There are some days out you plan carefully.
And there are others where you simply string together a few things you like and hope for the best.
A walk with Meg. A good breakfast. An agricultural show. An old castle.
This was very much the latter.
And it turned into a rather good day.
An Early Start by the Coquet
The 154th Warkworth Show was taking place at the weekend and, knowing the village would get progressively busier as the morning went on, we decided to make an early start of it.
Our plan was to park outside the centre, give Meg a decent walk along the River Coquet and find some breakfast before heading up to the showground.
Those of you who have spent any time around Heather & Sand will know that breakfast has somehow become an important part of our Northumberland research.
It's exhausting work, but somebody has to do it.
With parking likely to be at a premium, we left the van up the hill near the caravan park and walked down into the village, across the old bridge and onto the riverside.
And Warkworth really is lovely from down there.
The River Coquet curls around the village in an almost lazy loop, trees crowding its banks and little paths disappearing off towards the Hermitage. Above everything sits the castle, never really allowing you to forget it's there.
Warkworth itself has grown around this bend in the river for centuries. Its medieval street pattern can still be traced through the village today, with the castle guarding the high ground at one end and the Coquet wrapping around below.
It's one of those Northumberland villages where you can arrive intending to spend an hour and quite easily lose half a day.
We followed the river towards the Hermitage for a while, Meg investigating considerably more of Warkworth than the rest of us, before turning back towards town.
There was breakfast to find.
Priorities.
Breakfast at Bertram's
We'd heard plenty of good things about Bertram's, and with it being show day we'd already decided that arriving early would probably be wise.
Apparently everybody else had decided the same thing.
We arrived around half an hour after opening and it was already busy, although we managed to find a good spot slightly off to the side where Meg could settle without being in anyone's way.
That's immediately a big tick from us.
Dogs are welcome, there's seating inside and a lovely little courtyard tucked away at the back. Despite the steady stream of people coming through the door, everything still felt relaxed.
Coffees arrived first.
Lucy chose the Avocado Smash.
I, meanwhile, have apparently appointed myself Northumberland's unofficial breakfast inspector, so there was really only one option.
The Northumbrian.
And it was excellent.
Properly cooked, locally sourced ingredients, nothing trying too hard and everything tasting exactly as a good breakfast should.
I've eaten a few contenders recently and I'm putting this one firmly into my top three Northumberland breakfasts so far.
Friendly staff, relaxed surroundings, good coffee, excellent food and Meg snoozing beneath the table.
You don't need to complicate these things.
Show Time
Suitably fuelled, we wandered through Warkworth before gradually making our way uphill towards the showground.
There's something reassuringly timeless about a traditional Northumberland show.
Vintage cars stood polished in the sunshine. Stalls lined the field. Food vans were beginning to send tempting smells across the showground despite the fact I'd just eaten a breakfast large enough to sustain a small hill farmer until Tuesday.
And there were dogs.
Lots and lots of dogs.
Meg considered this development extremely promising.
Events were planned throughout the day, many involving the impressive collection of four-legged visitors, but we'd spotted something on our admission that rather changed our plans.
Entry to Warkworth Castle was included in the £10 show ticket.
Well then.
The dog show might have to wait.
The Castle Above the Village
We've driven past Warkworth Castle more times than I care to admit.
You see it above the village, think we really should go in there one day, and then carry on towards wherever you were heading.
I had actually visited as a lad on one of our summer trips to Northumberland, but my memories of it had faded.
Perhaps Warkworth suffers slightly from having Bamburgh just up the coast.
Bamburgh is difficult to compete with.
It rises above the beach looking like somebody commissioned a castle specifically for the cover of a book.
Warkworth is different.
You have to get inside it.
The castle we see today began taking shape around 1200, but its great age came after Warkworth passed to the Percy family in the 14th century.
These weren't minor local landowners.
The Percys became one of the most powerful families in northern England, deeply involved in the turbulent politics of the medieval border country, and although nearby Alnwick carried greater prestige, Warkworth became a favourite Percy residence.
The extraordinary Great Tower dominating the castle was commissioned by Henry Percy, the 1st Earl of Northumberland, after he received his title in 1377.
And then there's his son.
Sir Henry Percy.
Better remembered as Harry Hotspur.
Soldier, rebel and eventually one of Shakespeare's great characters, Hotspur fought the Scots and French, helped bring down Richard II and then turned against the king he'd helped put on the throne.
That particular career choice didn't end especially well.
He was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.
His father continued the rebellion and, two years later, Henry IV brought cannon north against Warkworth. Faced with rather persuasive new technology, the castle surrendered quickly.
Suddenly those ruined rooms feel rather less like piles of old stone.
Imagining Hotspur
We spent ages wandering through passages, climbing steps and poking our heads into rooms.
Warkworth rewards nosiness.
There are little staircases disappearing into walls, windows suddenly opening onto enormous views and corners where you find yourself trying to work out what the room must once have looked like.
From the castle walls you can see across the Coquet and over the surrounding Northumberland countryside.
But every so often my mind wandered back several hundred years.
I found myself imagining a young Harry Percy here, long before Shakespeare turned him into Hotspur.
Perhaps racing through these spaces.
Practising with wooden swords.
Getting into precisely the sort of trouble you'd expect from a boy who would grow up to become one of the most famous warriors in medieval England.
History becomes much easier to understand when you stop thinking about dates for a moment and remember that the people involved once actually lived here.
And perhaps that's why Warkworth surprised me.
From the road, it's another magnificent Northumberland castle.
Inside, it feels much more intimate.
You can imagine the household moving through it.
You can stand in the Great Tower and understand why the Percys wanted people arriving here to be impressed.
You can look through a narrow window and see essentially the same countryside someone stood looking across six hundred years ago.
We stayed longer than we'd intended.
Which seems to happen quite often around here.
We'll Be Back
Unfortunately, we had other engagements later that afternoon, so eventually we had to drag ourselves away.
And I don't think we really did Warkworth justice.
We barely scratched beneath the surface of the castle, we'd like to walk farther along the Coquet, and the Hermitage deserves a visit of its own.
So this wasn't our definitive Warkworth day.
Think of it as reconnaissance.
We arrived for a country show.
Found another excellent Northumberland breakfast.
Walked beside the Coquet.
Met approximately four thousand dogs — Meg's estimate.
And rediscovered a castle I'd somehow forgotten was quite this good.
We'll be back.
Next time, Warkworth gets the whole day.
Some places don't need a complicated plan. Sometimes a river walk, breakfast and an old castle will do nicely.
