Up hill and down dale.

Wednesday 8th August

We are working our way south towards Birmingham and today we travelled to the town of Consett, back in England and near Hadrian's Wall.  On the way we stopped at Rosslyn Chapel. This was built in 1446 by Sir William St Clair. It is believed to have been planned to be much bigger, but he ran out of money. The interior of the chapel is elaborately carved everywhere. No photos allowed inside, but the outside was also pretty speccy.

Rosslyn Chapel -
built of sandstone so a lot of pink, orange and gold colour.

Just a taste of the outside carvings. 

This section at the front was added later.
Inside here is the original outer wall and in this wall
there are large bullet gouges and 'peppering'.
They said this would have been stray shots from battles around the area.

Melrose Abbey - built by the Cistercian monks in 1136. Alexander II and other Scottish kings and nobles are buried at the abbey. When excavating in 1921 they found a lead container believed to hold the heart of Robert the Bruce. The rest of his body is buried in elsewhere.

Melrose Abbey.

This area was the kitchens.
Back in the 1100s this abbey had running water. 

One of the 'gargoyles' at the abbey - a pig playing bagpipes.

We had lunch in the town of Melrose and across the road from the tea room i found a patchwork shop. Nothing exciting so I saved my money for the quilt show.

Hadrian's Wall - this wall was built by the Romans in 121AD and stretched 73 miles across England. We saw a small section of the wall and then visited Chester's Fort where they have found extensive ruins of a roman fort placed along the wall.

Just part of what they have uncovered of Chester's Fort along the wall.

Travelling south today we followed the A68 road. I think Scotland spent it's entire road safety budget on this road - there was a speed camera it seemed like every 3-5k.  Once we crossed into England though I'm not sure that we saw any.

Dinner tonight was a carvery meal at a nearby pub. Cheap, very good, and plenty of it.

Thursday 9th August

Headed for York today and decided to go via a few roads off the major highway, so we just plugged a couple of town names into the gps with no knowledge of anything there. Our first stop was Barnard Castle. This is now a ruin but dates back to 12th and 14th century. There were a few castle ruins in this area. 

Barnard Castle.

From here to Ripon the drive was pretty spectacular. Beautiful scenery through the Yorkshire Dales.  One particular road that Dora picked was definitely a one car road - thankfully we met no cars on the really tight part of the road. Really loved Yorkshire - stone walls everywhere, beautiful and green, hills and valleys, sheep, little farmhouses - just lovely.

A few shots of the Yorkshire Dales.

Even though we are no longer in Scotland we are still seeing heather.

So isolated!

We arrived in York, our overnight stop, around 3, dropped the car, and walked in to town. Yorkminster Cathedral was our destination at the other end of the city. Another wow cathedral. After this it was just a wander back through the old town, dinner and back to the hotel.

One of the original gates to the walled city of York.
There are quite a few sections of the walls still standing.

The ceiling inside the Chapter House of the cathedral.

Yorkminster Cathedral.

I wonder if the beams holding up each floor were ever straight.

And I love the angles on this one.

Beautiful tiles inside the cathedral.