Warning - long post
So I've now been on holidays properly for a bit over a week, and so far it's been great. I borrowed a friends car for 4 days while she was in Ireland, and a friend from the course and I went to the peak district for some walking. It was just fabulous. I couldn't believe the difference in the parts of the district. The national park is really small, yet it has about 4 really distinct areas.
We started the trip by seeing the millenium mammoth which is in a park just outside of leicester. Laurel is from the states, and so has also had many visits punctuated by seeing "the big ....". So we thought it appropriate that we start our road trip with a big mammoth. The mammoth though is life size for an ice age mammoth, situated looking out over Watermead park which has some lovely lakes and lots of birds.
The first day we went to the northern parts of the district to climb Mam Tor which is the start of the High Peaks area. Mam Tor was chosen because it has an Iron Age hill fort on the top of it. It also has a pretty spectacular face and there is a walk along the top of the ridge to Back Tor or Win Hill. We braved the wind and trekked along to Back Tor. It was stunning looking out over the valley either way.
Part of the face of Mam Tor
Looking towards Back Tor
As the weather looked to be holding we decided to go to Eyam, which is famous for being almost devastated by the Plague which raged in the village for over a year during 1665 and 1666. However the vicar of the village encouraged the villagers to stay within the village, not to flee, thereby containing the plague just to Eyam, rather than spreading it throughout the region. There is a list in the church of all the villagers who died, over 250 and many of the houses have signs on them saying which family lived there and if anyone survived. We wandered around to a few of the sites strongly associated with the plague. The most spectacular was the Cucklet Church. This is where the church services were held during the plague, the minister would stand in the delf and the villagers stand in family groups on the hill below the delf. Laurel and I were both blown away by the incredible beauty of the delf. You walk along a path and see a bit of a hill, but as you round a corner you see that the hill has a cave style hole through it which looks down the hill to the river. It was stunning and my photos do not do it justice, but maybe you can get a bit of an idea.
One of the Plague Cottages, from the church.
Cucklet Church
Looking through Cucklet Church
Looking down to the river from Cucklet Church
The Riley Graves - Mrs Hancock buried all 7 family members over 6 days.
The second day was a bit wet, so we decided to do a bit more indoors, although we still did a few walks. We saw a couple of stone circles in the morning, including the Nine Ladies which is a small stone circle high on the moors. However a lot of the day was spent at Haddon Hall, which is apparently the most complete non-fortified medieval house in england. Of more interest for us was that many of the interior scenes for The Princess Bride were shot here. Aside from that it is a lovely house, and not nearly as OTT as its neighbour, Chatsworth House. The chapel is the oldest part of the house with parts of it being dated to the late 11th Century. The interiors are fairly sparse, although for our visit there were extra things inside the rooms as the BBC has been filming a new mini series of Jane Eyre there. We managed to get out to the gardens in a rare patch of sunlight and I want to go back in June when the roses are out as the garden looks like it would be stunning. The long hall was the most impressive, made even better by the presence of a lute player at one end. It added a nice touch.
The Nine Ladies Stone Circle
We had afternoon tea in Bakewell and tried the famous bakewell tart, I wasn't a fan of it as it was loaded with almond essence and I'm not very fond of almonds. However Laurel really liked it. After getting warm and sort of dry again we headed to Chatsworth, not to go inside as we couldn't afford both houses in one day, but instead just to have a bit of a gawp at the house from a distance and to have a wander through the shops. The property is spectacular and I do want to see the house at a later stage, but given the size of the house and the gardens I will have to reserve a whole day for wandering, and to make sure i get my money's worth.
We finished the day by visiting the Arbor Low stone circle. We had been told by someone in Bakewell that it was more impressive than the nine ladies, and as it was on our way we decided to stop and have a look. It was pouring with rain, and the wind was so fierce that the rain blew straight into our faces, however we still kept to the plans and walked up to have a look at the circle. On the way to the circle you have to go through a farm, and although Laurel and I have both grown up in rural areas never have we smelt a barn that bad. We have no idea what the smell was, it was worse than pigs and we were both really glad to get past it as quickly as possible. The stone circle was very impressive, hidden within a ditch and mound earth ring, it was really big, much bigger than anything else we had seen. None of the stones were still standing, but you got an idea of how magnificent it must have been. Despite getting soaked we were pleased that we decided to see it. The good thing was that we had the place to ourselves as no-one else was silly enough to go out in that weather.
Chatsworth - through the rain.
The third day we spent clambering over the Roaches which are in the south of the National Park. There was almost no rain, other than a hail storm which went over as sat in the car having lunch, but the wind was pretty full on. There were times when we were blown off balance as we tried to negotiate our way through very muddy and rocky paths. Once again though the area was amazing and there was no chance of missing it just because the weather wasn't quite right. We did our longest walk today, walking along the ridge of the Roaches and then down into a forest to see Lud's Church, a cavern formed by a landslip. Depsite the walk only being about 10k the difference in each area was immense. The moors above the forest are the home of a wild wallaby population, and while we saw a few prints there were no animals which Laurel was a bit dissapointed about.
The Roaches
Lud's Church
The final day we left the peak district and wandered around Oxfordshire. Particularly the Uffington White Horse, Castle Mound, Dragon Hill and Weylands Smithy. Again a fabulous day, the long barrow (Weylands Smithy) was probably the most impressive, although the horse was pretty mind blowing, the size of it and the way that it had been created with llittle more than antler picks and shoulder blade shovels. To top the day off as we were walking back along the ridgeway walk from the Smithy we startled a herd of deer. My camera was in it's bag and by the time i got it out they were only specks, but it was wonderful seeing them.
I don't have any decent photos of the castle mound as it was huge, and just looks like a hill in the photos.
Finally - yes the trip is almost over - on the drive back to Leicester from the white horse we saw several signs to a Roman Villa, as we had time, and no set plans we decided to follow the signs and have a look at the villa. After scrambling about in a forest for a little while, we wandered across a field thinking that there was little chance of the villa being there, and then came across it. It was huge. Two sides of the villa are evident, and the mounds show where the other two sides were. It was a villa with a fully enclosed courtyard, looking on to a river. Just stunning. So we spent a while scrambling over it and looking at the areas identified as being baths, kitchens etc. It really was immense, by far the biggest remains I have seen so far. Once again it doesn't really work in photos because it was jsut too big. But if you are down near Banbury at all, look out for North Leigh Roman Villa. I can really recommend it.
I know there are already stacks of photos in this post, but here are a few more views from the peak district, just in case you didn't get the idea already.
We started the trip by seeing the millenium mammoth which is in a park just outside of leicester. Laurel is from the states, and so has also had many visits punctuated by seeing "the big ....". So we thought it appropriate that we start our road trip with a big mammoth. The mammoth though is life size for an ice age mammoth, situated looking out over Watermead park which has some lovely lakes and lots of birds.
The first day we went to the northern parts of the district to climb Mam Tor which is the start of the High Peaks area. Mam Tor was chosen because it has an Iron Age hill fort on the top of it. It also has a pretty spectacular face and there is a walk along the top of the ridge to Back Tor or Win Hill. We braved the wind and trekked along to Back Tor. It was stunning looking out over the valley either way.
Part of the face of Mam Tor
Looking towards Back Tor
As the weather looked to be holding we decided to go to Eyam, which is famous for being almost devastated by the Plague which raged in the village for over a year during 1665 and 1666. However the vicar of the village encouraged the villagers to stay within the village, not to flee, thereby containing the plague just to Eyam, rather than spreading it throughout the region. There is a list in the church of all the villagers who died, over 250 and many of the houses have signs on them saying which family lived there and if anyone survived. We wandered around to a few of the sites strongly associated with the plague. The most spectacular was the Cucklet Church. This is where the church services were held during the plague, the minister would stand in the delf and the villagers stand in family groups on the hill below the delf. Laurel and I were both blown away by the incredible beauty of the delf. You walk along a path and see a bit of a hill, but as you round a corner you see that the hill has a cave style hole through it which looks down the hill to the river. It was stunning and my photos do not do it justice, but maybe you can get a bit of an idea.
One of the Plague Cottages, from the church.
Cucklet Church
Looking through Cucklet Church
Looking down to the river from Cucklet Church
The Riley Graves - Mrs Hancock buried all 7 family members over 6 days.
The second day was a bit wet, so we decided to do a bit more indoors, although we still did a few walks. We saw a couple of stone circles in the morning, including the Nine Ladies which is a small stone circle high on the moors. However a lot of the day was spent at Haddon Hall, which is apparently the most complete non-fortified medieval house in england. Of more interest for us was that many of the interior scenes for The Princess Bride were shot here. Aside from that it is a lovely house, and not nearly as OTT as its neighbour, Chatsworth House. The chapel is the oldest part of the house with parts of it being dated to the late 11th Century. The interiors are fairly sparse, although for our visit there were extra things inside the rooms as the BBC has been filming a new mini series of Jane Eyre there. We managed to get out to the gardens in a rare patch of sunlight and I want to go back in June when the roses are out as the garden looks like it would be stunning. The long hall was the most impressive, made even better by the presence of a lute player at one end. It added a nice touch.
The Nine Ladies Stone Circle
We had afternoon tea in Bakewell and tried the famous bakewell tart, I wasn't a fan of it as it was loaded with almond essence and I'm not very fond of almonds. However Laurel really liked it. After getting warm and sort of dry again we headed to Chatsworth, not to go inside as we couldn't afford both houses in one day, but instead just to have a bit of a gawp at the house from a distance and to have a wander through the shops. The property is spectacular and I do want to see the house at a later stage, but given the size of the house and the gardens I will have to reserve a whole day for wandering, and to make sure i get my money's worth.
We finished the day by visiting the Arbor Low stone circle. We had been told by someone in Bakewell that it was more impressive than the nine ladies, and as it was on our way we decided to stop and have a look. It was pouring with rain, and the wind was so fierce that the rain blew straight into our faces, however we still kept to the plans and walked up to have a look at the circle. On the way to the circle you have to go through a farm, and although Laurel and I have both grown up in rural areas never have we smelt a barn that bad. We have no idea what the smell was, it was worse than pigs and we were both really glad to get past it as quickly as possible. The stone circle was very impressive, hidden within a ditch and mound earth ring, it was really big, much bigger than anything else we had seen. None of the stones were still standing, but you got an idea of how magnificent it must have been. Despite getting soaked we were pleased that we decided to see it. The good thing was that we had the place to ourselves as no-one else was silly enough to go out in that weather.
Chatsworth - through the rain.
The third day we spent clambering over the Roaches which are in the south of the National Park. There was almost no rain, other than a hail storm which went over as sat in the car having lunch, but the wind was pretty full on. There were times when we were blown off balance as we tried to negotiate our way through very muddy and rocky paths. Once again though the area was amazing and there was no chance of missing it just because the weather wasn't quite right. We did our longest walk today, walking along the ridge of the Roaches and then down into a forest to see Lud's Church, a cavern formed by a landslip. Depsite the walk only being about 10k the difference in each area was immense. The moors above the forest are the home of a wild wallaby population, and while we saw a few prints there were no animals which Laurel was a bit dissapointed about.
The Roaches
Lud's Church
The final day we left the peak district and wandered around Oxfordshire. Particularly the Uffington White Horse, Castle Mound, Dragon Hill and Weylands Smithy. Again a fabulous day, the long barrow (Weylands Smithy) was probably the most impressive, although the horse was pretty mind blowing, the size of it and the way that it had been created with llittle more than antler picks and shoulder blade shovels. To top the day off as we were walking back along the ridgeway walk from the Smithy we startled a herd of deer. My camera was in it's bag and by the time i got it out they were only specks, but it was wonderful seeing them.
I don't have any decent photos of the castle mound as it was huge, and just looks like a hill in the photos.
Finally - yes the trip is almost over - on the drive back to Leicester from the white horse we saw several signs to a Roman Villa, as we had time, and no set plans we decided to follow the signs and have a look at the villa. After scrambling about in a forest for a little while, we wandered across a field thinking that there was little chance of the villa being there, and then came across it. It was huge. Two sides of the villa are evident, and the mounds show where the other two sides were. It was a villa with a fully enclosed courtyard, looking on to a river. Just stunning. So we spent a while scrambling over it and looking at the areas identified as being baths, kitchens etc. It really was immense, by far the biggest remains I have seen so far. Once again it doesn't really work in photos because it was jsut too big. But if you are down near Banbury at all, look out for North Leigh Roman Villa. I can really recommend it.
I know there are already stacks of photos in this post, but here are a few more views from the peak district, just in case you didn't get the idea already.
posted by bronwyn | 11:31 AM
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