Explore the North.
To Do
Go and see SIX: THE MUSICAL (LIVE) screened at The Dukes in Lancaster. (Link for tickets)
To Eat
Deep fried black pudding and potato stack (with added bacon if you wish), poached egg, and chilli jam @ The Quayside, Glasson Dock. Open Thur-Sun. Read about the café in my article here.
You can read about the first part of my trip to North Northumberland here.
The following day, we headed back to Bamburgh Walled Garden Café for a full breakfast. I had the “small” breakfast, and despite the moniker it was more than enough for me! It’s quite pricey in here for breakfast, and for three of us the bill was close to £60, but the produce is all from local suppliers, cooked fresh and the restaurant is in a lovely setting. The whole area has recently been renovated with outdoor seating and a large kids play area (outside), so I imagine in the school holidays it will be extremely popular with families.
After breakfast I decided I was going to walk from Bamburgh to Seahouses along the beach. I’ve done this walk before in the winter on a glorious December day, but decided that doing it again in May would be equally as nice. It was a “warm” (highs of 20 degrees according to my weather app) day so I was wearing shorts, but I still needed a 3/4 sleeve t-shirt on to protect my shoulders against the somewhat chilly breeze coming off the sea – it would have been quite cold to do it in a sleeveless top! It’s one of the things I always find amusing at this time of year in the UK; nobody really knows how to dress (and that’s not a criticism!) – some people you see in May, when the sun’s shining, in shorts and strappy t-shirts, others are still wearing their duvet coats!
Anyway, clothing aside, it is a stunning walk down the sands from Bamburgh to Seahouses – a distance of about 7km/3.5 miles. It’s a bit challenging at the start, walking up the soft sanded dunes, but once you’re on the flat beach (especially if the tide is out and can walk on the firm, damp, sand) then it’s easy going. Whilst walking I took the time to have a look in some of the many rockpools – the tide was on the turn, so probably not the best time, as they’d been exposed for some hours, and anything that hadn’t hidden away had probably been picked off by the sea birds. I did see some sea anemones, and plenty of cool and colourful sea weed, but not a huge amount of critters. The best time to go rock-pooling would be a couple of hours after high tide; you can find out more information about how to get the best out of going rock-pooling from The Rock Pool Project website. The walk (done at a very relaxed pace) took me about two hours.
Often beaches are inaccessible to those with mobility issues because their mobility aids cannot go on sand. In Bamburgh, however, a new project by Beach Access North East and Bamburgh Parish Council has brought beach-ready wheelchairs to Bamburgh beach available to book/loan. You can read about the different chairs available and how to hire them here.
Following day, mum and I headed to Alnwick Garden. It was a bit of a palaver, which is a shame because Alnwick Castle & Garden is a great tourist attraction and has lots of things to do. The palaver occurred because we’d booked an electric scooter to help her get around and it wasn’t there when we arrived. It turned out there’d been some crossed-wires and there wasn’t one available, so we ended up having to take a wheelchair and I had to push her around. I was quite happy to do this, but seeing as Alnwick garden has quite a few uphill paths, it was a bit more exercise than I’d been anticipating that morning! Anyway, it was nice to amble around, although the beautiful sensory gardens weren’t quite out yet (June/July would be the best time to visit for this). The top garden with Alhambra-esque water features was lovely, with blooming lilac, clematis, a few tulips, and a wonderful trailing wisteria over the gateway.
I then went into Alnwick to go and have a mooch around The Accidental Bookshop (part of Forum Books, started in Corbridge), whilst mum went to have a coffee in Northern Angels – a new coffeeshop and lifestyle shop that celebrates the contribution of amazing women from across the North, as well as promoting sustainable living. Definitely worth a visit when in Alnwick!
Stay tuned for Part Three for the last update about my trip to North Northumberland…
Head North. A bit further… a bit further… bit further… there you go. I’m spending a week in North Northumberland, about as far north as you can go in England before you hit Scotland. The weather has been absolutely delightful; wall-to-wall sunshine, but not too hot, making it perfect for wandering about.
First things first we’re staying right on the harbour in the village of Seahouses for a week, checking in on a Friday through to the following Friday. This is a working harbour, and sitting on the balcony watching the boats go in and out, and the fishermen sort their pots, nets, and catches is certainly a way to while away a moment with a cup of tea in the mornings.
Following that, there are plenty of options for breakfast both here in Seahouses, and also just up the road in Bamburgh, where the imposing Bamburgh Castle overlooks the village and the beach from it’s clifftop situation. We headed to the newly opened Bamburgh Walled Garden Café for a coffee and a scone on Saturday morning because, not knowing how popular it is, we hadn’t booked for the first morning we were there, and couldn’t get a table inside where they serve hot food (no hot food is served outside, only cakes/pastries etc.). Learning this we booked a table for the following day, in order to have breakfast the following day. After breakfast I went to Carter’s a family run butcher’s shop in Bamburgh, which does the most amazing meats and pies. I’m planning to stock up on lots of pies for the freezer at home before we head home because they are seriously that delicious.
After breakfast we decided to head down the coastal route and see what we could find. Initially, mum thought we might head for Alnmouth, but we got side-tracked on the way by signs for Howick Hall & Gardens. I’d seen signs before when we’d been up here, but we’d never investigated before. This time we did, and discovered a delightful privately owned hall and gardens that had once belong to the 2nd Earl Grey (he of the tea fame). He’d done a few things quite a bit more politically impressive in his time, such as being the Prime Minister that saw through the Reform Act (that paved the way for democracy as we know it today in the UK) and the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Empire, but it is probably for the blend of tea with bergamot that takes his name for which he is most famous. Ironically, the Grey family did not file a patent for the name of the tea, and made absolutely no royalties for it once Twinings (and others) took the blend worldwide and sold however many millions of lbs of it have been sold since.
The Hall was beautiful with lots of information about the gardens inside. The gardens themselves have been under development by the various owners of the Hall for well over two centuries, including an extensive arboretum that is divided into different areas depending on the geographical location that the trees originate from. There’s also a Sensory Garden, the Bog Garden (which is so called because it had always been a boggy area of the garden until it was dug out into a pond in the early 90s and planted with lots of shrubs and flowers), as well as a Rockery, Lady Howick’s Private Garden (which is only open on select days), and a lovely river running through the lower garden by the church with a path meandering alongside.
It was lovely to wander around and listen to the birdsong of blackbirds, blue tits, starlings etc. I also saw a woodpecker, which is a bit of a rare spot. One of the things I love about places like this is that even though it was fairly busy (judging by the car park), but wandering around the gardens you wouldn’t know it because it was so peaceful.
After Howick, we headed back up the coast to Beadnell to enjoy an ice cream on the beach. I also dipped my toes in the water because it was such a beautiful day, and I can’t head to the beach on a day like that and not have a paddle! It was pretty cold, but still lovely to wade whilst enjoying my ice cream.
A perfect start to a great week!
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On May Bank Holiday, Holker Hall held it’s annual Spring Fair and Festival, and yours truly went along for the third year in a row to check it out.
The weather was beautiful; sunny but not overly hot, with a slight breeze. Perfect for wandering around looking at artisan products, food, and crafts from local businesses. It also made it perfect weather for lots and lots of doggies to be around – my favourite! (Note to readers: I am absolutely dog mad, and will pet dogs wherever I see them. To be honest, I’m absolutely creature/animal mad – I will pet anything vaguely cute and fluffy; will never kill bugs or spiders; am in awe of all wildlife… I’ll even try and gently waft wasps outside, despite the fact they scare me!).
Upon arriving we parked in the disabled parking area (my mum has access needs and is a blue badge holder), and headed up the hill towards the fair. I bought us both a coffee from a stall before we had a noodle around the stalls. There were local artisans and craft stalls, such as Gazelle Crafts (Making Your Garden Wildlife Friendly), The Zero Pantry (Serving daily needs, plastic free), The Wilde Bakery (flapjack makers from Bare), and Northern Baked (Cakes, scones, pastries etc.). There was also representation from various charities associated with nature and animals, such as the RSPB, The Woodland Trust, and the Wildlife Trust.
As well as seeing the stalls and the artisans who had come along, I also went for a walk around the Hall & Gardens itself. I come to Holker Hall regularly, and there’s always something to see whatever time of the year. In Spring, the Gardens are famed for their rhododendrons and azaleas, as well as the wildflower areas specifically left to create havens for bees, insects, and other wildlife. I’ll be doing more posts about what to see at Holker Hall in the future. Holker also have other events running throughout the year – you can check out their ‘What’s On‘ page to see what’s coming up.
^ P.S – this was Winston, a 10 yr old Black Labrador that I just had to feature because he looked so gentlemanly and majestic standing in the wildflower meadow. He was a such a sweet boy and I gave him a big cuddle after he posed so nicely for a photograph.
One of the things I wanted to do when I started The North(ish) Lass was to highlight and promote small and medium companies that produce food and goods specifically made in the North. So, in that spirit, I thought I would start with one of my favourite items produced locally: Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding. I’m already drooling just thinking about it.
Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding started being made over thirty-five years ago in a family run restaurant, as well as being stocked in the village shop, and transformed overtime into the product known today. After customers to the village shop started asking “where can I find it local to where I live?” the family knew they had a very good thing on their hands, but had to figure out how to make the pudding and the sauce, package it, and have customers be able to create the taste they loved at home. Cartmel STP (Sticky Toffee Pudding) were the first company in the UK to try serving the pudding and sauce together in a foil tin, with the sauce already on top and cooling it after baking. This then allowed purchasers to reheat it at home, with the sauce already soaking into the pudding. Delicious.
Initially, the family were ferrying the product around to local delis and independent shops in a car, and then a trailer, then a horsebox, and finally… a van. Of course, with such a high demand, soon the under-the-counter oven in the village shop where this had all started couldn’t keep up with the orders. After several iterations in Cartmel itself, including a new kitchen being built, eventually a new site had to be fine. This was kept local, with a purpose built bakery being opened in 2004 in the village of Flookburgh, about three miles down the road from Cartmel village.
Nowadays, the company don’t just do Sticky Toffee Pudding, but several other desserts and other products as well, which can be found in Booths, Waitrose, and other shops including independent restaurants, delis, and cafes. You can find out more about the company, and their products, on their website.
Start off the morning by having breakfast in one of our many independent cafes, which you can read more about in my ‘Cafe Culture in Lancaster‘ series.
Follow up the lovely breakfast by going for a tour of Lancaster Castle. This will need to be prebooked as the tour is guided, in small groups, by a knowledgeable tour guide. The castle has a history dating from the high medieval period right through to the present day (it ceased to be a HM Prison in 2011). Following that you can have a look around the Priory that is adjacent to the castle or have a wander down the hill towards the river to look at the ruins of the Roman Baths. There’s not a huge amount left of the ancient monument there, but it’s interesting to see evidence of just how long humans have been settled and building on the banks of the River Lune.
If you need (or want) lunch after all of that, there are many pubs and eateries to choose from in Lancaster. I will be doing an article in the coming weeks about some of the pubs that can be found in the city, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Off the top of my head, I would suggest The Sun, the Three Mariners, Merchants 1666, or the Water Witch, which all do excellent pub food.
In the afternoon, depending on where your interests lie there are several different options. If you want to continue in the history theme of things, I suggest having a wander around Lancaster Museum, found in the middle of the market square. This fascinating museum takes you through the history of the region and the city from the earliest human occupation to the present day, including the links to the Wars of the Roses, the Witch Trials (the first convictions for witchcraft in the seventeenth century occurred in Lancaster), and the oft-glossed over involvement of the city in the English Slave Trade. For more information on the latter, a visit to the Lancaster Maritime Museum is also on the cards.
If, however, you’ve been historied out by the visit to the castle in the morning, I suggest a visit to Williamson Park, the lovely open space to be found at the top of the city, with the in-situ Ashton Memorial looking out over the city and surrounding countryside in all direction. In the park you can also find a wildlife park and butterfly house, with lots of interesting critters and creatures to take a look at. If fauna isn’t necessarily your thing, then a wander around the park and surrounding woodland is a relaxing way to pass the time on a nice day, although it is worth being aware that the park and surrounding area is fairly hilly, and whilst it is accessible to wheelchairs and motorised scooters, those with ambulatory difficulties without aid might struggle a little, depending on conditions. If you’re up at the park as the sun begins to go down, you’re in for a treat, watching the sunset over Morecambe Bay with the Lake District Hills in the distance, a beautiful location to the end the day.
Lancaster itself sits on the main West Coast trainline, so as your day comes to an end there are plenty of trains to take you either North or South, depending on where you want to go next. The city is also adjacent to junction 34 of the M6 motorway, so is easily accessible by car.
I’m heading to Holker Hall this weekend to go to their Spring Fair. I’ve been a couple of years in a row now and it’s always been great – it’s also the “dog show” weekend, which might have something to do with why it’s so awesome – I get to be around a load of puppies!
There’s going to be a lot going on:
We’re going down on Saturday, so I’m excited to see talks about local food culture from Simon Rogan’s Head Chef, and the history of Holker Hall’s Gardens from Lord Cavendish.
I’ll be doing a full write up next week!
Following on from last week’s post: Café Culture in Lancaster: Part One, this week it’s time for Part Two where I will look at four more independent (or smaller) coffee shops/cafés in Lancaster. The same pricing scale from last week still applies.
Features: Excellent Menu
Price: £££
Journey Social is a lovely café/restaurant to be found just behind the library in the town square. With a diverse menu and excellent coffee, it’s a great place to go for breakfast, brunch, or lunch, but you will need to take your appetites – plates are (in my experience!) quite large! Also be prepared to pay that little bit more for the great ingredients and the from-scratch cooking. Journey Social is one of the more expensive on this list, but definitely worth it as a treat or a special breakfast out. I particularly like the avocado and pea puree they add to various dishes, and from the cake display I’m a fan of their pastel del nata.
Features: Scandinavian Cuisine, Great Cakes (Fika!)
Price: £
A small café that is now looking to expand because it’s done so well, Holm is a café/bakery that specialises in Scandinavian food and fika. Fika is the Swedish name for cake and a hot drink taken in the afternoon, and Holm offers a deal on this Swedish tradition. The café is also in a moment of exciting expansion, as they’re about to expand to the empty shop next door, taking their capacity up from only three tables, to quite a few more!
Last time I was there, mum had a dish with Salmon, pickled cucumber, rocket, cream cheese, and dill, with a lemon flavour. She enjoyed it, but she did say the portion was very large (she has quite a small appetite!). I had a bagel with cheese and salami.
They also home bake all their cakes, and we took home a tart with berries and crème anglaise, which was delicious with a cup of tea later that afternoon!
Features: Great Coffee (own blend), Social Tables/Space, Dog Friendly
Price: ££
Atkinson’s has been coffee blenders and tea sellers in Lancaster for nearly two hundred years. Thomas Atkinson opened his tea warehouse in Lancaster in 1837, at which time his shop was one of six.
There are also three different locations of Atkinson’s in Lancaster. There’s The Hall, which is the original café next to the coffee roasting shop; The Music Room on Sun Street; and The Castle Courtyard which can be found (unsurprisingly) in Lancaster Castle Courtyard. The Hall is a huge space on the main road heading towards Sainsburys out of town with smaller tables to work at, or bigger communal tables for chatting with friends or other coffee lovers. I like going into the hall and seeing all the coffee making experiments that they have going on – it looks like an alchemist’s lab in there!
The Music Room is a smaller venue with an outdoor courtyard space which is gorgeous to sit in the spring and summer. The Castle Courtyard is a lovely café in an amazing historical location, but it’s worth noting that whilst it is all flat or ramped, it is a bit of a trek from the road up to the castle and it might be a challenge to someone with accessibility issues.
Features: Social Space/Laptop Space, Garden Seating
Price: £
The Storey is a council owned building dedicated to the arts and learning. There are always exhibitions, classes, workshops, and other things going on within the building. There is also a little accessible café space with plenty of comfortable seating and tables for either enjoying a coffee with friends, or plugging in a laptop and catching up on some work. My old singing teacher used to have a classroom and singing space in the Storey, so I would often have a coffee and cake before going to my lesson. There is a little courtyard area where I sometimes sat outside in the late afternoon sunshine in the spring and summer.
The Storey Gardens are also worth a visit, perhaps with a takeaway coffee. The Gardens are perhaps one of Lancaster’s best kept secrets, and beautiful to take a walk around. I’ll be doing a whole piece about the Storey Gardens and the history of the place at a later date.
Over the last decade or so, Lancaster has developed a wonderful independent coffeeshop scene, giving any punter a lot of options to choose from when seeking out an excellent cup of coffee, or a good ol’ brew. In this blog I’ll be exploring some of my favourite places to have a coffee, a spot of breakfast or lunch, or just to chill and relax in Lancaster for an hour or two. This list does not include any big brand coffee shops, not for any particularly hipster reasons, but because I believe that they get enough exposure as it is!
A note on pricing: I have used £-£££ to mark out whether I think a place is towards the cheaper (£) or more expensive (£££) end of the pricing points. I hasten to add this is subjective and only based roughly around a particular scale.
In all of these places there are options that will be cheaper or more expensive, and these pricing marks are just a general guide.
Features: Dog Friendly, Excellent for Brunch
Price: ££
Address: 18A Brock Street, Lancaster
I go to Brew a lot. A little café found next to Sultan’s on Brock St.. Seating is limited and often involves having to queue for a little while outside in order to get a seat (the fact that there is often a queue highlights just how popular it is!).
The shop itself only has tables that seat up to four, and you can’t book. It’s ideal for intimate groups and a chin wag with friends, rather than for large groups. There’s also a small courtyard area which is lovely in the spring and summer, but the café also provides blankets in the autumn and winter – so if you’re feeling brave, the space is open all year round! The café itself is small and there is no step free access. The toilets are also up a steep set of stairs. This is the downside of being in a little old building, and through no fault of the business itself, but it is something to bear in mind if accessibility is a priority for your party.
The menu changes regularly, but Brew’s particular speciality is their French Toast, which changes flavour weekly. My personal favourite is the fruit-based options – when it’s summer fruits with vanilla mascarpone in June, or Apple and cinnamon in the Autumn… I am all over that. Just recently I had the Red Velvet French Toast that was the speciality for Valentine’s Day, and that was also delicious, without being overly sweet (surprisingly), whilst a friend of mine had Vegetarian Pho from the specials board. Well worth a visit for a coffee and chill – as I post this, I’m sitting in Brew enjoying a latte!
Features: Vegetarian/Vegan, Child-Friendly Space.
Price: £
Address: Unit 1, 78A Penny Street, Lancaster
The Whale Tail has been in business in Lancaster for over twenty-five years and has recently undergone a full renovation. There is a large indoor café area, as well as ample seating outside which is found just across the road from the Sir Richard Owen pub. The café has a Vegetarian and Vegan menu, but with plenty of diverse options therein; I’m a particular fan of the vegetarian breakfast (despite not being vegetarian), it’s extremely filling and definitely sets you up for the day ahead.
There is an exhibition space for local artists, and there are also activities for children in a child friendly space. The café is above a Vegan Wholefood Co-operatively owned shop called Single Step where a sustainable shopper can be ethically sourced produce and provisions such as soap, sanitary products, and household goods.
Features: Deli-style, Licensed Premises, Later Opening
Price: £££
Address: 5 Stonewell, Lancaster
The newest option on this first list, the Stonewell Spring is a lovely deli with a collection of outdoor and indoor seating, just down the street from The Dukes Independent Cinema & Theatre, as well as The Grand Theatre (I used to pop down here to get a lovely coffee before the matinee performances of the pantomime in 2024!). The deli does take-out coffee and cakes, as well sit down options. The deli also offers a wine and cheese tasting platters and are open until 8pm at the weekend. They also run their own Cheese Club, where for a monthly subscription fee you can get a selection of cheeses and accompaniments.
Stay tuned for Café Culture in Lancaster: Part Two!
Features: Outside seating, dog friendly, excellent for breakfast.
Price: ££
Address: Tithebarn Hill, Glasson Dock, Lancaster LA2 0BY
The Quayside at Glasson Dock is a charming little café on the side of the marina and lock at Glasson Dock. The café stands next to a little village shop and the famous Port of Lancaster Smokehouse Shop and has indoor and outdoor spaces to sit and eat. It is very popular on the weekend, especially with motorbike riders, cyclists, and other out-and-abouters. Once you get a load of the food you will understand why. Not only are the portion sizes for the breakfasts extremely generous, the food is also delicious. It’s all cooked from scratch (so at busier times it might take a little bit longer to get to you), but it’s well worth the wait.
My favourite is a Potato Cake Stack which is a potato pancake, black pudding (your choice whether you have this deep-fried or not, just to make it extra unhealthy!), poached egg, extra bacon if you want it, and another potato pancake on the bottom. This then comes with a little bit of sweet chilli jam, and hollandaise sauce (I choose to have it without the hollandaise as I’ve never really been a fan). It is delicious. I’ve had it so often in there that now when I sit down the lady knows exactly what I want and how I like (right down to the crispy bacon (can’t be doing with flubby bacon – yuck!)). Mum sometimes has a Small Breakfast when we come down here, but often just has a very tasty (and very generous) bacon roll.
I especially like going along in the summer months when I can sit at one of the tables outside and enjoy the sunshine whilst looking out over the marina. The café is dog friendly, both inside and out, so your pooches can come along for some breakfast or lunch with you. The café also does Fish & Chips on a Friday night which I am going to try sometime soon!
After you’ve finished breakfast, you can go for a wander down the quayside and have a look in the smokehouse shop, which as the name suggests has products from the actual smoke house found just down the road; everything from smoked haddock, to chicken, to cheese. There are also lots of other delicious things to be found in there like the famous Morecambe Bay Potted Shrimp in brown butter. I’m particularly partial to their conserves and jams, as well as their sweets and snack selection.