“Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher”

It’s easy to see why William Wordsworth wrote most of his well known works while living in Dove Cottage on the edges of Grasmere Lake.  While the whole Lake District is beautiful, I find this particular area the most beautiful of all the places I have been so far.

 

The first thing I saw when I stepped off the bus

When I stepped on the bus in Grasmere, my original plan was to visit Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum, and then walk up to town and spend the rest of the day there.  However, when I stepped off the bus, I immediately amended the plan to include a walk around the lake, as the sky was blue and there were some beautiful reflections in the lake.

Dove Cottage

  

The view from the garden.  In Wordsworth’s time, you would have been able to see the lake.

The tour of the house is well worth it as they have interns who are studying William Wordsworth guiding the tours.  They really seem to know their stuff.  The museum was neat, but kind of a letdown as the Longfellow exhibit that was advertised was no longer there.  I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for Longfellow ever since I got a turn of the century, illustrated copy of Evangeline from my Aunt one Christmas.  However, the exhibit on Wordsworth’s connection to other poets of his time was really interesting and worth the visit.

After my educational experience for the day, I set out around the lake.  I must have taken about 200 pictures, trying to capture the beauty of the area.  I managed to get a few.

 

The only thing not perfect about Grasmere are the sheer numbers of people walking around.  It takes away from the beauty when you are constantly dodging slow old people or having to listen to children shrieking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After I finished my jaunt around the lake, I headed into the town of Grasmere.  While most little towns in this area are basically the same, Grasmere stands out in the food department for their World Famous Gingerbread. While not a big fan of the hard as a rock “gingerbread man” style gingerbread, I decided to give their version a try, and boy was I glad that I did.  The gingerbread was slightly soft, and tasted more like a spice cake  than gingerbread.  Biting into it, you can see giant hunks of ginger.  I bought 3 big pieces, intending to eat 1 and bring two home for Kevin, but it was so delicious that I ate another 1/2 piece.  In fact, its so good that as I am writing about it, I am stealing one of Kevin’s pieces.  (Shhh, don’t tell).  If you are ever in the Grasmere area, its worth a stop just for the gingerbread.

The last stop on the tour de Grasmere was St. Oswald’s Church to visit the graves of the Wordsworth family.

Sunday Tom Foolery

I awoke Sunday morning, myself confused as to the time (we changed clocks in the UK Sunday) and the weather confused as to weather it was going to rain or be pleasant.  Once I got the lazy boy out of bed, we decided to drive to Ravenglass and visit Muncaster Castle.  We invited one of our American friends Jen and her son Tom to come with as her husband Fred was in London with a bunch of other EB guys watching the Patriots play.

Ravenglass  is located about 50 minutes north west from Ulverston on the Irish Sea.  It was once the second largest Roman Encampment in England (the first being Chester, where Kevin and I visited on my first trip out). 

Muncaster Castle sits up on 77 acres of land overlooking both the Esk River and the Irish Sea.  It has been in the Pennington family since 1208 when it was granted to Frenchman Alain de Penitone.  While the castle has changed greatly over time, t he original 14th century pele tower has been incorporated into the castle, along with the Great Hall.

For me, the best part about the tour of the castle was the audio tour.  I normally avoid audio tours like the plague as they have the tendency to make people wander around in their own world, bumping into other and standing right in the middle of the flow of traffic.  However, the audio tour was practically shoved in my hands and I decided to give it a try.  After Lord Pennington talked for less than 2 minutes, I was glad I did.  The Pennington family narrated the tour with the daughter and Lady Pennington telling useful information about the architecture, furniture, etc and Lord Pennington interjecting with funny stories about family members.  He referred to one family member as “The Drip” and whenever telling a story, would first preface it with “a good relative” or “a bad relative”. 

Muncaster Castle is full of history that excited the history nerd in me.  In the late 16th century, a court jester named Tom Skelton lived at Muncaster Castle.  Legend has it that he would sit under the large tree outside the castle.  When people asked him for directions, he would size up the person and if he liked them, give them proper directions.  However, if he decided he didn’t like a person, he would give them bad directions that lead across quicksand.    Some people would realize in time, but others did not.  One such person is said to haunt the castle.   While I find Tom Skelton’s mischief hilarious (there’s plenty of people I would like to send into quicksand)  it’s especially interesting as this led to the expression “Tom Foolery”. 

Tom Fool’s Tree

The future Henry VI took refuge in Muncaster Castle after the Battle of Hexham (part of the Wars of the Roses during the Reign of Edward IV).  When he left, he left behind a small glass drinking bowl referred to as the “Luck of Muncaster”, stating that as long as the bowl remained in tact, the Pennington family would prosper.  It appears to have worked as the family has held the castle for 800 years.  The Penningtons also believe the legend as they keep the bowl locked in the safe, and untouched.

  

Located on the grounds is an extensive Owlry straight out of Harry Potter, housing a large number of different types of Owls.  Gross fact of the day – apparently owls are fed dead baby chickens, because they all had piles of them in their cages.

“Well, What do you want???”

 

Hedwig!                                                                  Bashful owl

The 77 acres house an incredibly large rhododendron collection started by the great grandfather of Lady Pennington, so we decided to take a detour through a couple of trails before heading back to the car.   Some of the rhododendrons were enormous.

Kevin wanted me to show people how big the leaves were

He then stole my camera and took a series of ridiculous pictures, with one good one of Jen and Tom thrown in until I gave him my mad face and got my camera back.

Camera back in hand, I took a few more shots before we headed home.  I’d love to come back sometime in the spring/summer when everything is blooming, because I imagine the gardens are beautiful.

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho

It’s off to work we go

Saturday, our good weather luck finally ran out and we woke up to a dreary, rainy day.  Luckily, I had anticipated this and had booked a Honister Mine Tour for the day, figuring that the inside of a mine would be one of the driest places in the area. 

Located about 15 minutes outside of Keswick, Honister Mine is a working slate mine that also has a variety of tours – a simple mine tour, a mine/hiking tour and the insane Via Ferrata tour.  Originally, I had seen the Via Ferrata tour advertised and had wanted to do it back in May.  However, after seeing some of the videos and photos on the Mine’s website, I have changed my mind.  Most people who know me know how paranoid about heights I am.  So a climb up a mountain face on metal rungs would probably not be a good idea.

   

Just looking at these photos makes me nauseous!

For the even more insane, why not add a zipline to it?

Cailin knows how I feel about ziplines

Kevin and I stuck to the boring yet safe mine tour, partly because I am a wuss and partly because it was raining.  On a side note, mining always makes me think of the 7 dwarfs which makes me think of my rides to work with my dad when I worked at EB – he thought it was a fantastic idea to sing Heigh-Ho at 6 in the morning.  Not FUNNY!

We got a funny old Yorkshireman as a guide and helmets on our head and headed down into the mine.  Let me tell you – that mine was cold!  My poor planning caused me to just be wearing a light jacket and sweater so my hands froze and became numb, which made my favorite activity – picture taking – difficult because I could barely push the button.  However, I got a few good photo’s of the mine tunnels and caves. 

The Entrance to the Mine

Watch your head Kevin!

One of the caves that’s not currently being mined with its lava sill above

Another cave with a lava sill above

Kevin is grumpy cause I hit him with my light

Ventilation Shaft with the old rail tracks and sketchy ladder

Blast Holes

Where we originally entered the mine

  Honister Pass

Kevin is planning on heading back sometime to try the Via Ferrata because he is insane, but I would love to get back up to the area and hike around.  It’s really beautiful here.

Hide and Go Sheep

Friday afternoon once again brought unexpectedly dry weather, so after a delicious lunch at The Hot Mango Cafe (I can’t get enough of the bacon, brie and tomato chutney sandwiches), Kevin and I decided to visit one of the local stone circles near Birkrigg Common.

Just a short drive down the A590 towards Barrow, Birkrigg Circle (also called Druid’s Circle) sits up on an hill over looking the Morecambe Bay.  The circle is located in a area called Birkrigg Common where several large limestone deposits can be found.    The whole area is a network of interconnected paths through the field that are used by walkers, riders on horseback and sheep.

Limestone Deposits

Archaeological excavation in the 1920’s found the presence of human remains.  That coupled with the Bronze Age tumuli (barrow burials) leads to the conclusion that the stone circle was once a prehistoric burial ground.     The circle itself is made up of an inner ring of stones and an outer ring of stones (many of which have fallen  or been covered over. 

 

       

 

When we arrived at the stone circle, the sheep were careful not to let any of us insiders in on their secret stone circle rituals, but the evidence of the previous night’s debauchery could be seen scattered  around the circle.  I think the sheep were on to me knowing their little ritualistic secret, because every time I tried to take a picture of them, they hid or looked the other way.  With over 50 stone circles in Cumbria alone, I’m sure to get to the bottom of this mystery soon.

Hikes I Never Blogged About

After reading all of my wonderful wife’s blog posts of late I figured that is was time that I added a blog about some of the hikes that I have done so far in my 6 months here in the UK.

Coniston Old Man to Dow Crag to Black Rigg – 8/7/09

This was a nice 4 hour hike after work on a beautiful sunny Friday.  We started at the car park at the base of the Old Man and headed up the shoulder.  once at the peak we headed down the back side and then up to Dow Crag and finished by travelling across the ridge of Black rigg and then back to the car park via the Walna Scar Road.  Here are a few pictures:

Tarn from the Peak of the Old Man

Goatswater from Dow Crag

Duddon Valley from Dow Crag

Here is the complete Coniston Album

Great Gable – 9/12/09

A friend from work invited me to join him and a group of others for a hike up Great Gable.  We started this one early as it is one of the larger peaks in the Lake District.  We started the hike at Wastdale Head and soon realized that this was not going to be an easy day.   The trail got rather steep right away and then as we approached the summit it turned into a scramble over boulders or various sizes and shapes.  Once we got to the summit it was clear that this was well worth the slog.  This was by far one of the best days that any of us had seen in this area of England.  There was absolutely on wind and the sun shown brightly all day.  We took the easier back way down back to Wastdale Head and ended our day with a well deserved pint in the local pub (there are always puns at the end of a good fell walk).  Here a few pictures:

Great Gable is in the Center, from the Bank of Wastwater

View of Wastwater from the Trail

Lunch at the Summit

A Well Deserved Pint

Here is the complete Great Gable Album

Silverdale – 9/19/09

The weekend after we scaled Great Gable we went on a nice long walk over in the Silverdale area of England.  This was a nice change in pace from the week before.  This was a  mostly flat hike that followed the myriad of footpaths that are around the Leighton Moss Nature Reserve near Silverdale.  After a long day of hiking the paths we again ended up at a pub for a nice pint (see the pattern :) ).  Here are a few pictures:

 

Peter Lane Kiln – Used to bake Limestone and create lime for farming

Leighton Castle

Limestone Pavement

Here is the complete Silverdale Album

Red Screes – 9/25/09

This hike was up a fell that sits along one side of Kirkstone Pass.  A friend, Nate,  had just arrived in the UK for his 2 year contract and I took him for a drive up to Kirkstone Pass so he could see what the Lake District is all about.  Once we got there we decided to take a walk up the Red Screes.  After the drive up to the pass the actual hike up was only around 20 minutes.  The views from the top were great.  Here are a few pictures:

View From the Peak

At the Peak

The Pub at Kirkstone Pass

Here is the complete Red Screes Album