Skip to main content

Edinburgh to The lakes district

So this morning we sadly farewelled Scotland and travelled across the border into England.
Our first stop today was 

Birdsowald roman fort



Birdsowald is the best preserved of the 16 forts that are positioned along Hadrian s wall. The fort is believed to have been occupied by roman soldiers from about 112 - 400AD.



It is believed that the fort was originally called Banna , which is Latin for Spur or tongue. This was because the fort is strategically positioned on a triangular spur of land bounded on the south and east by cliffs, the view above is from the east cliff looking down over a peaceful meandering river.  The romans built forts every 5 Roman miles along the width of the wall.  This area has had a lot of archeological work completed on it and they have been able to identify that long after the romans abandoned the fort it continued to be used for hundreds of years.

Hadrian s wall

 

Wow talk about things coming together, last year gadget and I visited Hadrians villa near Rome and on this trip we visited his wall. 
Hadrian's Wall  was defensive wall that stretched from the river Tyne ( near the North Sea) to the soloway firth on the Irish Sea. It is believed that the wall was built to protect the romans from the barbarian's , in this case the Pict's (Scots) however their is no documented proof that this was the purpose of the wall.
It is believed that they started building it in about 122 AD during the reign of the emperor Hadrian. The above image shows Hadrian s wall stretching westward toward the Irish Sea.  The wall was 80 miles long and was usually built of stone , however in some places they did create earth walls and they believe that in places the wall was originally about 3 metered wide and about 5 - 6 meters high.  It was pretty impressive seeing something that was built almost 2000 years ago.



As we left Hadrian s wall and headed out onto the road we came across this sign, I couldn't help snapping a shot to send to my girls. For those of you who don't understand why, these are the names of where we live and one of it's suburbs.  

After leaving the wall we headed to 

Lanacost priory

Lanacost was an Augustinian priory and was founded around 1165 and was built largely with stone from Hadrian's wall, with some stones in the walls bearing roman inscriptions.  The priory operated for some 300 years until the reformation of the church by Henry VIII.  Throughout the years the Abbey was attacked on several occasions with Robert the Bruce , the Scottish king taking the priory at one point. however Henry VIII was the priory death knell, with the roofs of all the prior buildings being removed and the church stripped of it's treasures.  However the roof of the church was left intact and it continued to be used as the local parish church.

 

by 1847 the Priory was in a state of disrepair to the extent that the east end roof collapsed. However, by 1849, The church was in use again after a major restoration and In the 1870s, there was further restoration. So part of the original building today continues to be used.


I just loved this building and had the camera stuck to my eye as I snapped photo after photo, I loved its beautiful lines and the Rose colour of the stone.
We decided we needed to see inside the current church and you could clearly see where they have created a wall between what is being used and what is ruined.  As we wandered around in the church we came across this interesting sign board.


The information board outlined how they had received funding and had been able to restore and rehanged their dorsal. The dorsal is a 24 foot long embroidery of worsted wools on a felted ground, that was hung behind the priory altar in 1887, however this is no ordinary tapestry, it was an original design by William Morris created from a friend, during the peak of his career.  The church also boasted several Morris designed windows.
After leaving the priory we travelled onwards towards the Lake District, we found ourselves travelling beside the ullstwater lake and then we travelled up on to Kirkstone pass

 

The pass is a narrow two laned road, that winds constantly through the mountains and we had to be wary not only of oncoming traffic but also the local inhabitants.

We arrived in the beautiful village of bowness on Windermere, this town is gorgeous , seriously cute, it could be a Disney set it is so cute. It is filled with lots of very cute little shops and cafes.


The building above is our B&B we were greeted so very warmly and our room . . . . Well


This is our bed, it's such a lovely room, so beautifully furnished.

Well that's our adventures for the day 
Thank you for joining us
Cheerio 

Googy Girl

Comments

Susan said…
Loving the updates. Such a cute b&b.

Popular posts from this blog

Toorale homestead - Louth

We set off from Bourke  , we had stayed the night at Kidmans camp , which was a lovely spot and headed off south to start the Datling River run. For the first few hours we didn’t see any river as our first destination was  TooraleHomestead The drive in was pretty good , lots of dust and a little bit of corrigation but really quite good  We seen some wildlife including an eagle  Bit blurry as it was taken through the windscreen of the car ,  Some Emu’s and kangaroos  The homestead itself is closed to the public except during school holidays ,so we didn’t get to go in but , we knew before we arrived that was the case and I was keen to see it anyway. Sir Samuel McCaughey in partnership with his Brother John and cousin purchased Toorale, Nocoleche and Dunlop station. Acquiring 800 000 acres of land and 130 000 sheep and 80 horses.  Eventually Samuel bought his brother and cousin out. He built the homestead in 1896 as a wedding gift to his niece. The golden years for the homestead were betw

Scrappy chook quilt

So I have been keeping this one under wraps, not on purpose mainly just because I have been a very lazy blogger. A few months ago, as most of you know I had a visit to chookyblue's place, whilst there I had the pleasure to sleep under some of her gorgeous quilts. But one in particular took my fancy I just loved the scrappiness of this quilt, the lovely colours but mainly just the simple design. So when I headed up to Nundle for my retreat, I sent the lovely Kerry a photo and she assured me she could pull together some lovely fabrics and guide me, to put this lovely quilt together. When I arrived at Nundle This lovely bundle of fabrics awaited me The girls and I used the black and white feature on the iPad to determine light medium and dark fabrics I spent 3/4 of the first day creating these squares, I think I frustrated Miss Joolz because I just could not be random, I had to be organised I didn't want to get end and end up wit

Burren junction - Brewarinna

Beds on Barwon We left Newcastle at a reasonable time on Friday morning not gadgets ( my husband) usual 4am start and headed west.  We really never planned this trip out as such we vaguely decided that sitting by a river with a fire was our plan , a chance to take a deep breathe and slow down our lives for a bit. Almost 13 years ago we were extremely fortunate to do the darling river run with some wonderful friends and thought that we would love to repeat that trip and hopefully see the Darling river with water this time.  However at this stage our plans are a little up in the air with the road to Louth currently closed due to rain and some of the national parks closed for the same reason. Soo where are we heading , not sure but wherever we are heading it will be an adventure. So on day one we drove to Burren Junction where we spent our first night of our adventure at a truck stop  This is our new travelling Duo Reggie ( car) and Ruby ( van) we decided last year it was time to say good