Great Britain: Scarborough

We had talked - joked - about coming to Scarborough for a long time. We are so happy to have seen it. It's a great little city with a historic castle, a lighthouse, and 2 beautiful bays - the carnival-like South Bay and the less built-up North Bay. Here is one of our first views of the castle wall on top of the hill, as we were walking into town from the train station.
We really liked our bed and breakfast on top of the cliff, steps from the castle and with a view over the North Sea. The owners were super, bringing Daisy special kid dishes and serving us a private afternoon tea in the parlour. We all enjoyed our furnishings - I began to think that Daisy might be ready for The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe.

After our breakfast (with a cute "7 Dwarfs" toast rack for Daisy...she concluded that Snow White must be around somewhere, too, and from then on called the vaguely similar woman decorating the hearth "Snow White"), we made our pilgrimage to the castle.
It felt very huge and ancient. We learned a lot about the history of the castle, which I can try to condense here, especially for those of you with Scarborough blood! Experts have dated pottery found on the cliff to 2000 BC, and they display other artifacts that suggest two distinct periods of habitation, 800 BC and 500 BC. There are remains of a Roman signal station (380 AD), where they lit those fires that could communicate disaster up and down the coast. Vikings were here and Scarborough ("Skardi") is mentioned in several Icelandic sagas.

The castle has ties to royalty! In 1154, King Henry II decreed that all royal castles become his, and he invested huge sums to build up Scarborough's tower, the keep. In the early 1200's, King John spent more on building projects in Scarborough's castle than on any other castle in the kingdom. In that time, kings were mobile and would move their entire possessions around their lands to different cities and homes. John, Henry III, and Edward I used Scarborough Castle as royal lodgings several times. The last king to stay here was Richard III in 1484 while he was busy assembling a fleet to resist the invasion of Henry Tudor, later Henry VII.

In the Civil War (1640's), Scarborough became a Royalist stronghold against the Parliamentarians and there were terrible battles here.

Later, the castle was used as a prison, and a notable prisoner was George Fox, founder of the Quakers.

After this, Scarborough became known as a fashionable spa town and resort, and sea bathing was the new "in" thing.

Early in the First World War, Scarborough's town and castle were fired upon by German warships arriving through the thick morning fog. 17 civilians were killed. "Remember Scarborough!" became a rallying cry across the nation.



Unexpectedly, we were able to tag along with part of a Good Friday procession through the castle grounds. Our voices chimed in with the other lusty ones in an unfamiliar hymn. A good memory.


Anne Bronte is buried at a cliff-side church's cemetery near the castle. I read Agnes Grey in preparation for our trip. I really liked it, especially since I knew her sister's Jane Eyre so well, and could compare the stories of the young governesses.


The Beaches:
Here's a picture of us walking on the North Bay. All this sand was covered with water in the morning, and it would quickly go out during the day. Though we are no strangers to beaches, the army of seagulls, diving and screeching, had us in giggles the whole weekend. We saw families playing cricket, lots of dogs, and bundled up kids.

Beach-side Huts:
A landmark of the beaches were these adorable rainbow huts you can see behind us. People apparently rent these and can store stuff like grills, chairs, bikes, whatever.


And I forgot to mention: fish and chips! We had quite a lot of that, too, sometimes even with tea.