lidl, Sainsburys, M&S, and Morrisons, as well as local butchers, bakeries and green grocers. There is a Costa Coffee, Starbucks, a Boots, a WHSmith among other nationally recognised stores.

As well as in the main street there is a small retail park with the Sainsburys, a Homebase and an Argos, as well as the leisure centre – The Willowburn Sports Centre – and a fuel station. Across the road is also a Marks & Spencer Food Hall, Turnbull’s Northumbrian Food Hall and a Starbucks.

Barter Books

A visit to Barter Books in Alnwick is a must if you have any interest at all in books.  It’s the biggest second-hand bookshop in the UK and is housed in the former railway station in Alnwick – which is fascinating in its own right.  You could easily spend hours there browsing their enormous collection of second-hand books, DVD’s, videos, etc. and they have a really interesting Antiquarian Section.

There is a separate children’s department, where children are encouraged to read and play. They have also recently open the Station Buffet, which is a quaint cafe located in the old waiting rooms of the station building. In the wintertime, they have a roaring fire in each room –  perfect for enjoying a hot drink and reading through an interesting book.    It’s located on the left just as you enter Alnwick from the south – you can’t miss the sign.

Walks Around Alnwick

Even though Alnwick is a town, there are a number of lovely country walks from your doorstep and within a short drive you can reach the dramatically beautiful coast where you can walk for miles admiring the land and seascapes, and inland to the Cheviot Hills – fantastic walking country!

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alnwick walk to lesbury

Originally devised Parkland by Capability Brown himself, Hulne Park is the gorgeous land that surrounds Alnwick Cstle. There are various walks throughout the park and all paths are clearly marked. Some of the routes go through the Hulne Priory and the Alnwick Abbey Gatehouse. Access for dogs is limited throughout the park as many of the paths cross farmland and the Northumberland Estate has a duty of care to protect the livestock for the local farmers. The route for different walks can be downloaded online on the Northumberland Estate’s website by clicking here.

Adam and Eve in Alnwick

This trail takes you from the edge of Alnwick to as far as Lesbury and around the pretty banks of the Coquet River. On this train, there are 2 walking routes and 1 cycle route. The first walking route is 3.8 miles long and partly follows the river. The second route is longer, stretching for 6.6 miles, which goes to Lesbury, around the pretty riverbank and back. The cycle route goes further towards Alnmouth and is an easy route of 6.6 miles there and back. Click HERE to download the route from Northumberland Estates.

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Scenic Drives from Alnwick around Northumberland

If you fancy a driving day around our county, click HERE to find out the best routes and where to explore. Once of our personal favourites is the drive up to Kielder from Alnwick and around Kielder Forest.

Alternatively if you wanted to head north, the drive along the coastline up to Edinburgh is beautiful, passing Berwick-upon-Tweed and some pretty villages on the way.

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Shopping

There are some great shops in Alnwick for you to have a wander around, both high street and boutique. There’s a great choice of supermarkets in Alnwick – Aldi, Lidl, Sainsburys, M&S, and Morrisons, as well as local butchers, bakeries and green grocers. There is a Costa Coffee, Starbucks, a Boots, a WHSmith among other nationally recognised stores.

As well as in the main street there is a small retail park with the Sainsburys, a Homebase and an Argos, as well as the leisure centre – The Willowburn Sports Centre – and a fuel station. Across the road is also a Marks & Spencer Food Hall, Turnbull’s Northumbrian Food Hall and a Starbucks.

Barter Books

A visit to Barter Books in Alnwick is a must if you have any interest at all in books.  It’s the biggest second-hand bookshop in the UK and is housed in the former railway station in Alnwick – which is fascinating in its own right.  You could easily spend hours there browsing their enormous collection of second-hand books, DVD’s, videos, etc. and they have a really interesting Antiquarian Section.

There is a separate children’s department, where children are encouraged to read and play. They have also recently open the Station Buffet, which is a quaint cafe located in the old waiting rooms of the station building. In the wintertime, they have a roaring fire in each room –  perfect for enjoying a hot drink and reading through an interesting book.    It’s located on the left just as you enter Alnwick from the south – you can’t miss the sign.

Local Events

A celebration of Northumbrian produce, drink and healthy eating in Alnwick. The food festival takes place in the market square, where you can buy everything from artisan bread to smoked kippers, as well as there being lots of ‘street food’ to buy and eat straight away and gifts to take home with you.

The drinks festival is in the town hall, accessed from the market square. This established event is a huge attraction for the town, so if you are a foodie and fancy taking home some goodies with you, don’t miss out! Usually happens on the 3rd weekend of September annually.

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Alnmouth is just 4 miles south along the coast from Alnwick. At the end of June each year, there is a big arts festival spread throughout the whole of Alnmouth, lasting a couple of days over the weekend. There is an arts trail you can follow which takes you in and around the village through the little streets and up narrow alleyways, to find little stalls filled with local artwork. It is a huge hit with the locals and tourists every year and is definitely not one to be missed. Click HERE to see their Facebook page for the latest updates.

Located in the Alnwick rugby club just next to the Willowburn Sports Centre, there is a spectacularly large firework display on either November 5th or the nearest Saturday, beginning at 6:30pm. There is a small admission charge. A great local event if you are holidaying in the area at this time.

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History of Alnwick

Originally held by the De Vesci family for several centuries at the dawn of the second millennium, Alnwick Northumberland was handed on to the house of Percy in 1309. The Percy’s are still seated in the castle at the centre of the town.

A picturesque market town, it was voted by Country Life in 2002 as “the best place to live in Great Britain”. With a population of around 7,000 it is located 32 miles south of the Scottish border & 5 miles inland from the North Sea at Alnmouth. It dates back to approximately 600AD and despite much of the town being razed to the ground in 1424 by Scottish invaders, over the centuries it has thrived as an agricultural town, the location of Alnwick Castle and home of the Earls of Northumberland and as a stopping place on the Great North Road between Edinburgh & London.

Despite its recent growth it still has much of its original character. Most recently it has become a modern rural communter town. Alnwick also boasts one of the biggest second hand book stores in Europe; Barter Books, housed within the old railway station. The main east-coast railway line is situated around 4 miles along the river Aln and can be accessed via Alnmouth railway station.

The town once had its own rail link, but this ceased in ’68 because of the terminal nature of the line and the lack of opportunity for it to be developed. The building itself is incredibly ornate, which is due to the station’s frequent use by royals visiting the Percy’s at Alnwick Castle. Barter Books is now its main resident and much of the grandeur of the station is visible from within the store, which is a wonderful place to stop off and browse over a cup of coffee in front of their roaring fire.

At the very core of the town centre is a once thriving cobbled Marketplace which acted as a venue for the cattle market which was once the main industry of the town. Beautiful little
picture postcard streets such as Fenkle Street, Pottergate and Narrowgate surround the marketplace, many of which are cobbled, and all of which are lined by charismatic period buildings.

Historically, Alnwick was surrounded by a defensive wall to stave off attacks from invaders, but this wall has since been almost completely demolished, and only one of the majestic gatehouses survive. Hotspur tower, as it is known, was built at the turn of the second millennium and derives its name from the 2nd Earl of Northumberland, known as Harry Hotspur, who lived in Warkworth Castle.

Another fine building in the town centre is the gothic Pottergate Tower which is now a fabulous holiday property which you can book directly with Coquet Cottages. See full details here. This is a beautiful ornate gatehouse which was built in the eighteenth century on the site of the original gate. It once had an elegant spire, but this proved to be quite delicate and was destroyed a short time after it was built by a storm. The Playhouse is an all-purpose arts centre, which contains a theatre, a cinema and a gallery. The weekly newspaper is the Northumberland Gazette which covers the town and the district & their head office is in the town. Alnwick has numerous opportunites for leisure & sports which include the new Willowburn leisure centre, football, rugby and cricket clubs. Because of the nature of the area there are also opportunities for rock climbing, walking, water sports, horse riding, cycling & there are also dozens of golf courses in the area, including some links courses on the coast.

Brizlee tower is just one of the dozens of other dedicated buildings across the town. It sits on a ridge in Hulne Park and acts as a beacon which would be lit whenever anything of note happened so that the people of the town could be made aware. The White Swan Hotel contains the lounge and fittings from the RMS Olympic which was identical to the RMS Titanic and the RMS Gigantic (in the same fleet). Both were broken up after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 for fears of a flaw in either the design or build. The Northumberland Fusiliers museum is located within Alnwick Castle. The Percy Tenantry Column was erected to thank the 2nd Duke of Northumberland for giving them a rent reduction during a time of particular hardship for farmers. This column has the Percy lion at its very top – the emblem of the Percy family and is a striking landmark at the southern entry to the town.

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alnwick marketplace old photo

We know all of our cottages inside out, so if you have any particular queries, please don’t hesitate to call or email us. We’re more than happy to help!

Telephone: 01665 710 700 or click here to email your enquiry.

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