On a trip to Northumberland we visited the early mediaeval palace site at Yeavering, and also the new museum, visitor centre and distillery (!) in Wooler, Ad Gefrin.This is a superb place, with a great couple of video presentations to watch, as if in a mediaeval hall. With my ancient scandinavian / north germanic ancestry I felt right at home!

The entrance lobby of the museum / shop / cafe has a wonderful ceiling, in imitation of the barrels used to mature the fine spirits they are distilling. What was really great though were the video presentations about life in the times of the royal site that existed further up the valley at Yeavering, below the hill fort. There’s really nothing on the ground now, it’s just a field, but it has been well excavated. There are descriptive panels, and rather nice decorative agteposts though!

I have known about the site for some time and am very glad that we finally visited it.