The debonair Basil Marigold's

Northumberland collects castles, like David Moyes collects, well, defeats. One imagines that the council has a collection of generic brown tourist/places of interest signs that have a blank followed by 'Castle'. Though to be fair, they are wonderful castles each and every one. In various stages from usable (Bamburgh, for instance has private rented apartments), Lindisfarne, was re-modelled and used as a holdiay 'castle'. Dunstanburgh castle is pretty much 4 walls left standing. Alnwick houses a Duke and his family and my daughter made sand castles. Everything is Castle related and I can imagine that, Roy Castle once lived in Northumberland, in a castle.

Northumberland beaches can be very beautiful, as beaches go, they tick quite a few boxes that good beaches need; they can be long and curved, they possess fine and clean sand, very few rocks (unlike the breakwater beach in brixham, for example) as you head towards the sea you have the good, compacted sand, ideal for sand castles and the day we went yesterday it also had glorious blue skies and a day of sunshine. Yet, oddly, this beach (and the others I have been to so far, also), it was pretty well deserted. Certainly not too busy at all (compare this to the Grockle heavy Devon coastline in summer). All these boxes above have been ticked and were this; Devon, Dorset or Cornwall the beach would be standing room only for large, burnt red English men with beer bellies and comparing their tattoos with the wife or girlfriend. But not here, not in Northumberland and that's for the other box it ticks; ferociously high winds from the east coming across the north sea! In full effect, a wind

I have been further north, which is technically another country altogether, Scotland. However, this is the first time I have headed so far north and not left England behind. I am presently, in the least populated county in England, the county of Northumberland. It has this distinction of being the least populated county in England I was surprised by this, as I thought maybe it would Cornwall, or Cumbria, but no, I stand corrected (though I stand alone, as there are so few people to stand with me). Ancestral county of the Percy family, as Dukes of Northumberland. The ancestral seat being, Alnwick, although the county capital is now, Morpeth.   It was quite a drive, the county is dissected by the A1/A1(M) heading along the east coast as it finally runs into Scotland. The proximity to Scotland seems to have defined the history and nature of the county. The Scots and the English often clashed in and around Northumberland, it being less difficult to penetrate by armed forces than the mo