Hayden Bridge to North Queensferry

July 30. Mostly a driving day.  After a short debate we opted for a route that went along the coast of Northumbria, instead of inland past a national park.  We stopped at the seaside town of Amble, to walk along the beach and along its harbor.  It's a vacation destination for Northumbrians, even though it may never get very warm.

Amble coastline with view to St. Coquille Island, a bird refuge; previously monastic cell and lighthouse

Then we drove into Alnwick, in search of a toilet stop and maybe a picnic.  Somehow we got pulled into a major tourist site, Alnwick Garden and Castle, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Northumbria, the Percy's.  We turned into its vast parking lot and the attendants collected 3 pounds before we knew what we were doing.  We followed the hordes across the road and found that the site would have cost us more than 30 pounds to go in.  We did use the toilets, took a quick walk through a woodland park and then ate our picnic in the car.

We drove all the way to Edinburgh, crossing the Firth of Forth to North Queensferry.  Our strategy is to take the train to Edinburgh tomorrow for sightseeing, thereby avoiding the need to drive in and try to find parking.

We checked into the Ferrybridge Hotel, a quaint little pub/hotel/restaurant in the shadow of the two bridges that cross the Forth.  The oldest bridge was opened in 1894, the current bridge was opened in 1964 to motorized traffic while the first bridge was converted to rail use only.  As we approached the Forth, we saw a new stave bridge under construction.  It will replace the bridge opened in 1964 and that bridge will carry public transport.  We completed a short walk around Queensferry seeing a some local historical sights.

Queensferry Crossing, the new bridge; stave

Forth Bridge, built in the 1890s; cantilevered

Ambleside to Hayden Bridge

July 29:  Today, we left Ambleside and the Lake District for our tour of Scotland.  We got up early to finish packing, prepare lunch, clean out the refrigerator, eat breakfast and grab cups of coffee from our favorite coffee bar (using our "frequent flyer" card to get a free cup).  We loaded the 5 suitcases, 3 packs, and several bags of other stuff into the car.  We used all of the space in the car leaving barely enough room to sit.

We drove northward toward Patterdale, going out of Ambleside by way of Kirkstone Pass on a road called "The Struggle," a 20% graded road.  We stopped for the view at Kirkstone, which is at over 1,400 feet elevation; the inn located at the pass is reputedly the highest in England.  We drove down past Brothers Water and into Patterdale, seeing several sights from our Coast-to-Coast walk - the restaurant whose owner' s young daughter had walked the trail 3 times, the White Lion, and the Grisedale B&B.  We stopped at the next village, Glenridding, and the National Park Visitor Center.  In December 2015, after a month of heavy rain, the beck that flows through the town flooded, wiping out streets, inundating buildings, and undermining many foundations. The creek bed is under flood protection upgrades with a wider bed and new, reinforced concrete sidewalls with rock overlays).   The visitor center is in a "temporary" trailer which the Rangers say may become permanent.  The corner of the old visitor center was undermined and flooded.  The Rangers said it costs too much to reconstruct, so the Park is just going to leave it standing and empty.

We drove to Penrith and continued east to the historic "cathedral and castle town" of Durham.  We parked in a high tech parking garage (your license plate is read when you enter the garage, then upon leaving, you type the plate number in at a kiosk and it calculates your parking charge) and walked up to the top of the central plaza to the Cathedral.  It is considered the finest intact Norman-style cathedral in the world and dates back to the 11th century, shortly after the Norman Conquest.    It has twin square towers at the west end and a newer, more gothic-style bell tower toward the other end.  The architecture evolved over time, with several additions.  The Norman-style (notably circular arches) remains in the central portion of the complex, which took only about 40 years to construct, comparatively fast for a cathedral.  The main columns are more massive that those of later Gothic cathedrals.  We wandered around the entire inside and walked the four sides within the attached cloister.  No photographs were allowed inside, though I snuck a couple while in the cloister.  We had an interesting chat with one of the many volunteers that roam around inside.

From the Cloister

We next drove north and west to a small town, Hayden Bridge, and checked into the Anchor Inn, a pub undergoing some rejuvenation by the new owners.  We then drove up toward Hadrian's Wall and Housesteads Roman Fort.  By the way, driving on the narrow roads is a bit stressful since with larger trucks and buses, one only has a few inches of clearance on either side and the locals don't seem to slow down when they approach you.  I do slow though I am getting a little better hugging the left side of my lane.  The farmers in Land Rovers are the speediest drivers.

Housesteads was interesting.  The fort, which dates from about the third century AD,  is about 1/2 mile from the parking area, up on a bluff with good views to the north (toward the 'Barbarians').  We got oriented by watching a 20-minute movie that showed the remains as there are now and graphically reconstructed what the scholars believe they originally looked like.  After the movie, we walked all over the site, seeing remnants of the commander's house,  the HQ/Administration building, the soldiers' barracks (housing up to 800 soldiers), the hospital, grain storage, the bakery, and latrines.  The layout is like all Roman forts, roughly square-shaped, with 4 gates in the middle of each wall.  The fort's north wall was integral to Hadrian's Wall itself.

Central heating Roman-style

The Latrine, with running water

 We made one more stop before returning to the Anchor Inn, to see the remains of  Brocolitia, a temple to Mithras, a minor Roman god.  It was small, roughly 20 by 10 feet, with an anteroom, altars, wooden screens, and earthen benches for seating.  Only a few carved stone pieces remain inside the stone outline of the temple but you could picture soldiers or camp-followers coming here to wish for a promotion or healthy children.

Temple of Mithras

Dinner was at the Anchor, which had a good kitchen, offering creative variations (and generous servings) on typical pub food.

Day 27 - Ambleside

July 28:  It rained most of the day, some of the worst weather we have had in the Lake District so far.  It was our last day here, so we packed.  And, we tested fitting our largest-sized suitcase in the rental car.  I was able to get it in after removing the hatchback shelf and folding part of the back seat down.  We concluded we would be able to get everything in the car, though it would be a tight fit.

Otherwise we hung out in the flat, reading and watching it rain.  By late afternoon we had to move and went out with umbrellas for a walk.  We walked to Rydal on the main road, passing the site for a one-day Lakeland Sports festival and returned home via a back lane.  The sports festival didn't appear to have much attendance.  It featured a fell run (by humans) and various other activities, including hound trials - a race for foxhounds on a course laid out by dragging a scented rag over the ground.  It sounded interesting but it was raining too much.  And, I wondered if the scent would wash away.  As we walked by, we saw some hounds being led to a start point we presume, though we didn't wait for the start.  Many minutes later we heard a cacophony of barking which must have been the race.  We were too far away from the fields by that point.

We ate leftover food for both lunch and dinner and drank the rest of the cider and beer, too.

Day 26 - Lake Windermere

July 27:  Lake Windermere 'cruise and walk' redo and gourmet dinner at Lucy's on the Plate to celebrate the end of our Lake District adventure.  We took Elaine on the same lake cruise and walk package we had done on Day 7.  We had relatively good weather today and great views of the surrounding fells.

We walked to Waterhead to catch the first of three boats for the day.  We sailed first to Wray's Castle, where the 4.3 mile walk along the northwestern lakeshore begins.  It is an easy stroll, mostly through forests  and along sheep pastures, with a few open spaces for views to the lake.  We reached the ferry landing, checked out a two story folly that the original owners of Belle Isle used for dinner parties.  The building is called Claife Station and provided guests a fine view of the lake. It is still a major tourist destination, although just a skeleton remained of the former structure.  We walked around the ferry landing spit and caught the next passenger ferry.  We rode north, circling around the islands and landing at Bowness.  We walked up the main street for tea.  The tourists were out in force since it is the first full week of summer holidays for British school children.  Our last ride of the day was on a large cruiser back to Waterhead and Ambleside.

Rowboats for rent at Waterside

Our first cruiser - Princess of the Lake

Near the Ferry Landing

Arriving at Bowness

In the morning, I had made reservations for "a last supper" at Lucy's on a Plate, a well-regarded Ambleside restaurant.  The person who answered the phone (Lucy, we learned later) was particularly chatty and want to know if it was a special occasion, where we were from, and what we were doing, etc.  We arrived at the restaurant just before our reservation time and were asked to wait to be seated.  We given printed menus, which made a note of the many people who were dining this night, including "the Thor trio [who] are having an extended European visit and have ventured to us this evening..."  There was a note on the chatty, tightly printed menu stating that "we have some reading glasses that you may borrow if you need."

We were seated and enjoyed two starters - "A Right Nutty Pear" (a salad of warm goat cheese, caramelized pear chunks and walnuts) and "Melon Fantasia" (balls of melon - cantaloupe, galia (like honeydew) and watermelon served with raspberry coulis and sorbet).  Betsy and I both had "Tunisian Tagine" (a Moroccan dish using aromatic spices with vegetables, preserved lemons, apricots and chickpeas with pieces of very tender Lakeland lamb, red pepper cous cous and creme fraiche) and Elaine had "Bobbing Bobotie" (a casserole of minced lamb with aromatic spices, almonds, diced apricots and tomatoes topped with a savory custard, and accompanied by a salad and Mrs. Ball's chutney).   The menu is typed up daily with many creative names for the dishes and detailed descriptions, as I have quoted.

Starters

Everything was delicious and we were too stuffed for desserts, which were equally creative and varied.  There were lots of gluten-free and vegetarian choices throughout.

Day 25 - Borrowdale Valley

July 26:  We got up close and personal with sheep today, even more than usual.  As we were heading back to the barn (so to speak) after lunch, we ran into a shepherd walking with a dog and carrying a pair of crooks.  He told us that we were about to encounter a flock of Herdwicks being driven back up to the fells after shearing.  He said not to worry about them but keep moving.  Around the next corner here came the flock, streaming up between stone walls, being pushed on by another shepherd and 6 or 7 border collies who also kept the flock from straying.  We ended up hugging the wall ourselves and just watching.  The steely gray ewes, who knew where they were going, kept moving steadily, although stream crossings slowed them a bit, and the fat black lambs ran to keep up with their mamas.  The ewes were indeed newly shorn with new owners' marks on their backs.  The dogs ran back and forth keeping everything under control, but we could see at least one younger dog who was looking for tips from his seniors.  We watched until the flock cleared the last stone wall and gate up the valley - Phil realized the first guy had the job of opening all the gates before the flock arrived and the shepard in the rear directed the dogs and closed the gates.

 The weather was forecast to be wet but after a few showers in the morning, the rest of the day was pleasantly dry.  We completed a 9-mile walk in the Borrowdale Valley, hitting all the 'thwaite' towns - Stonethwaite, Rosthwaite, Longthwaite, etc.  A 'thwaite' is a Norwegian word for a piece of forest land cleared for agriculture or habitation; a clearing.   To reach our starting point, we drove north from Ambleside to Keswick and then south to the small village of Grange (see photo below for detail).

We walked from Grange south along the River Derwent (flows north to Derwent Water) to the thwaites.

A calm spot on the River Derwent

After seeing slugs forever, I finally photographed one for our record

A typical wildflower field which is mowed, dried and baled for sheep feed during the winter

Our original plan was to go to Seatoller, at the bottom of Honister Pass and then walk back on the western side of the valley on a rougher, steeper trail.  When we met up with a sudden shower, we changed tactics and headed up the eastern valley to Stonethwaite (CtoCers will recognize these names) in search of a waterfall where two valleys meet.  We reached the fall and its scenic little gorge at about 1 pm and ate our picnic lunch on a stoney beach in sunshine!  Behind us, one trail led up the Coast to Coast route to Greenup Edge and Grasmere and the other trail led up the Langstrath Valley that we hiked down a couple of weeks ago.  We had much better weather and much better views than on either of those previous encounters with this area.  Our sheep encounter began as we headed back down the valley after lunch.

We walked through Rosthwaite passing a barn yard with a lot of noise.  When we looked over the fence, we could see sheep shearing in process - two guys manhandling the sheep and cutting off the wooly coats, which seemed to take only a couple of minutes.  We don't know why this one sheep was being held in the blue contraption - she wasn't being sheared and she wasn't very happy.  Across another field, another set of newly sheared sheep were being released back to the open ground.  All these sheep will stay up in the high meadows until late in the fall when they are brought down either to be sold for meat or to be mated for next year's crop (to sustain the flock).

Our walk ended back at Grange with cool drinks from a tea shop, and then Phil drove back to Ambleside.

Day 23 - Coniston Country Fair and Day 24 - Stately Homes

July 24:  We ventured off today to the Coniston Country Fair, surprisingly in Coniston in the shadow of Old Man.  The day was full of low clouds and rain so we drove there using the rental car.  We covered the fair grounds pretty quickly - vendor stalls, food stands, a central arena marked out by a rope, several smaller arenas similarly designated, a 'walling' competition area (near an existing wall), and two large tents, one for crafts and one for refreshments.  There was also a small animal enclosure with a cow, 6 sheep, some 10-day-old chicks, and an egg sizing machine that sorts eggs by weight. (We were told that brown eggs, which is what is sold in England by and large, come from brown chickens.)  In contrast to the country fair we saw in Scotland, this one had many fewer farm animals and many more dogs - beagles, hounds, lurchers (a hybrid of greyhound and border collie)but not other sheep dogs.

The Fair from across the water

While it rained, the fair activities were mostly suspended.  We visited the walling competition where several young people were rebuilding a five-foot-high section of dry-laid stone wall.  This is a particularly important skill for the local farmers to have.  The cross section of a good wall is trapezoidal in shape, the two faces fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle, with larger stones at the bottom and connecting stones midway up that join the two faces.  Smaller stones, rubble-like, are placed in the middle between the two faces.

The walling competition site

We spent some time admiring the 3 Herdwick sheep - one tup (male), an ewe and her two lambs.  These are the highland, fell sheep indigenous now to this area but thought to have come originally from Norway.  They are hardy and extremely well adapted to fell grazing.  Their wool is coarse and not of much value, but the interpretative sign said the wool makes very good carpets - tough and long lasting.

Male Herdwick sheep

We then watched some dog judging of fox hounds and beagles.  There were contests for four beagles, matched pairs, and singles.  The larger fox hounds were judged individually.  We watched several red, blue and yellow ribbons awarded but were none the wiser on what makes a winning dog.

Champion beagles

The rain had mostly stopped by then, and the fair started up with children games in the large arena (egg carries, bag races, and even an egg toss).  We bought three varieties of cake in the refreshment tent; it appeared they were homemade by the local folk of the village.  We ate them while watching a demonstration by a falconry organization that had a variety of raptors and owls on display.

Peregrine

One more circuit of the grounds and a check-in at the walling competition was enough for us.  Elaine watched the egg tossing contest while Betsy and I bought the last 2 meat pies from a seller.

We drove over to the other side of Coniston Water to Brantwood, the last home of John Ruskin, so Elaine could tour the house and we could visit the gardens, which we had skipped the other time we were here, due to rain.  The various gardens are laid out on the hillside running down to the lakeside.  I took a lot of photos of the flowers up close and may put a collection of them together when I get home.  Elaine enjoyed the seeing the house and learning about John Ruskin.  We had tea at the cafe before driving home.

July 25:  The weather was a little better today, with less rain but the clouds were still low, obscuring the fell tops.  We visited two stately homes today - Blackwell Arts and Craft House and Sizergh Castle.

We arrived at Blackwell, just south of Bowness, a few minutes before it opened and strolled around the lawns.

There were several quirky, most unlike Beatrix Potter, sculptures (such as a badger as a bag lady) - not sure what the message was.

A "bag lady"

The inside of the house was spectacular.  Every space and all the furnishing reflected the arts and craft design principles.  The house reflected a number of the patterns that make space attractive.  For example, "The heart of every room is the hearth."  There were window seats in every room and benches bordering every fireplace, often placed in an inglenook and including a small window.  Spaces were arranged on different levels and moved the eye from shadow to light.  The woodworking and wood carving were superb.  In contrast to the Ruskin house, we noticed that we were more entranced by the inside of the house than the external views, even though it overlooks Windermere and its fells.

A very nice sideboard

Sizergh, southwest of Kendal, is a castle that has been in the family home of the Stricklands for over 750 years.  While the building and grounds were donated to the National Trust in 1950, the family still has rights to use some of the rooms.  While it was not said, it is a case of not having enough family fortune to maintain the house and gardens.  So why not give it away but retain partial use and let the Trust pay for upkeep.  The original tower (Norman-styled) was built in the 15th century and the rest of the house was added later.  The interiors are large, with dark wood paneling, huge fireplaces with intricately carved "overmantel" pieces, and wide-board, uneven floors.  It is reflective of a true castle, although never used as such.

Sizergh, with the reflecting pool in front and Norman-style tower on left (photo by Elaine)

One wall panel in the "Inlaid Room," considered the finest example of inlaid paneling in England

We took a guided tour of the several gardens.  We started off by viewing the traditional, two-level, great barn, a style designed for the Lakeland hill farms because it took up less room.  We then went to the south garden, with a "hot wall" designed to absorb sunlight to help grow plants needing warmth.  We saw a tall grass garden area which was originally designed to be in the Dutch-style, now just terraced with grasses.  Next was the reflecting pool, which has an infestation of carpet weed,  a surface algae that obscures the reflections.  A volunteer was pulling some of the weed out using a floating rake.  We next visited a limestone rock garden, with fine textures and a nice pallet of colors, the kitchen garden where local vegetables were being grown for the cafe, and finally to the stumpery, a "stump" garden.  The gardeners were still planting the stump garden which contains a hodgepodge of large stumps set on the ground with many ferns and other plants planted among them.  The garden is the 'keeper' or showcase of four rare ferns of England.

The "hot wall"

The new "Stumpery"

The limestone rock garden

We walked down to the nearby Strickland Arms Pub for what we hoped was drinks and snacks.  We did have beer and cider but food service had ended for the afternoon.  We had 'crisps' instead.

Day 22 - Rydal and Grasmere Loop

July 23:  We broke Elaine in today to the traditional Lake District vacation - a 9.9 mile walk, repeating a route we had done on July 3rd.  We led her to Rydal Water, with a brief stop at Rydal Hall (a country manor, now a retreat center) and Rydal Mount (last home of Wordsworth), on to Grasmere, passing Dove Cottage (Wordsworth's early cottage) and lunch at the Potted Out (panninis and local Collie Wobbles beer for me), and then back along the shores of Grasmere and Rydal Water and along the River Rothay to Ambleside.  I am attaching a variety of photos with some explanations.

A traditional stone bridge originally built for drovers

A juvenile buzzard, a common raptor in England; this one had likely been kicked out of the nest and was protesting loudly 

Entering the garden at Rydal Hall

 The following photos are all flowers in the formal garden in front of Rydal Hall.

 Rydal Mount, showing the formerly hidden window - small one on the second floor left.  Windows were taxed and thus covering it over was a "tax reduction" scheme.

From Rydal Mount to Grasmere, we walked the 'coffin route,' the path used to transport coffins from Ambleside to Grasmere for burial since there was no consecrated church ground in Ambleside.  Also, the main road between the two towns was off-limit.

Picturesque sheep taking it easy  

Dove Cottage, Wordsworth's earlier home

The following photo is of one of 200 some-odd Herdwick sheep that were painted by local organizations and distributed around the Lake District, for charity.  Note the headphones instead of horns.  "All I hear is Radio Baa Baa, we will rock ewe."