Bays and Stones

Castle Point
Aside from Castles and Gardens in Dumfries and Galloway, we wanted to explore the coast and began with Rockcliffe village and bay, very picturesque on a wild and windy day. We climbed the Mote of Mark, a dramatic hill fort with a viewpoint across the bay (and mythical links with Merlin from the King Arthur stories.) Teetering on the pebbles along the coastal walk we were wind-whipped and rain-lashed but found a sheltering tree for a blustery picnic. Wild. As we ascended the headland we stumbled upon Joseph Nelson’s Grave; he was a victim of the shipwreck of The Ann, lost in January 1791 (Nelson’s body washed ashore in July, six months after the disaster.) Our destination was Castle Point, a high promontory with panoramic views along the coast. The return journey included an alarming herd-of-cows attack, so I had to summon my Inner Farmer to bring the family to safe haven….

Naked shingles of the world
Mossyard Beach was another memorable stop, a magical shell-covered beach with a series of dunes and the noise of waves rolling in, slurching out, relentlessly flowing and ebbing, (from Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach:)
Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin….

Making Old Stuff Freshly New 
Frequent surprises on this trip were provided by the terrific guides or custodians of every site we visited, even when we were spending only the briefest of comfort stops, for example at Dundrennan Abbey (the last place Mary Queen of Scots stayed before leaving Scotland forever) or Carsluith Castle with its welcome coffee/Deli shop. Was it the lyrical nature of the Scottish accent, or just the well-trained tourist-friendly gift-of-the-gab? Who knew bits of old rock could be made so dramatic and inspirational? But so it was at Cairn Holy I and II, two chambered cairns with their cup-and-ring marks and tantalising glimpses into burial practices that we can only imagine. Who rested there? A religious figure? The mythical Scottish King Galdus? A famous Somebody who is famous No More?
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Castle Point

Castles and Gardens

Gatehouse of Fleet
Via (our favourite) Tebay services and a supermarket in Dumfries, we headed for Gatehouse of Fleet, a small town on the edge of the Galloway Forest Park in Scotland.  En route (and during our trip) we were hooked on the audio book of Stacey Hall’s The Familiars, a fictionalised account of what happened in Pendle in 1612. Our remote coastal cottage was windswept and atmospheric, but it didn’t take long to unpack and feel at home by setting up a Shakespeare-themed jigsaw to do over the four evenings and we settled down to enjoy a lasagne we’d made back home in Saltaire. The cottage had restful views, by day and by night, with lights twinkling across the waters and, on some evenings, dramatic sunsets as well as a heavenly firmament of stars. Bliss.

Two Castles, Two Gardens
Our first stop was Drumlanrig Castle, an impressive, imposing and grand pile with glorious grounds – borders, lawns, woodland copses, a waterfall, a bog area, a winter garden and an Andy Goldsworthy arch. There were sylvan summer houses hidden around and, decorating lived-in interiors in the castle itself, an astonishing collection of artworks, two of which over-excited me: a Rembrandt and a Breughel. The young, intelligent guide was dry and witty so the whole place came to life. By way of contrast, but no less interesting imho, Cardoness Castle (with another enthusiastic Scottish custodian) was a one-room per floor castle (a “Tower House”) on a giant mound overlooking the Fleet Estuary. Our first garden fix came courtesy of Cally Gardens, first created in the 18th century and which included a giant, walled romantic garden undergoing fascinating restoration. A much bigger site was Threave Gardens – a perfect place to picnic and large enough to accomodate cascades, a rock garden, a bizarre mushroom-shaped shelter, a “secret” garden, a garden of contemplation, and a mixture of formal borders and informal meadow-style borders.

The Familiars

Statue of Alice Nutter in Roughlee, Gawthorpe Hall, the Pendle Witch Trials and Stacey Hall's The Familiars

The Familiars by Stacey Halls
During a recent trip to Scotland, Sally, Emily and I listened rapt to an audio reading of the tale of Fleetwood Shuttleworth. Stacey Hall’s novel The Familiars gives an account of pregnant Fleetwood and her choice of midwife, the enigmatic Alice Grey, and how they both get caught up in the historical events and people involved in the Pendle Witch Trials. I don’t want to reveal any spoilers about the novel but would highly recommend it if you enjoy strong female characters, historical fiction, Gothic conventions and stories of friendship, brutality, betrayal, hypocrisy, religious fundamentalism and the clash of contrasting spirits.

Gawthorpe Hall

Pendle Heritage Centre and Gawthorpe Hall
Though Alice Grey is an historical name, her character is imagined. Fleetwood Shuttleworth, however, is the fabulous name of the real-life owner of Gawthorpe Hall, a mighty building open to the public right now, in the hands of the National Trust. The Elizabethan interior has panelling and ceilings of astonishing merit. Not far away is the informative and moving Pendle Heritage Centre which provides the details, amongst many other things, of:

• James I’s tightening of the screws following the Gunpowder Plot
• the Demdike and Chattox families
• pedlar John Law and his “cursing” by Alison Device
• Malkin Tower and the “Witches’ Sabbath”
• Alice Nutter, Ashlar House, Lancaster Castle, Roger Nowell
• Jennet Device and the Pendle Witch Trial and the 11 hangings that resulted

  

  Pendle Heritage Centre (and more Gawthorpe Hall images)

"Truly Heart-stirring Relic"

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, begun in 1847, looks after key properties and materials today

September 1847
September always feels like a time of renewal – throughout my school years and my career as a teacher it always signalled the start of the new term, new books, new pens, turning over a new leaf. It signals the month when Autumn begins and the Summer fades fast. April, wrote T S Eliot in The Wasteland, “is the cruellest month” but for me April means my Mum’s and Sister’s birthdays and (not-so-secretly for those who know me) Shakespeare’s birthday on the 23rd April (which was also his death day and has been designated the feast of St George…) We often make unremarkable dates significant by remembering personal events – the first time or the last time we did something…. September also contains a historical twanging thrill for me, a secret celebration, I know, for many Shakespeare fanatics…. In 1847 an auction took place in London advertising the sale of “The Truly Heart-stirring Relic of a Most Glorious Period, and of England’s Immortal Bard.” What we now know as Shakespeare’s Birthplace was up for public sale and celebrities as grand as Prince Albert and Charles Dickens were promoters of “saving the house for the nation.” Stratford-upon-Avon has never looked back, though it was an uphill struggle to keep the project on track and every year sees challenges to the promotion of Shakespeare’s genius. One of my favourite blogs (The Shakespeare Blog by Sylvia Morris) details the struggle and the commemoration of the auction in 2017.

Shakespeare flirting with both Comedy and Tragedy in a Richard Westall painting at the Birthplace Trust and London scenes from recent visits to The Globe on the South Bank in London.