York / Northumberland

Last week we headed north to spend some time in a part of the country I’ve never been to before. On the way up we stayed overnight in York, where we spent some time walking around, dropping in for a look at Thin Ice Press, good coffee from Another Brother and out-of-this-world pizza at Dough Eyed. On the way out of the city we stopped in at Beningborough Hall for a walk around the gardens and the house, plus ice cream in the sunshine. The estate has a storied history, but my favourite part was a brief glimpse of a tiny hummingbird near one of the lily ponds. A couple more hours of driving brought us to Northumberland and our home for the week: Raven Watchtower. A few years ago we spent some time off the grid in a little shepherd’s hut in Pembrokeshire, and we did something similar last year in West Sussex. On both of those trips the place we stayed in was—by design—pretty tiny. Somehow, plans this time led us to something a little grander: a purpose built four-storey hideaway in the…