Please find driving directions below the main text
Bank account of “National Trust Belgium” (NTAB)
BE17 0016 2443 2021
The 2015 UK trip takes us through Yorkshire and Northumberland to the beautiful lush Tweed valley.
En route we will stop at the National Trust properties of Fountains Abbey,Washington Hall and Seaton Delaval.
Our base will be the 4-star Macdonald Cardrona Hotel, Golf & Spa, with its fabulous views of the River Tweed, Cardrona Forest and Southern Uplands. From here we will explore the surrounding countryside and its history of reivers and ridings.
Our itinerary is likely to include three National Trust of Scotland properties: Robert Smail’s Printing Shop and two delightful gardens in Melrose, Priorwood and Harmony. Melrose is a charming small town with plenty to explore: its ruined abbey one of four in the region and a chain bridge peculiar to this part of the
world. Rosslyn Chapel, made famous by Dan Brown’s thriller, The Da Vinci Code, contains a wealth of stone carvings, which have led to the chapel featuring in speculative theories concerning a connection between Freemasonry, the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail.
Among the houses we plan to visit are the house, which Sir Walter Scott enlarged for his family, Abbotsford, the impressive Floors Castle lying on the banks of the Tweed, and Traquair House, whose core is a classic example of a border tower castle. Allof these buildings have lovely gardens but none so impressive as the Dawyck Botanical Garden.
A trip to Scotland would not becomplete without including some of the local produce and salmon, fished from the Tweed, will certainly figure both in the itinerary and on the menu, as well as a wee dram or two of the water of life, whisky.
Travel from and to Belgium will be by overnight ferry, Zeebrugge-Hull with all accommodation in outside cabins.
From the Hull ferry terminal, we will tour the region in one of Tynedale’s luxury coaches.
The cost of the 6 night 5 daytrip is expected to beabout € 1,100 per person sharing a room; and about €1,200 per person in a single room.
These prices should include all transport, accommodation, breakfasts and dinners, and entrances to non-National Trust properties. As always, participants will be expected to be or become members of the National Trust, as well as of our Association. To register your interest, contact Carole Ducastel.