Further afield you might like to visit The Smokehouse Gallery in Eyemouth. [www.smokehousegallery.co.uk] Here there is always a good selection of beautiful and original crafts, textiles, jewellery and paintings to buy. The Gallery took its name from the fact that the building was originally a smokehouse curing fish for the local fleet. It is now a light and airy display area, with regularly changing exhibits. The town museum at Eyemouth is also worth a visit and this year there is a new museum down at the harbour with a wonderful collection of boats of all kinds as well as a special display about The Mutiny on the Bounty' and the making of the film.
Or for an interesting day out, why not visit Newcastle with its dazzling selection of shops, now enhanced by the opening of the new extension of the Eldon Garden shopping area. Visit the markets with their huge selection of meat, fruit and vegetables all at reasonable prices. Newcastle has a lively night life, with plenty of clubs and restaurants, the Theatre Royal, the Baltic Arts Centre, and the newly opened Sage Centre. All this only an hour’s drive away or forty minutes on the train.
Kelso, not far away has a number of interesting shops and two garden centres, including the walled garden at Floors Castle with its award winning tea room. Why not combine a visit to the castle with a sumptuous afternoon tea?
However, if you want to potter and explore the rockpools, go south. As you cross the southern end of Spittal Promenade, the sandy beach narrows to an area of rockpools and outcrops with an amazing variety of interest.
The northernmost strip of sandstone has been weathered to a sculpted set of pools, rivulets and potholes. The sandstone is colour-banded and presents a set of mini-canyons in white, grey and rich yellows and browns. The rockpools widen to form the Bears Head at the end of the promenade. Underwater at high tide, the falling tide reveals lines of limestone, sandstone and shales, with fossil beds showing corals and crinoids (sea lilies). At low tide, there is one superb bed of coral fossil which runs for several hundred yards to the south below the rising cliffs. Loose boulders and pebbles of coral can be found in the pools.
Coal seams which run out to sea below the beach have been mined for many years in this part of Northumberland. The mines had to be drained, and the old miners drove a horizontal drainage adit which issues out onto the beach by the Bears Head. Rich in iron, the water has created a bright orange flow across the beach, the salts building up to form a flowstone. The adit itself is firmly secured by a steel grid installed by the original miners.
The rockpools to the south should only be explored on a falling tide, but lead on to a series of sandy coves (the Skipper, Redshin Cove) with steep grassy banks which present a scramble up to the clifftop path. The pebbles on the beach are many and varied, including banded sandstones, fossils and the occasional fragments of agate, carnelian, and jasper, washed down the River Tweed from the igneous rocks of the Cheviots. When you have passed Sea House and reach Scremerston beach, you can access the lane and either walk back via Borewell Farm, [excellent café] or pass behind Sea House onto the cliff top track that will return you to Seaview.
If you are a collector of driftwood, there are some interesting pieces washed up on the Point after the autumn storms. Any flower arrangers should certainly take a look, although of course, by its very nature, driftwood does tend to come and go with the tides.
We have another celebration in September, this time to mark the diversity and excellence of our local produce. The second Berwick Food Festival is on the week-end of 12-13th September.There will be both a ocal priduce and a fish amrket, a beer festival with local real ales, chefs demonstrations, music, food marquee, and a gala dinner on the Sunday night.This will be a great time to be in Berick. For further details see www.berwickfoodfestival.com
A long week-end or a few days midweek can certainly recharge your batteries. Until the end of October most National Trust and English Heritage properties are open and so much less crowded than during the summer. Why not enjoy the autumnal joys of the woods at Cragside or a bracing walk along one of our wonderful beaches. All our cottages provide a warm and cosy atmosphere for you to come back to. Throughout the autumn there is a lively collection of events being staged at the Maltings Centre or curl up in front of the fire at Seaview with a good book and a takeaway, or host your own private cocktail party at Snaffle Cottage with our wonderful collection of retro cocktail shakers, glasses etc. We have even supplied the recipes. At Pipe House you are well placed to take advantage of the night life that Berwick offers without having to use your car.Take time to celebrate a birthday or anniversary.Whatever you do, you are sure to return home with renewed energy and enthusiasm for life. We have a number of week-ends free so just let me know.
