Day Three Thursday 6th July 2023

We travelled to Minsmere and Dunwich.

After a peaceful night and a better weather forecast, we sat out in the morning sunshine for a coffee before our day's trip. All our trips today were going to be local and so distances would be short. The first stop was to Minsmere RSPB Reserve which was only a 4-mile drive. We have visited here before, but it is always good to re-visit and check what birds are around. Nothing new for us today, a couple of Marsh Harriers and plenty of Mediterranean Gulls both of which we have seen locally in Worcester. We were able to see Green Eyed Bees in action in their burrows in the sand. We had lunch here at Minsmere before we moved on to Dunwich.

This was only another 5 miles further north and so did not take long. The beach here is huge, although stoney as they all are here in this area. We sat on the beach and finished some of our deliberately left lunch and enjoyed the scenery, fresh air and sunshine. As the sun went in Anita decided not to go for a paddle and so we left, firstly visiting the ruins of a Greyfriars's Monastery that is situated just outside the town. No 'Billy Bunter' in sight here though!

The monastery was established by Franciscan monks, who first came to Dunwich in the 1250s and set up a monastic house near the harbour. A massive storm, on New Year's Eve in 1286, destroyed their building, along with much of the harbour facilities and many homes in the lower part of the town. The monks were then given land just outside the old town boundary to the west, half a mile from the sea, and started building the monastery whose remains you see today. The standing ruins are believed to be those of the southern, refectory wing of the monastery, where the monks would have eaten. The monks probably built the church as their priority, through the first half of the 14th century, and followed with the remaining buildings through the rest of that century. At some point they enclosed the site with a perimeter wall, most of which is still standing, though much of it has been repaired and rebuilt over the centuries. There were three gates, one, now lost, on the east side leading towards the town and the other two on the west allowing access to the one of the principal roads into the medieval town. These gates still stand and make an imposing entrance to the site, just as their makers intended when they built them in the late 14th/early 15th century.

From here we had intended to travel back to Leiston to visit the Leiston Abbey ruins but a bad accident on route closed our road home and so we had to detour for some distance west to get back. Leaving us with the Abbey visit to come later in the week.

Total distance travelled 26 miles including detour.

Tomorrow we are hoping to get to Bressingham Steam Museum & Gardens. This will be a one-hour drive so it will be an early start.