Sandstone and Bogs

Saturday turned out to be a perfect fall day – bright blue skies and that crisp fall air that I love. Since the weather was so nice, Kevin and I decided to head down to Furness Abbey in the morning before he had to work at the Beer Fest.

Furness Abbey is located in Barrow-in-Furness (where Kevin works). Back in the winter when we came on our house hunting trip, we had stayed in a hotel located just up the hill from the abbey. Unfortunately, the abbey was closed the day we walked down.

At one point, Furness Abbey was the local powerhouse, with the Cisternian Monks owning most of the land in the area. ( As a side note – years of watching The Sound of Music had me falsely believing that Nuns lived in abbeys, and Monks in monasteries, but apparently Monks also lived in abbeys. Who Knew?) The abbey was founded in 1123 and originally belonged to an order of Monks called the Savigny, but fell into the hands of the Cisternians roughly 25 years later. The sandstone abbey was remodeled and added to over the next several hundred years until it became one of the most glorious Cisternian Abbeys in England, being shadowed only by Fountains Abbey. The monks of Furness Abbey were the owners of Piel Castle that Kevin and I visited on Friday as well as vast stretches of land on the Isle of Man and across the peninsula where Barrow-in-Furness lies today.

The abbey was disestablished in 1537 during the period of English Reformation under my favorite monarch Henry VIII and gradually fell to ruin. However, the ruins still give a sense of how huge the abbey must have been in its day. Even though only a small portion now remains, you can look across the field and get a sense for how much space the abbey once took up. Additionally, there are several sections of the abbey that still tower in the field. I pulled a Don and made Kevin stand in one of my pictures for perspective, and you can barely see him standing up against the abbey wall.

It’s like “Where’s Waldo”

Kevin had made plans to spend the afternoon with Allister (one of his pub friends) pouring pints at the Swan’s First Annual Beer Festival. Luckily, Allister’s girlfriend Sarka invited me to come for a walk with her and her dog Floss, and thus allowed me to avoid spending the afternoon bored and watching Kev and Allister pour pints. We headed up to High Dam and started our walk by heading up to a lovely lookout point over Windermere.

We then decided that Floss would be a perfect guide to lead us down towards High Dam. However, this turned out to be a serious error as Floss lead us straight into a giant bog. We then decided trusting a dog was probably not the smartest idea, and Sarka took over. She kept apologizing for leading us into bog after bog, but I think we just never left the original bog. I also kept tripping on the high ferns and falling into the bog (big surprise, me tripping). We finally managed to find the path back down to High Dam, and as promised it provided lots of brilliant photo opportunities.

Floss is a bad guide

Sarka and Floss take in the scenery

Regardless of the mess I wound up in, it was a great way to spend a perfect fall day (much better than watching pints being poured in my opinion). Also, the muddly mess I became was (in my opinion) my retribution for laughing hysterically when Cailin got stuck in the mud in South Africa.

York – Where Old Meets New

When getting advice on what to do in York, the most common answer given was to walk the city walls, so Kevin and I decided to do just that. Originally built more than 1900 years ago by the Romans (seriously, what in England wasn’t originally built by them?), a good portion of the walls has been kept and maintained throughout the centuries. In fact, they are considered to be the most intact medieval city walls in the country.

Once surrounding the entire city, the remaining portions are indicated by the bold black lines

While on the way out to the start of our wall walk, I immediately became distracted by crumbling old buildings and taking pictures as Kevin will tell you is a common occurrence with me. Also, a cool fog had rolled in which made for some really good shots.

Distractions out of the way, we finally made it to the start of our York Wall Walk. When people talked about the walls in York, I guess I incorrectly assumed that the walls would be similar to the elusive Hadrian’s Wall that Kevin and I could not find in that there was very little actually left and that you merely walked along side the walls. However, I was mistaken. The walls in York stretch for almost 2 miles when you combine them , and you actually walk up along them, affording a spectacular view of the city.

One of the gates to the city

After we walked about half of the walkway, we stopped to visit a few museums – Clifford Tower, York Castle Museum and Jorvik Viking Center. As one of the benefits of our English Heritage Membership, we got in free at Clifford Tower – the only remaining part of the old York Castle that has a great view of the city skyline.

After Clifford’s Tower it was a short walk across the parking lot to York Castle Museum. The museum sits on the site of the former castle (hence the name) and houses a collection of items that represent York’s cultural history. It was different than the normal museum that focuses on archaeology or a castle, and made a great stop on the tour of York. The museum houses a great collection of furniture from the 1700’s to present day – arranged to depict key rooms in a York family’s home at different periods in time. There’s also an exhibit depicting aspects of York life in Victorian times from birth to death and my personal favorite – an exhibit about how women throughout history cleaned their houses. Definitely worth a visit should you make it to York.

Kevin tries his hand at being an Elizabethan soldier This causes Kevin to be thrown in the stockade

Next up on the tour de museums was the Jorvik Viking Center. Until recently, I didn’t realize how much of England the Vikings once controlled. Perhaps their biggest stronghold in England was York. During the period of 1979-1981, archaeologists uncovered the well preserved remains of a 10th century Viking village. The site was excavated and then turned into a below ground museum where the city of Jorvik has been recreated in 3D based upon the wooden remains of the buildings that were found. In addition, the artifacts recovered, including the World’s Largest piece of fossil poo (seriously) are displayed for visitors.

After we got our fill of museums for the day, we continued on our wall walk and wound up at York Minster. Like most things in this city, the Mister sits on the former site of a Norman Church and Roman fort. The beginnings of the Minster that we see today were built in the 13th century by the man that later built Westminster in London. It has been added to throughout the centuries until it became the building we see today.

Up Next – The Cold War hits York. See you tomorrow if I don’t die from Swine Flu first…