This morning we headed south towards Hexham as we were off to find Hadrians Wall. The weather was so rainy - hence I have borrowed a couple of photos from the Internet. On route we came across Kirkharle Courtyard where there is a collection of boutique shops, arts and craft workshops set in converted 18th century farm buildings. It seemed like a good thing to get out of the rain and we saw some rather wonderful work. We even bought a couple of pieces.
John Speight - hand cut silhouettes which are completely beautiful and so well done.
Lindisfarne Landscape by Peter Phillips - his work is amazing. I would love to own an original.
After the rain ceased we went to Vindolanda, a Roman Fort. It was built about 40 years before Hadrians Wall and was occupied for about 400 years. There is so much to see from the ruins of bath houses and temples. They also have a great museum where you can see Roman writing tablets and thousands of artifacts like shoes, arrowheads and jewellery. The shoes were amazing - the intricacy and how much had survived was quite astounding. We spent a long time at Vindolanda wandering around and fortunately managed to escape most of the rain.
We then headed to Cawfield Quarry to see Hadrians Wall. Even through the rain it was quite wonderful to see. The wall lining the ridge of the slope and then the quarry cutting through the wall.
We then went further along the wall to see the Turet at Banks. It's quite well preserved with adjoining stretches of the wall. The view from here over Cumbria was fabulous. Whilst in this area we also saw Hare Hill which albeit a short length of the wall it stands tall at 2.7 meters.
At this point we weren't far from the other side of the country, only about 20 miles and just 16 from Gretna Green. So off we went! We went to the Famous Blacksmiths Shop. The building was wonderful. We had a look around the Shop and bought a few gifts for people back home and particularly enjoyed the pumped up bagpipe music.
It was then six o'clock and we were 82 miles from the Caravan. The rain was coming down hard. But the wonderful sat nav took us on the A7 route. What a road! So picturesque. When we got back to the caravan, I grumpily put out bags together in preparation for our journey home the next day. It's almost a good job that it had rained for most of the day otherwise I would never have wanted to leave!
1 comment:
Totally understand you not wanting to leave, Claire, you've had a brilliant time in a beautiful county. Jim and I always had this dream when he was in the Navy that when he 'came outside' we would live in Hexham, he running the radiology department and me being a nurse at the hospital there. Many years later our lives took a different turn and two of our Naval friends were living our dream, doing exactly what we had planned to do! h well, never mind.
Home to Norfolk - you will be quite happy to be back, I'm sure, ...even if you do miss all those hills.....
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