Two-Day Get Away: Day 2

I am beginning my writing after having selected and uploaded all the pictures for this post.  I've been home 12 days now (the same amount of time I was gone), and I am reminded once again of how very much we packed into each day!  After our day at Abbotsford (and England) and Eyemouth and Fast Castle yesterday, we picked up where we left off at the Red Lion Inn of Newbrough.  It's a pub with rooms above, and the same hostess who had served us a refreshing beverage at 11pm the night before, was up serving us breakfast the next morning, and she did a great job!  Toby asked for suggestions about things to see in the area before we left.  The main destination today was Hadrian's Wall, but he wanted to make sure not to miss out on any local specialties.  We found out that Langley Castle was very nearby, and so we made that our first stop.  It's been impressively restored and serves as a hotel, so if anyone is looking for a nice place to stay in Northumbria, Langley Castle seems like a good choice! 

I'd seen peacocks and peahens before, but never a peachick.  They were wandering the grounds of the castle.

The interior was quite luxurious.

Next stop - and one we had booked into - was the Roman settlement of Vindolanda, just south of Hadrian's Wall.  It was inhabited for about 300 years (longer than the US has been a nation!), from about 85AD to about 370AD.  I thought it was a nice touch that they had a sign post pointing out Rome, which is 1,125 miles away!

It's quite an impressive site, and they believe that it will taken another hundred years of archaeological work before they have really done what they need to here in terms of what is being uncovered and understood.  In the picture below you see what look like they might be small pillars in a room or house.  That was a structure for heated floors!  The floor was supported on those and provided space for heating underneath.  Most of the dwellings we saw were barracks that housed 8 soldiers to a room, but the higher social classes had their comforts.

Honestly, it always kind of freaks me out a bit to go to Roman ruins in Great Britain.  I know the Roman Empire extended this far, but I'm generally thinking about either 16th-century or 19th-century English/Scottish stuff, and the Roman ruins take me by surprise.  

The soil here is particularly good for preserving things that wouldn't normally survive -- everything from leather shoes to "wooden leaf-tablets" that are the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.  I love the pattern on the sole of this shoe.  I could see myself buying a pair of shoes like this today!  For me this brings the people of the time more to life than seeing stone ruins.

Due to the different framing of the picture it's hard to distinguish size, but the shoe above was a woman's shoe, and the item below is a baby bootie.

I was so impressed by the detailed, finely crafted tools they had - from silverware to needles.  Below is a collection of needles and also a needle holder.  (I have a modern one in my embroidery case!)

I know the piece below doesn't look like much, but it caught my attention because it was part of a water clock that could be used year round.  If you enlarge the picture and look closely, you can see the word "September" imprinted along the top.  Time was kept by filling the basin with water and letting it drop out of a hole in the bottom, but there was a twist.  With Roman time-keeping every day (daylight hours) was split into twelve hours, as was every night (darkness), but the amount of daylight and darkness changes throughout the year.  Markings on the bowl that this piece is from would have accounted for the longer summer days and shorter winter days, splitting each one into 12 equal parts.

And I'm always looking for board games!  I was surprised and saddened not to find dice in the museum, because they had been talked about in the tour about having been found on the site (loaded dice in the pub!).  There was also only one board game on display, alas.

After Vindolanda, we headed toward Hadrian's Wall itself at a place called Housesteads.  It wasn't far away, and yet there was another full settlement and barracks there as well.  Now it's mostly sheep wandering around.

It was a bit of a walk to get from the parking site to the wall.  I think the sheep were as curious about me as I was about them.

HADRIAN'S WALL!!!

I had wanted to come here since I'd first heard about it as a child.

I wasn't thinking this would be part of this trip.  It's quite far south from Edinburgh, and it has nothing to do with Napier or any of my other mathematicians, but when Toby suggested it I was thrilled!

We noticed that in their building here (at both of these locations) the Romans used what we called "sugar-cube" shaped stones instead of long narrow ones.

At each mile along the wall, there is a "milecastle."  This was Milecastle 37.

From what I understand, most of the wall is off-limits in terms of walking on top of it, but there was a section here on which we were welcome to walk, so up we went.

It drops off rather steeply here on the north side  .  .  .  making me think of a line from a Howard Nemerov poem: "so steep a snowy darkness fell away on either side to deeps invisible."

We made our way across and down and found that the sheep had caught up with us.

On the way home we stopped in Jedburgh for a brief look at the Abbey.  I had visited here 5 years ago when I was studying mathematician Mary Fairfax Somerville.  She was born in the manse of this abbey, where he uncle was the minister.  The family actually lived up north in Burntisland, but her father was away at the time, a naval officer engaged in the fight of American Independence, so her mom stayed with family at the time of her birth.  It was really nice to get to see this again - something I hadn't imagined I would have opportunity to revisit.

The river here is the Jed Water, where Mary and her aunt and cousins used to swim.

But Jedburgh is associated with more than Mary Somerville, it is also where the founder of geology, James Hutton.  It was in Jedburgh that he found a rock formation that is now known as "Hutton's Uncomformity."  It's coincidental and interesting that we were at Hadrian's Wall and also at Jedburgh on the same day, because  .  .  .

Ugh!  I just spent 15 minutes looking for a comment on these pictures on facebook from my geology colleague Garry Hayes, and I couldn't find it, so I will have to paraphrase and look again later. He basically commented on some of these pictures that Hadrian's Wall was part of the impetus for Hutton's monumental work in founding the field of geology.  During Hutton's lifetime it was commonly thought that the earth was only 6000 years old, and yet Hadrian's Wall was 1500 years old at that point -- fully one-fourth the age of the earth, and yet Hadrian's Wall is hardly shows any weathering, so how can 6000 years of weathering account for what we see geologically in the earth in general?  (My apologies for putting that so poorly; I will try to find Garry's words - his field, not mine.)

There are a couple of monuments to Hutton across the Jed Water from the abbey.  One is this bench that is inscribed with the last words of Hutton's famous book Theory of Earth: "We find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end."

Near the bench is this sculpture that gives an idea of the "uncomformity" that Hutton found in this area.

And then we were on our way home - exhausted, but happy.  About half an hour into the final leg of our drive, I noticed a train bridge out the window that looked like the famous one seen in the Harry Potter movies (thought I knew it wasn't the same).  I pointed it out to Toby, and he asked if I wanted to take a side-trip.  Everything in me was saying "no," but my mouth said "yes."  Surprisingly he didn't take me to that bridge.  He turned off in another direction and brought me to a beautiful vista called Scott's View.  The three mountains that can be seen from here are known as the Three Sisters, which seem to me a good match for Yosemite's Three Brothers.

As with so many things, pictures don't do it justice.  It was breath-taking!

But it wasn't just visually breath-taking, the story of it was breath-taking as well.  This stop was completely serendipitous and in no way planned, but our two days away began with a visit to Sir Walter Scott's House and ended with a stop at Scott's View.  He adored this vista -- so much so that when he died, the horses pulling his funeral cortege on the way from his home to his burial place at Dryburgh Abbey stopped here on the way, just as they had done with Scott was alive.

As Scott wrote, "This is my own native land."  

I'm so glad we did decide to stop here too.  It really rounded out our time away, bringing it full circle, and it deepened my appreciation for and understanding of Sir Walter Scott.

Two-Day Get Away: Day 1

 

Either Abbotsford (home of Sir Walter Scott) has a very special place in Toby's heart, or he just really, really wanted me to see it.  And it is a place of tremendous beauty and interest.  He felt we should take it in since it was "on the way."  It's quite an astonishing place, but I have to be honest, my heart kept saying, "Let's just go to Fast Castle.  Let's just go to Fast Castle."  Fast Castle, of all the things I wanted to do on this trip, was THE MOST IMPORTANT to me.  The weather was nice this morning, and weather is quite changeable in Scotland, so I was jealous of every moment we could have spent at Fast Castle in good weather.  It's on a coastal promontory sticking out into the North Sea, and the castle is completely ruined, so no shelter - not to mention it being remote even by car and then further remote due to necessary walking from the closest parking area.  I didn't take many pictures at Abbotsford because my heart just wasn't in it (not that day!).  But upon reflection, I do find myself quite taken with it, and I would like to go back some day.  In fact, though I've never really gotten into reading Scott, I think after having seen his home and getting to know more about who he was, I am sure I'll be reading one or more of his books soon.

It seemed like everything here was intentionally evocative, as if he was trying to surround himself with inspiration for his writing - from the castle-like look of his home to the eclectic collections that filled the inside: crests, horns, swords, shields, armor, skulls, you name it!

Just off the entrance above was his study, which included impressive floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on all four walls - the ceiling being a second-floor ceiling, and the shelves including a mezzanine and staircase!  Again, I didn't take many pictures, but if I had I could have shown his escape route from this room in case he saw visitors coming to interrupt him, and the small meeting room in the corner where those seeking audience with him would be too uncomfortable for too long.  Hey - he had lots of reading and writing to do!

I had thought his study contained an impressive library, which it did, but it was far surpassed by the next room we entered, which also had built-in floor-to-ceiling book shelves and was a much larger room.  (Perhaps David will see how small my library actually is in comparison!)

Here is a larger view of that room.  The large table nearest in the photo is a map table.

In another passageway was a collection of swords and guns, along with gargoyles (ok, ok, "grotesques" not "gargoyles") to watch over them!

Before continuing with the house, I want to share a picture from the visitor center.  What I want to share is the pictures of keys below, and I'll let the curator of the displays here, artist/sculptor Claire Barclay, speak to what you are seeing below: "This jumble of redundant keys was accumulated over generations by the descendants of Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford.  They Keys are estranged from the locks they once opened -- in doors, boxes, clocks, cupboards, and miscellaneous items of furniture.  They may still have the potential to be reunited with their locks, but this seems unlikely.  Instead they keys remind us of things lost to the passage of time.  They are metaphors for the secrecy and seclusion of individuals, but they also represent the lure of the past, which we try to unlock through a process of investigation."

We continued on into the dining room, which is at least twice as long as what you see below (but there were people in the way, and I was in too much of a hurry to wait for them to move so I could get a full picture!)

And then it was back through the garden and on our way!

Umm  .  .  .  I got a little worried when we seemed to drive and drive and drive, and pretty soon I saw the England/Scotland Border; note the English flag on the left, and the Scottish flag on the right.  Given that Fast Castle is almost due east from Edinburgh, I couldn't figure out why we were so far south.

Without going into too much detail, I'll just say this was a "boo-boo" and that both Toby and I were making assumptions, and that because of that it took us five and a half hours to get to Fast Castle (including the trip to Abbotsford) despite Fast Castle being only a one-hour drive from Edinburgh.  Notice that here as we return again across the border into Scotland a few hours later, the sky no longer looks like it did in the morning.  We lost five and a half hours of great weather.  To be honest, it was everything I could do to keep from crying.  In fact, it was everything I could do to keep Toby from seeing that I was absolutely crestfallen, bordering on devastated.  Have I mentioned that going to Fast Castle was THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to me on this trip?  Have I mentioned I'd spent at least 2 or 3 years working on how to get to Fast Castle?  I would have given up everything else on this trip and done ONLY that, and I was watching it slip through my fingers.  Oh, and did I mention that this trip was taking place in Friday the 13th?  It certainly seemed to be living up to its reputation!

Finally I see some familiar city names that, from all my years of research, I know are near Fast Castle: Eyemouth and Coldingham  .  .   but look at that sky.  OH NO!!

Everything in me wanted to keep heading straight for Fast Castle, but I knew that after more than 5 hours on the road we needed a snack break and a "comfort break" -- neither of which we were going to get at the remote ruins -- so we pulled off in Eyemouth, which was actually kind of cool, because I've booked accommodations in the tower to the right of the photo below twice and had to cancel twice (due to COVID).  I'd been trying to get to this town to spend a few nights and to make forays to Fast Castle from here.  I thought it would be unique and interesting to stay in my own tiny "castle."  I'd seen so many pictures of this place, but I'd never been here - totally knew where everything was, though!

Eyemouth Harbor.

And, finally, we were on our way again and, eventually, on the tiny road to Dowlaw Farm, the property on which the ruins of Fast Castle stand.

Dowlaw Farm

The owners are kind enough to allow parking and provide some direction across their land to the castle.

I have a whole post on Fast Castle at this link, but I've posted a few pictures here too just to round out this post.  I've tried to choose photos that are different from what I have up on the Fast Castle post, so as not to be too repetitive.  Notice, the weather is looking better than it had been  .  .  .  whew!!

Across these hills we walked through farmland and then heather and then bracken fern and then grassland as we made our way to the ruins.  And then the sun really shown, and the promontory which is the site of the castle really stood out, and joy flooded my heart!

We made it!!!!!  And we got in somewhere around 3 hours' worth of time here and explored every inch of this place!!!  (Thankfully in these northern climes, there are more hours of daylight during the summer months than I'm used to at home, so we did have a nice, extended time of daylight.)

Toward the end of our time there, the most beautiful, full rainbow appeared in the sky.  It was incredibly vibrant, which a picture just cannot do justice to.  It lasted longer than any rainbow I had ever seen.  We could see both ends of it too -- one here near the castle and one over Dowlaw Farm.  David made a good point when I shared with him later about this day.  He told me that if we had arrived earlier we would not have seen this rainbow.  Very true, very true.

And then it was back over the grassland, bracken fern, heather and farmland towards our car.  On the way we saw the Fast Castle Cottages which are part of Dowlaw Farm. You can stay if you want to spend time near Fast Castle.  They are pretty remote, but I wouldn't mind staying here some time (but since I'm not going to drive in the UK, I'm afraid the taxicab fare would be pretty pricey from the nearest town!  No bus service or train service is going to get you here.)

And back on the road to get to our hotel to set out for Hadrian's Wall and Vindolanda tomorrow.

I realized my hands were itching and looked down to notice that the stinging nettles had gotten me there as well as on both of my legs, but it was still totally worth it, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

We saw some lovely skies as we drove back down south to the Red Lion Inn in Newbrough, England.  Look at that moon below, over the hill, and with a little bit of pink in the clouds - just lovely.

By the time we arrived it was completely dark and had been for some time.  It had been a very long day - between our lengthy misadventure, the physical demands of hiking to and around Fast Castle, and the long late drive on narrow winding roads in the pitch dark - and so we settled into this corner of the inn and had a refreshing beverage before calling it a night!

For me, this was both the hardest/worst day of the trip and also the most wonderful/amazing day of the trip.  If you check out my post on Fast Castle, you'll see what was so amazing!