We stayed a few days in Arbroath over the New Year and it was freezing, I am glad we went to Bulgaria first which helped to acclimatise us a bit, I can only imagine how bad it would have felt if we had come straight from Vietnam.
We did try and get out and about as we go a bit stir crazy when we have to stay in, so on one of the days we wrapped up warm and headed out to do the Arbroath to Auchmithie cliff walk. This is a beautiful walk at any time of the year and always looks different depending on the weather, season and time of day.
This photo is at the top of the Victoria Park and the path leads from here in one direction to the cliffs and in the other direction to the harbour and town.
The cliffs are made of a beautiful red sandstone, this erodes over time and in recent years there has been a few rockfalls and landslides. The photo below shows the Needles E'e, which originally was a cave but the the roof has collapsed leaving the mouth of the cave visible, this happened a very long time ago. This is a popular part of the cliffs for fishing and for some of the local youngsters to hang out.
The area below is known as Dickmont's Den and was popular in the past for smugglers who would smuggle their goods up the inlet and whisk them away over the rural land and fields close by.
In January we usually go down to see our daughter in panto in Whitley Bay, so this is where we headed next. This year the pantomime was Sleeping Beauty and once again it was very enjoyable and it also gave us a chance to catch up with our daughter, who we hadn't seen for about 6 months. As we are still officially on holiday for the year, we decided to treat it more like a holiday, staying down there for longer and then heading to Jedburgh to do a bit of exploring.
The road to Jedburgh was very scenic and looked very dramatic in its winter colours and shows that you don't have to travel abroad to see amazing landscapes.
We were originally planning to use this wee break away to visit Alnwick Castle, Chillingham Castle and Jedburgh, as we had often travelled passed them or close by on our jaunts down South. However we had to make a change to our plans as most things were shut, I pity any tourists across here just now as they may be lost for things to do. Some places which were open such as restaurants and cafés were not always very accommodating either.
We walked into one place in Jedburgh which was advertising a soup and sandwich deal in their window, with no specific time on the sign to say when the deal was on. The place was deserted not a soul in and no sign of life even behind the bar , although there was a lovely welcoming fire going in
the fireplace. We shuffled about and coughed, you know the usual things to get attention and eventually a lady appeared. I asked for two of the soup and sandwich deals just to be told we were too late in the day for that deal, so we left, they obviously did not need our custom. I know some companies do these lunch time deals but I am sure it would have been easy enough to do two sandwiches and soups especially when there were no other customers around. Thankfully there was another cafe around the corner where I got a lovely bowl of mushroom soup and a fantastic sandwich while David got a hearty beaked potato.
Mary, Queen of Scots House which was closed but you can walk in the small gardens there.
We did wander around the streets of Jedburgh and it seems very quaint, old-fashioned (in a nice way) and I would like to go back when there is more open. It still has a lot of independent, unusual shops to browse in and does not have the typical town centre type of shops to go in. I like places with a bit of individuality.
A sign in one of the alleys, or closes as some people may call them.
Jedburgh Abbey which was open. Hooray!
Just outside Jedburgh is a lovely bed and breakfast called Hundalee House, it is set in a very old house which has a lot of character and is well worth an overnight stay. The owner is lovely, very welcoming as is her little dog. The owners have sheep and have also extended and developed the orchard on their land which originally was linked to the Abbey.
These ceramic pots were in the guesthouse, the smaller one in the front is labelled Cider while the one on the left says Domestos. Hopefully these two don't get mixed up!
We woke up to a fresh layer of snow which made the countryside even more beautiful. After a lovely cooked breakfast we set off for a Glasgow airport for our next trip to Tunisia.
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