Day 21 - Sutton-on-Craven to Abington via Handrian's Wall or bits thereof!

We were very sad to be leaving Bankfoot Cottage, we had a lovely time staying in this lovely cottage, and would love to come back and stay here again and spend more time exploring the delightful Yorkshire Dales area.  It was so well appointed, I could happily live there!!!!  And the view was amazing.  Peter and Mary the owners were lovely hosts, we hardly saw them, but when we did they were interested in what we were up to and had great suggestions for us.

We knew we had a big day ahead, as we were needing to drive from Sutton-in-Craven to Abington in southern Scotland, and we wanted to visit Hadrian's Wall and a craft shop - Hobbycraft in Carlisle.

We needed morning tea, so we stopped at the historic market town of Kirkby Lonsdale.  There was a little tea rooms there where Peter had a very good huge brownie, and I had the spiciest ginger cake I've ever had!  It was lovely and moist, and weirdly my cup of tea made it seem even hotter!  If I just ate  it it was no where near as hot as the affect of it aft a sip of tea!

  

We got back in the car and drove off to Carlisle.

Hobbycraft is an upmarket Spotlight without the manchester/kitchenwares or fabrics, ie it is only crafts, and they seem to be of lovely quality.  We were looking for some Christmas decorations, but they hadn't arrived at the shop yet.  I thought I should buy some wool to make a crochet scarf...  Which I did.  I haven't done any sewing or crocheting since I left home.  Too busy blogging/diary writing!!!!

Luckily the Carlisle Hobbycraft was in a shopping precinct just off the M6, so it was relatively easy to find, and we didn't have to go very far out of our way.  Only problem...  They only had McDonalds, so we decided to go on to Hadrian's Wall for lunch.

Originally, we thought we go and visit Walltown Crags, which is supposed to be "one of the best places to see the Wall dramatically snaking along the crags of the Whin Sill".  We knew we didn't have much time, because of the amount of time it takes to travel from place to place.  However as we got closer, we decided to visit Birdoswald Roman Fort as well, as this is one of the sites that has a visitor centre and cafe as well as part of the wall.

I don't know why, but I have always assumed that the Wall runs along the English/Scottish border...  Of course, it doesn't!  English Heritage has 24 sites along the Wall it looks after, some of which you can visit for free, and some of which have admission charges and facilities.

Birdoswald Fort apparently has almost one of the longest stretches of the Wall visible.  The fort there was huge and you can now see some of the ruins.  There is also a 19th century house there which you can rent out so long as you need lots of beds. We had a snarky lunch here and then had a look at the site.  The Wall is an amazing feat of engineering!  Apparently it was 4.5m high!  Dressed stone and all!  I also hadn't realised how long it was and how far west it went.

We then went along to Walltown Crags.  There is an excellent sign describing the site and showing where to go!  However, somehow, we managed to miss it!  The parking area is about 40 metres long and there was another car at the top of it, and the sign is at the start...  So we spent a little time looking around and NOT seeing the wall, when we went back to read the sign.

I think this might be the place that is shown in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.  If you remember the movies when Robin gets home...

It really is quite amazing, I am wondering why they bothered at this point.

There is a for there too!

As you can see, the day was a bit overcast, but we didn't have any rain...  Just threatened it.

By this time, it was getting a bit late and we hadn't actually made a reservation at the hotel we thought we'd stay at at Adington, so we got back in the car and headed back to the M6 to head up the road into Scotland.

It was good to see the Welcome to Scotland sign!

As we turned off to Adington there were lots of signs to New Lanark World Heritage Site and the Clyde River Tourist Road, so we thought, we might have a look at this tomorrow morning before we left to go to Fort William, not really knowing what we would be looking at.

The accommodation was basic but clean, no heating, so thank goodness it hasn't been cold yet!  Diner was fine, I had salmon and Peter had the steak and ale pie, followed by desert.  We did have the Internet there which was excellent, but TV was too good.  We watched the Fabric of Britain about English Embroidery in the Middle Ages, before the Black Death, when the embroidery was distinctive and amazing, it was an excellent program, and because the majority of the embroidery was religious, was destroyed in the English reformation unless it was taken overseas, so there is not much left.  And then a program about the man who developed the garden at Hidcote which we loved in the Cotswalds...

So, no blogging done!