Planning the Next Castle Hunt

I've been busy planning my summer tour (I'll be off at the end of May and travel for two weeks) for this year which took me a few days of figuring out what to see, setting up an itinerary according to where public transport will get me, checking B&Bs and all that fun stuff that goes into organising a tour.

So you wonder where it'll take me?

Tynemouth Castle, near Newcastle
That one should give you a hint: it's the east coast of northern England and Scotland mostly. I'm going to turn a bit south from Newcastle first, to Scarborough to explore the castle there, then take tours around to Richmond Castle, Ripon Abbey, maybe Rievaulx as well, Whitby (provided that's no longer fenced in), the Roman remains at Aldborough, and the Yorkshire Moors. The next stop will be north of Newcastle, in Alnmouth, from where I intend to add the castles of Alnwick, Warkworth and Bamburgh to my list, and maybe revisit a Border abbey as well (I had been to the Borders in 1998).

Craigmillar Castle, near Edinburgh
The next stop will bring me into Scotland: Stonehaven and Dunottar Castle. I had that one on my To See-list for ages. And then I'll take a long swing north and visit the Orkneys. Kirkwall Cathedral, Skara Brae, Unstan Cairn, Maes Howe, Ring of Brodgar, maybe Birsay .... there's a good list of what to see. And it will be the time of the year for the simmer dim, the white nights of the Orkneys. The way back will lead via Inverness where I plan to revist Urquhart Castle (another one from 1998) and tour Black Isle.

Coast near Newcastle, seen from the Amsterdam ferry
Any of my readers (including the LJ syndication feed; I read comments there) who know those areas are welcome to suggest further interesting, though maybe less well known, places; I'll gladly try to fit them into the schedule if I can reach them by public transport or a reasonable taxi fare.

Now I only need to find out to which gods to sacrifice to get good weather. *grin*