Alnwick and Bamburgh Castle two of the destinations as runners and sailors take on the Castles and Islands Challenge

They were given their starting orders at 6pm on Friday by Ian Gibson, who retired recently as the treasurer of Coquet Yacht Club, which organises the event, and his wife, Gill.

The runners made their way cross-country to Warkworth Castle, before being rowed out to their team boats on the river outside Coquet Yacht club. Once onboard the teams had to sail round Coquet Island before heading north.

There were eight boats taking part in the challenge this year – Monkey Business, Sandasund, Harriette Express, Albany Express, Leno Solo, Final Warning, Fagin’s Express and Gaudia, whose crew flew in from the Netherlands – and with the challenge being to sail to Dunstanburgh Castle, Bamburgh Castle and the castle at Holy Island, in any order, four boats chose Dunstanburgh Castle as their first stop, two opted for Bamburgh, and two went furthest north to Holy Island.

Some teams decided to have the same two runners for the whole race, other teams sent different runners ashore for each leg, but only one boat had each crew member run a leg of the race.

Unfortunately, one of the fleet had engine trouble after the first sailing leg and had to abandon the challenge.

Under what felt like Caribbean heat, all the boats were back at Amble and had finished the race by 1.30pm on Saturday.

Leno Solo was the only team in which every crew member ran a leg of the challenge and won the All Rounders Challenge.

Sandasund had the fastest running team to complete all the running legs, the fastest female runners to complete all four runs were Vicky Gibbs and Steph Scott, and the fastest boat was Harriette Express.

The overall winners with the fastest running and sailing times combined were Albany Express, skippered by Tom Lowrie.

The organisers would like to thank the event sponsors, Alnwick Brewery Company and Taproom, Standard Security Services and DroneAg, for their services and donations.

To get involved next year, visit the Castles & Islands Challenge Facebook page.