Awoke to grey skies and wind and cooler temperatures (50’s
F), but our hostess said the rain was supposed to hold off until late
afternoon. As we stepped out the door, the first sprinkles hit our faces, so we
pulled out the rain jackets just in case. The weather gods were kind, and we had no more than the occasional light
sprinkle all day, but the jackets turned out to be a good idea anyway, as the
wind shifted from pleasant to bracing as the day wore on and we climbed out of
the river’s plain into rolling hills. Carlisle’s residential and industrial
suburbs gave way to rolling hills and larger fields than yesterday’s—cows at
first, then mostly sheep.
 |
Rickerby Park, Carlisle |
 |
Carlisle suburbs, east |
 |
Still in the river's plain |
 |
Suburb blending into farmland |
 |
Royal Mail box set in side of barn above |
 |
Garden wall |
 |
The same |
 |
Over the garden wall |
 |
Down the street a bit |
 |
The same |
 |
Sheep under lowering skies |
 |
Bluebells at the bottom of a manor house garden |
 |
From as distance I thought these were real flower balls |
 |
But alas--plastic. Quite handsome from a distance |
Up until now we have more or less followed the line of the Wall, but
there haven't been any visible remains. Today we began to see hints of
the Wall--first an open field where we walked along a long, straight
mound and trench system--the remains of the Vallum, which was built to the
south of the Wall, sometimes quite close, where the terrain allowed,
elsewhere at some distance (where the Wall goes over the crags of the
Whin Sill, the Vallum was built in the valley below).
http://www.roman-britain.org/frontiers/hw_history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallum
http://structuralarchaeology.blogspot.com/2010/11/40-reverse-engineering-vallum.html (a discussion of the Vallum's construction and possible purpose).
Later
we walked a stretch of Path built on top of the Wall (apparently the
rock of the Wall was too close to the surface for hedgerows to take
root, so it was hedged on either side in the 18th or 19th Century--now
an attractive stretch riddled with badger holes).
 |
First stretch of Vallum obvious to us |
 |
Tri-color sweaters on the hoof. |
 |
Cottage at the Path's edge |
 |
Cottage garden |
 |
Columbine |
 |
Man and whippet out for a walk |
 |
Pop checks on my progress |
 |
Badger hole in Wall |
 |
The Wall between hedges |
 |
Grazing on the Wall |
 |
Wall garden (A wall, not The Wall) |
 |
Stall scrapings--turnips, manure, straw |
 |
The Path turns a corner between close fences--looking back |
 |
Looking ahead |
 |
Long hill down |
 |
And through a kissing gate |
 |
Looking back up from only part way down |
 |
Faint but visible path |
 |
Farm yard |
 |
Potato digger?? |
Today there was no good stopping place for lunch, so we ordered
sandwiches from the hotel. Ham and tomato was uninteresting, but cheddar
with tomato and Branston Pickle (rutabagas, carrots, onions,
cauliflower, and gherkins in a sweet, spicy, vinegary pickle) was a
keeper. Pretty much anything eaten sitting in the grass in a corner of a
cow pasture after 3 hours of walking in the wind will hit the spot, but
sharp and sweet and creamy and crunchy is particularly nice.
 |
Bluebells in the woods |
 |
Bluebells by a fence |
 |
Bluebells by the Path |
 |
Bluebells on a hill |
 |
Up another long pasture |
 |
Muck spredder |
 |
Bridge |
 |
Up another long road. Getting very tired |
 |
Farm yard |
 |
Distant views |
The last 3 miles were pretty tough going—long climbs
up and down and increasingly steep. Tonight B&B is beside the
River Irthing
close by Lanercost Priory, but the Wall Path passes Lanercost high above
the
valley. Tomorrow we will start our trek back up ¾ mile of steep road
before
turning into the Path again, which looked to be still more climbing, but
through grassy sheep pasture (another stretch of “not visible” path).
 |
A stretch of Wall rubble? |
 |
Off the Path, heading down to the River Irthing |
 |
Lanercost Abbey Bridge, built 1724 |
 |
Abbey Bridge B&B |
Tonight’s B&B is the most comfortable of our accommodations
so far—a spacious, nicely decorated room , inviting common rooms, peaceful
scenery out the window, and an interesting home-cooked dinner (a starter of baked
mushroom
cap with spinach and mixed
onion stuffing
with a side of mixed
greens; crusty baguette; chicken legs in casserole with Spanish chorizo and
roasted root vegetables
and
a side of ratatouille;
strawberries in clotted cream with sugar lumps).
Eaten communally—10 people at the table, all
Wall walkers, some heading west to east , others east to west, some finishing
in 6 days, others
in 8 or 10 —two married
couples, a father and young teenage son, Pop and
I, and a self-styled “lady of leisure,”
walking the Path with her own private guide.
We were seated between the lady
of leisure and her guide and the older married
couple, she a GP and he a psychiatrist, so the conversation ranged from UK/US
medical training and funding systems, to children “at university” (in college),
to Wall history to British farming techniques and history, to interesting ways
to fill one’s time if one lives a life of leisure (in our dinner companion’s
case, “lots of tennis, fitness activities, trips like this, and skiing”).
No comments:
Post a Comment