Tea and temples

I had hoped for a sunrise morning but at 4.45am the sky was covered with cloud so I went back to bed.
Things did improve as the morning developed and by 10.30am it was a lovely spring day in Gilsland.

I had a quick look at the Hadrian's Wall webcams and, seeing a few patches of blue sky amongst the grey on the Winshields camera, I decided to head east.
It's some years since I've been to the Temple of Mithras so that was my destination today.

You'll find it between Sewingshields and Limestone Corner but there's a well signposted car park so you really can't miss it. I parked up and followed the track down to the Temple of Mithras.

It's in a lovely sheltered spot and larks were singing, lambs were gambolling and there were even a few tortoiseshell butterflies enjoying the yellow flowers of the dandelions.

While the temple seems to be in a strange place a look at the Google Earth map (NY858710) shows the outline of Brocolitia Roman Fort just above the Temple on the higher ground.

I had a good look around the mole hills, and there are lots of them, many have bits of Roman roof tile and bits of pottery but I suppose only an expert can date them and it's really not done to 'plunder' historic sites. Nice to find though even if you do leave it behind when you go.

A bonus here is the Coffee Cart, the owner tells me he's in the car park all through the year and on your behalf I did sample the coffee, it was excellent, just the thing to refresh the parts after a mole hill rummage.

There is a car parking fee but that ticket covers you for the other HW carparks ( machine doesn't give change so have some with you) or the AD122 bus service stops here.

There's information about Mithras on the University website http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/archive/mithras/frames.htm

Catch you later.