Campervan Holiday - North East England

We picked up the Carado T337 campervan from Roseisle Campervan Hire at Whitecraigs on Saturday afternoon. After a quick bit of instruction Cherry took her first and only turn at the wheel to drive us home where we packed up the vehicle, including installing Cherry's comfy mattress.

When ready we headed off the East Lothian coastline to look for somewhere to park up overnight. First thought was the dunes at Longniddry Bents but the car park has a 2 m barrier and at 3 metres high we couldn't get in. This was a fairly familiar story with lots of nice spots being inaccesible to such a big vehicle. We drove on and eventually found a good stopping point at Dirleton in the car park beside the Castle. We had a pleasant evening stroll and quick drink in the pub before settling down for a poor first night sleep out on the road.

Pictured Church Dirleton

On Sunday we drove onwards to Berwick and had a lovely town wandering round the town. We've passed so many times on the train and the estuary always looks fabulous but had never got out to explore before. We following a Lowry trail which took us round most of the sights and there were lots of info boards around with historical info about the town. 

In the evening we found a quiet car park and stayed there even though it was strictly not permitted. We found the whole business of finding spots to stay quite stressful. We had already booked a camp site for the next two nights but decided to book spots for the rest of the week.

On Monday morning we did a quick walk along the Tweed heading inland under the railway bridge.

We then stopped briefly at the other side of the estuary at Spittal with views back towards Berwick and the breakwater.

We then headed onwards to the Northumberland coast and Bamburgh where we wandered through the village and visited the castle. The castle was very impressive from the outside but less interesting inside although there were great views of the long sandy beaches and dunes.

We headed in to Seahouses and our campsite - Seafield - which was mainly a static holiday home village with a number of touring pitches.  A nice location with small village and lots of beaches nearby and good on site facilities.

On Tuesday we played some crazy golf - Cherry won by a large margin - walked along the shore or sketched - and either went to a gym class (spinning) or swimming. Food was excellent at the on-sight restaurant/coffee shop.

On Wednesday we packed up and drove on to Alnmouth where we parked at the Beach and had a nice walk along the shore, up the estuary and through the town. Another lovely location at well worth a visit.

We then visited Barter Books in Alnwick before a longish drive to Bellingham just south of Kielder.

The following day we walked from the campsite to a waterfall a couple of miles up a valley, Hareshaw Linn, which had been a favourite Victorian attraction. The weather was bad in the afternoon so we were stuck in the Campervan. Another disadvantage was the effort required to pack up and move which discouraged any short drives whilst installed at the campsite. We stayed in that evening for soup and sandwiches.

On Friday we had a fairly long drive to Dunbar. We stopped on route at Harestanes and Monteviot House to look round the gardens. Harestanes was a nice spot that we recalled from many years ago with the kids. The gardens at Monteviot were soso but it was a pleasant 1 hr walk around them.

We stayed at the Belhaven campsite near Dunbar and suffered our first night of noisy neighbours who were revelling well past the official lights out and silence time of 11 pm. We returned the campervan early the next morning.

Overall it was a very nice break. The Northumberland Coast, Berwick and Alnmouth were all very nice and highly recommended. The Campervan was less successful and not something we'll be doing again.