a drive through newcastle // newcastle, maine

HappyTuesday friends! I hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day yesterday and that your week is starting off well.

As I mentioned in my post about a new direction that Caravan Sonnet is heading in (you can read more HERE!) I am excited to spend more time sharing about upstate New York, New York, and New England in my travel posts! Three weeks ago I shared that I am excited to share with y'all some recap posts from the New England Winter Road Trip that I took with my mom 2 years ago about a month before the world stopped due to the pandemic!

At the time I shared a couple of posts about our trip, but with the way the world changed I stopped sharing and didn't get to share even half of what we saw or what we did and so I am excited to revisit this trip and share more! I hope that it encourages you to consider taking a road trip (in part or in whole depending on your circumstances) this winter to this beautiful place in the world!

--------------------------------------------------------------

Happy Tuesday friends! I hope that you are having a wonderful week so far!

Today I am excited to share more about our New England Winter Road Trip that we took in February last year (prior to the outbreak of the COVID 19 virus and stay at home/shelter in place orders)! I had stopped sharing about this trip from last year due to the sensitivity of COVID, but for those around these areas there were so many things that we did that were outside that I wanted to continue to share in the hopes that this would inspire you to see the place around where you live and for others plan a trip for the future!

As I mentioned in my last post about our trip, after our time in Concord, New Hampshire, we started to make our way through and up the coast of Maine which was absolutely delightful. I had stopped at a couple of the places we spent time at on my one week road trip adventure through New England, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia (click HERE to read more) back in 2017 and also on the New England/Canada Cruise that I took in 2015, but to have this time with my mom added a special precious aspect to the trip.

After our time at the Portland Head Light House, we continued to head north to Camden, Maine where we were going to be spending the night! My mom had never been there and I was so excited to show this sweet town to her that I had fallen in love with when I visited in the fall of 2017!

As we made our way there we chose to continue making our way up route 1 which took more time, but went through charming and quintessential New England towns. One of those was the lovely Newcastle.

Newcastle is a small town that is located on the Damariscotta River and together with the village of Damariscotta it forms what is known as the "twin villages" in this area.

We literally came around the corner and both gasped aloud because it was just so beautiful and such a perfect "winter" New England town. We turned around and found a place to park to take pictures and walk around for a little bit because it was just so charming.

Newcastle (I was to find out later when I researched it) has a fantastic and interesting history. It was first settled in the 1630s by fishermen and a small number of families. Eventually in 1665, the territory was claimed by the Duke of York and renamed New Dartmouth. Destroyed in 1676 by King Philip's War, the townspeople fled and left only to try to return to have the town destroyed again in 1689 during King William's War. After this the town was not inhabited or reoccupied for nearly 40 years. Finally in 1730, Colonel David Dunbar, resettled Newcastle and named it after the Duke of Newcastle.

In 1978 the village was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and includes 51 buildings in the Italiante, Greek Revival, and Federal styles on over 12000 acres throughout this area.

This beautiful drive and winter road trip was just another beautiful reminder of how much beauty and adventure and learning is around each corner if we take the time to explore it!

Have y'all visited Newcastle, Maine before? If not, I definitely recommend adding it to your list of "must see" travel places! You won't regret it!

If you are interested in reading about the exact route that we took on this trip check out this post HERE! Here is a general overview...