Clotted cream tea's at Slack House Farm

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!

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 :)

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Walltown

After much rain the sun came out, so we decided to get some fresh air and headed off to Walltown.
Parked in the NNPA car park, we have a pass to cover parking fees at £20 for 3 years it's a great saving for anyone who visits on a regular basis, which we do.
See http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk/n_shop/products.asp?category=Car+Park+Passes for details.

The swans seem to have moved on from the lake, I thought I hadn't seen them on the webcam, which is a shame as they are so elegant and it would have been nioce to have cygnets on the lake.
We headed up towards the Wall and the banks on either side of the track are covered in wild flowers with masses of wild orchids. They seem to have moved across the lake, last year the woody area to the south of the lake had the most orchids. So much easier to see, enjoy and indeed photograph in their current position.

It does seem to be a good year for wild flowers, doesn't it?

The Mallards and the Moorhens have chicks but there's a lot of weed on the lake this year so it's not that easy to spot them.

If you go along to Walltown remember to take some bread and your binoculars, nice safe access to the lake side for children and picnic tables for adults to rest a while.

Catch you later.

Digging around in the Roman times

Isn't it often the case that great places right on our doorstep are the ones we never visit, and so it was with us and the site at Vindolanda. NY768662

I'm still a bit sore from my tumble, so we decided to try something less strenuous than climbing up to Hadrian's Wall, so off we went to Vindolanda.

It's is a Roman Fort built in a lovely wooded hollow to the south of Hadrian's Wall and on the line of the Roman road, Stanegate.

The site is in the ownership of the Vindolanda Trust and the only place in the UK where archaeological excavations are on going. They even have a volunteer service so you can go and help with the dig, something I'd love to do if only my knees would still bend!

This is where the Vindolanda tablets were found, the best archaeological find ever, voted Britian's Top Treasure and quite rightly so.

Nothing brings history alive for us in quite the same way as the messages on these tablets do, my favourite is the trouper asking his mother to send more underpants.

It's another huge site with the largest collection of Roman buildings to be seen on the Wall.

The archaeologists will stop and speak to visitors and the days finds were in a tray near the fence so you could see quite easily what had been found.

The dig we looked at was on the settlement outside the fort where local tradesmen would have lived and worked. Pottery, glass beads, coins and bits of metal work were the 'finds' yesterday.

There was also a dig going on at the barracks area inside the fort, but we got to that bit at lunchtime when everyone had disappeared.

There's a reconstruction of the Wall with a Turret, climb up onto the roof of the turret for a great view across the site. It looks very impressive and the Wall when it was newly built must have been a sight to behold.

As it was another hot day we headed towards the cafe for refreshments, next to the cafe you'll find the museum and that's amazing. I loved it.

The soil around Vindolanda is perfect for preserving items and there are bits of shoe leather and material, imagine 2000 years ago someone ws walking in those shoes. The horse mask was incredible as was the plume from a helmet.

Everything is well labelled, well spaced and grouped logically.

The cafe was bright with a nice selection of goodies and situated in a beautiful spot next to the river.

We had a really nice day there and somehow with the excavations going on, it brought the whole Roman thing to life. The Vindolanda Trust were recently given a lottery grant and it will be interesting to see how it's spent, with the number of finds coming in each day I imagine extending the museum display area is on the list.

I liked it so much I'm signing up to be a 'Friend of Vindolanda' just £15 a year and you get free entry to this site and the Roman Army museum.

To quote from the leaflet: "The Vindolanda Trust is an independant charitable trust that raises it's income almost entirely from public support."

Great for children and with good access to the main site for people with disablities.

I highly recommend a visit.

http://www.vindolanda.com/

Catch you later.