We Make It To Scotland

FRIDAY - Happy Birthday Jayse! We hope you had a great day.

We left the Old Rectory and headed across the North York Moors. Initially the clouds were heavy and low, but no rain. We drove through Middlesbrough and on to Durham - more castles and cathedrals.

Just north of here about 2,000 year ago the Romans built a wall (with a series of forts) across England, the Hadrian Wall, around 125 kms in length. An extraordinary achievement in their pre-mechanised age. We spent time looking through the Roman Chester Fort which has been excavated to give us a glimpse into life at this Roman frontier post. What once stood as a symbol of the Roman power of that day had slowly been covered by the surrounding earth. It was not all hard work for the soldiers though, on the banks of the Tyne River they had heated baths.

Driving further north along the Pennine Way the hills have less trees. There's less cropping and more sheep and cattle. A sign advertised the Dunn's  Farm House B&B, so we pulled over for the day.

SATURDAY - At the recommendation of our hosts we took a north easterly track today across the Northumberland National Park to enjoy some Northumberland coastal scenery. Even though students are back in school in the UK there were still people enjoying the last of summer on the sand beaches, a pleasant change from the gravel and pebbles 'beaches' further south. For the people who live here fishing seemed the main industry.

Berwick Upon Tweed, a city that sits at the mouth of the River Tweed has seem many battles over the centuries. Between 1174 and 1482 it changed hands between the English and the Scots 14 times. The wheat fields on the high ground to the north west of the city was the site of many of these battles. Another reminder that conflict features very regularly in our history.

From here we took some country roads towards our next accommodation at West Linton, near Edinburgh. It was along this road that we crossed into Scotland. For the next four nights we are staying in the woods by a wee loch.

We left the Old Rectory B&B and climbed up into the North York Moors. At times the hills rose to meet the clouds. We read that the British TV cop show 'Heartbeat' was filmed in this area.

This map shows the location of the Hadrian Wall across a narrow  section of the UK.

Some of the remans of the Roman's Chester Fort

This photo of an information panel and the photo below go together. They show the Roman Baths down by the River Tyne - then and now.

Like wise with these two photos of one of the Chester Fort gates. In the  photo below you may be able to see the beginning of one of the arches which means that over the centuries much of the walls have eroded and/or been 'borrowed'.

On the other side of the River Tyne you can see the line of the Hadrian Wall  to the east of Chester Fort.

The 'First and Last' pub near the Dunn's B&B. We had a meal here. It is not far from the Scottish border - hence the name of the pub.

The view we were greeted with the next morning from our Dunn's B&B upstairs  bedroom window.

Nancy at front of Joe and Jane Dunn's B&B. We stayed in the upstairs room on the far right. 

Going through a town a bus decided to do a 'many' point turn in the main street. 

A little further along, two lanes of traffic had to fit through this single lane arch.

The rail bridge over the River Tweed at Berwick Upon Tweed.

The rail bridge in the background with the main traffic bridge in the foreground. We are standing on the old bridge - see below.

These days the old bridge is still used for vehicular traffic - only one lane /one way.

There were lots of scenes like this one - sheep on the green rolling hills, stone wall fences and old stone buidlings.

As we crossed the Scottish border there were less trees. This house was set in a little valley by a wee river.  As we have travelled north we have noticed the accents and vocabulary changing.