Weather has been better than expected so we took the opportunity to get out for a walk from home.
Headed off towards Willowford Farm as I had something to drop off there, the Hadrian's Wall Path goes past the farm and on up to Birdoswald Fort, making a round trip for us of about four and a half miles.
They have some newborn lambs at Willowford, late in the season but very welcome - we stood for a while watching them.
There are some very good remains of the Roman Bridge by the river, and it's quite interesting to see the display board picture of how the bridge would have looked in Roman times. Considering they had no theodolites or cranes it was an amazing feat.
Speaking of feat, there was a man walking the trail with bare feet. That must have been so uncomfortable, standing in sheep's droppings can't be pleasant and in this area it's unaviodable.
The bridge over the River Irthing has a handrail coming loose, I took a photograph to send to the Path officer but probably, by the time I get around to downloading the picture, the rail will have been repaired.
To the west of Willowford Bridge there's been some tree planting in a newly fenced area, people were ignoring the official path and taking a shortcut up the grassy slope, now they can't and I did wonder if that's why the trees were planted.
'Elf & Safety' and all that!
'Elf & Safety' and all that!
The Wall at the top of the bank running to Birdoswald Fort is excellent, one of my favourite views is looking east and seeing the crags at Walltown on the skyline.
I spent some time with the barefoot walker looking for the Roman graffitti on the Wall stones, someone had told me the general area it was in and eventually we found it. Rather than being carved into the rock it stands proud (very proud!) and once you spot it you wonder how you could have missed it!
We took the road back to Gilsland but then decided to take a little detour to the tea room at Slack House Organic Farm, home of Birdoswald Cheese.
We had coffee, scone with jam and home produced clotted cream and I have to say it was the best scone I have had in a good long while.
(Don't be put off by the fact it's advertised as a Fairtrade Cafe, honestly, there's not a dusty raisin in sight)
I feel obliged to return and do another taste test ( on your behalf, of course) just to make sure of the quality :)
No comments:
Post a Comment