Hadrian's Wall and Carlisle

Friday we took the train to Carlisle to meet Fergal's family. We stopped along the way at a small town called Haltwhistle to see part of Hadrian's Wall, the wall built across England by the Romans almost 2000 years ago.

 Very old house with solar panels!

 View from the train.

 Haltwhistle station.

Another view from the train.

 Another pretty town, some of the buildings are over 500 years old.

We took a bus to the Northumberland National Park and hiked to the wall.

You can rent this cottage for vacations.

 This portion of the wall was built on a high ridge and provided some great views.

 There was also a good bit of climbing involved.

 Farmers still use this land for pasture so you have to go through these gates called "Kissing gates".

The Romans built forts about every mile along the wall. Above and below are pictures of the remains of a fort and gateway.

The wall was about 80 miles long

Scary looking fly!

 This tree was in the Kevin Costner " Robin Hood" movie.

Lots of wildflowers.

"Want me to climb that do you?  To the pub how far it is?"

Looks like we finished our hike just in time.

Almost back

 Finally, the pub comes into view!

Back to the train

And on to Carlisle

I am continually amazed at how many old buildings remain.

Another beautiful cathedral.

 These early paintings were painted over during the Reformation.

Beautiful window

War memorials inside the cathedrals are common.

 Carlisle castle.