Day 7 – Friar's Crag, Castlerigg Stone Circle, Aira Force and Housesteads Roman Fort

As we woke up this morning (to another big English breakfast) we were pleased to see that the rain had let up a bit and there were a few patches of blue sky. We walked over to Friar's Crag for a final overlook of the Derwentwater then walked back through town center in Keswick. We picked up some Cornish Pasties for lunch and a few sweets in the bakery. As we were pulling out of town we stopped one more time at the Castlerigg Stone Circle since it was dry; while the view was grand we had to share the place with about 20 or 30 others but that was ok. We traded couples' photos with another couple then headed off to our next stop.

“Force” is another word for waterfall. The Aira Force flows from a deep slot into another nearby lake – Ullswater. We drove to the parking spot and took a nice, non-rainy hike uphill about a half mile to see the 70-foot force. It was really spilling quite a bit of dark, tannin-stained water from all the recent rain. The wind and spray at the bottom was very strong. At both the bottom and the top, the view is fantastic from old stone bridges. After the hike, we parked near Ullswater and enjoyed our pasties – meat and vegetable pies encased in a thick crusty shell. Supposedly, these were the lunches of Cornish miners who could eat them with dirty hands then throw out the nasty crust they had used to hold them. I ate a little of my crust but it truly was just a “handle” - dry and tasteless. The rest of the pasty was delicious though!

After a quick hour up the highway we arrived in Once Brewed (yes, that's the name of the town) at the Twice Brewed Inn. There we got a small room over the pub with the water closets and showers down the hall (I'm hoping it's not too busy tomorrow morning...). The view out the window was of Hadrian's Wall, built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the second century. This wall extends 74 miles across Britain, from west to east. It is just south of the England-Scotland border but not by much. Pat and I had always wanted to walk the whole thing but on this trip we'll settle for a 2.5 mile walk on one of the prettiest sections.

At the eastern end of where we'll hike we visited the Housestead Fort ruins. Built and occupied from the middle second through fourth centuries AD, the ruins lie along a hillside just north of Hadrian's Wall. The foundations and some really amazing features still remain, after almost two millennia. Surrounding the fort are treeless hillsides and pastures filled with nothing but stone-walled paddocks, lambs and ewes. As I write this here (before the pub turned up the music, that is) all I can hear is an occasional car passing by along with lots of bleating and baa-ing. Knitter's paradise!