Coquet Island

After filling the car with more coal we drove south to Amble where we parked up for a coastal walk. I insist on this as my reward for helping shovel the coal. (The merchant can’t get any more of this type as it’s banned here now for domestic use (though not yet in Scotland). Pubs and other businesses are allowed it - people like to sit by a roaring fire in winter.)

We walked along the beach with the biting east wind behind us to Druridge Bay then came back by the dunes.

The river that runs through our village enters the North Sea at Amble, hence the name of the island.

Coquet Island was first referred to in 684AD when St Cuthbert met the Abbess of Whitby there. After that a series of hermits lived there then it became a Benedictine cell connected to Tynemouth Priory. After Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries it had stone removed by the Duke of Northumberland to help built Syon House near London, then it was garrisoned by the Scots in the Civil War. Later the lighthouse was built and first manned by the brother of Grace Darling. The island is now a RSPB reserve, protected under EU law as it is home to 90% of UK’s roseate tern population. I wonder if that is on-going.

We thought we’d find sun at the coast and it did appear at the end of our 5 miles. I got weary - because I’m slightly stooped forward to see my feet, I got a really sore back so we did the last bit on the road where I could straighten up. I don’t think the rowing machine is helping my knees - they kept waking me up in the night. Thankfully, as at one point I was on a skiing holiday with a younger Prince Andrew and - horrors - we seemed to be good pals and having a laugh.