Here's Another Stone...

This is the Reivers Cursing Stone. Legend has it that the mere recall of the curse would put a blight on the household contained within, so evil and dire that the consequences do not bare thinking about. I won't have the curse told in the house, and frankly I think I'm taking a chance even discussing it with you!

But this is all part of the rich history of living in charmed and superstitious Northumberland. Come and join us and be charmed...at http://www.falstonebarns.com

Stones...

We've just dismantled the second barn and this is an example of the stone removed from one of the doorways, with hinge still attached. These barns were made to last and the previous 400 years haven't deterred this from happening. At Falstone Barns we are carefully making good and restoring these ancient stones to give them new life, so that they can go on for another 400 years. Come and join us at http://www.falstonebarns.com for a taste of history in stone.

One Good Thing About Summer Rain...

Flowers in bloom at the front of the bastle house...a burst of colour in our grey drenched skies...

A History Lesson

This is an image of our Bastle. What's a Bastle I hear you ask? Answer, a fortified building found in Northumberland and built to keep out the Scots during the Border wars of some 400 years ago. This room is barrel vaulted, has six foot thick stone walls and was designed originally to keep the family wealth in...sheep and cattle! Obviously the family who owned the bastle originally were highly successful at keeping those Scots at bay. In fact the bastle houses the only Date Stone in Northumberland National Park.

The tales of the Border Reivers (Raiders), live on to this day, and the scroll you see on the wall tells just one of them, entitled Lock the door Lariston.

For more border tales, come and stay at Falstone Barns and capture yourself a piece of history!

Woke at 0500, it gets light so early these days. Made myself a cup of tea and went to sit where I like to think, in the Bastle of the Farmhouse. Staring up at the ceiling of the 400 year old vaulted room gave me a sense of being a very small cog in the wheel of history. As the children say...chill!