Hadrian's Wall + Fort Birdoswald

The whole time we lived in England, I always thought it would be really fun to hike along part (or maybe all!) of Hadrian's Wall. Hadrian's Wall is a wall that was used to separate England from the "barbarians" in the north. It stretched for 73 miles across England. In some places, it was as high as 20 feet and in others it was around 11. It was a big wall. There are still a few places, apparently, that remain up to 10 feet high, but most of the wall is around four or five feet due to people taking the stones to built other things (like roads).

A lot of the wall is only still around because of a man named John Clayton. He was a lawyer who slowly bought up the land around parts of the wall to prevent people from stealing more stone. He also had some parts of the wall rebuilt. So, thanks, John Clayton!

We never did get around to hiking that wall pathway, but we did finally stop to see it. There were various forts along the wall to protect the inhabitants of England from invaders. We stopped at one of these forts in Cumbria: Fort Birdoswald.

A small bit of wikipedia research (I can't remember everything!) shows me that Birdoswald is actually the name of the farm that later occupied the site and the proper name of the Roman fort was Banna. I don't actually remember learning that information at the fort and also the sign says Birdoswald. Also according to wikipedia, it is one of the best preserved of all the (16) forts along the wall. We're good at picking places, I guess.

One of the main things I remember about Birdoswald was that there was a gymnasium which was a strange for that kind of fort. I guess England is cold or rainy or something.

The building that is still standing was built in 1745 as a much less ornate building. Henry Norman added all of the fancyness (like the tower) in 1858.

We saw a few people hiking along the wall like the man above! 

The views in Cumbria are great. It's the quintessential English countryside.

I'm pretty sure that this was where the gymnasium was located.

Ta-daaa!

Maybe someday we can go back and hike the path!

Peckforton Castle

Last June, Forrest and I decided to take a month-long vacation. During that time, we went on a cruise (which I just finished blogging about!) and decided to take a leisurely road trip to Scotland, specifically, the western coast and the Isle of Skye. This was our third (or maybe fourth?) time driving up to the highlands, and I have to tell you, it never gets old. Scotland is maybe my favorite place in the entire world. The people are so nice and the cities are so beautiful and don't even get me started on the scenery. We didn't actually visit any big cities this trip (I missed you, Edinburgh!); it was strictly a let's go see nature kind of expedition. But the scenery. I have many, many pictures of the scenery on this trip, don't worry. But, I digress.

This post isn't even really about Scotland. It's about a castle in the middle part of England.

Seeing as we lived a fairly long distance from Scotland (and trust me, we have done the drive all in one day; it is loooong), we decided to break the trip up so that we could stop earlier in the day and have time to relax and unwind. And obviously, there were things we wanted to see along the way.

Peckforton Castle is located in Cheshire and was a convenient first stop on our journey from Suffolk to the Isle of Skye. I just happened to find a deal online that included our meals + a couples massage. I was sold. They also had segways and archery and other cool and fun things. Alas, we were only in residence long enough to partake of our massages the next morning and then we were on our merry way. It was very relaxing though.

The castle was built in 1844 as a country home for the Tollemache family who lived there until 1939 when it was turned into a haven for disabled children during the war. Now the castle is a hotel (obviously) and a dandy hotel it is.

There's a peacock that roams the grounds. I was a little scared of him to be honest.

Hedwig! You're alive!

We really enjoyed the giant room key, never ending ceilings, and our adorable, tiny window seat.

It felt like we had the place to ourselves most of the time we were there. We wandered in and out of the various banquet rooms and up and down the winding staircases. 

It turns out that castles are really fun places to stay. 

Chatsworth House + Gardens

Chatsworth was one of the places I wanted to see most in England and it was one of the very last places we went. You need a whole day to devote to this gigantic mansion and we never managed to have the time to drive the three hours there and back. So, naturally, we decided to stop by on our way to Scotland (ps posts on Scotland coming soon).

I wanted to see this place so badly, I even watched a three-part documentary on the house. It was great and very informative, but seeing it in person was even better. The grounds are 35,000 acres and the gardens are spectacular. They even have a maze (!).

This is Forrest doing his Mr. Darcy impression. Because, you know, Pemberley.

Only about 26 of the 126 rooms are open to the public, but they're pretty good rooms. Also, the doorways are really tall.

We saw the Duke of Devonshire (who lives at Chatsworth) in the library. He's the blue blob at the back of the room. 

These are some silver miniatures that I thought we so cute! The chandelier is about three inches tall if I remember correctly.

I thought this house was so dreamy. If I could pick a little English cottage, this would be the one.

I am really starting to miss England. I knew I would, but I didn't think I would miss it quite so much so soon. I suppose part of the longing is for all the adventures we had across Europe while we've had a few very quiet months since we've arrived in Washington. A few quiet months means that I've gotten a lot of reading and knitting done and Forrest has had some time to try and recover from his ridiculous headaches, but I think both of us are lusting after more time on the open road. We traveled at least once every two months while in the UK and it seems like something should be coming up on our calendar.

I suppose all I can do for now is sort through more photos and remember all of the amazing moments we've had. There's not a day that goes by when I'm asking Forrest remember when we went there and did this? that was fun! let's go there again someday soon. It's wonderful, but I got used to living in places with so much history and now here I am living in a house from the 1920's that seems ancient to most Americans. It's an adjustment.

There's a different kind of beauty in the US. It's not the beauty of old buildings and even older families. It's the fact that I can look out my window and see Mt. Rainier any old day. We have the magnificent beauty of nature that hasn't been touched and touristed (?) to oblivion. I can get away from people in this state. I've said it before, but with the population of the UK, we just couldn't get away from anyone. There was always someone around even in the most remote place. On our road trip across the states, we practically had an entire National Park to ourselves. That is what I love about this country.

That said, it's still an adjustment.

I miss you, old houses (especially you, Chatsworth)!