Just Roman around

25 miles (40km)

No panniers again - what a treat! And another sunny day, too! (Sadly this is meant to change tomorrow - and the clouds have already started coming in, this afternoon.)

Today we headed west from Haltwhistle. Not quite as hilly as yesterday, which was nice, and we got to ride along the Wall - or the line of the Wall - for a significant chunk of it.

Top of the world?

Our first stop was Lanercost Priory.


There's not a whole of Wall left near this priory, established in the 1160s, but the buildings of the priory have some awfully nice dressed stone - some of which have Latin inscriptions on them.... After the Dissolution, the Priory was turned into a manor by the Dacre family, nicely fortified against the Reivers. The community still uses part of the priory as their community hall, which they think makes it the oldest still in use in the country.


The undercroft

From Lanercost we headed back along the Wall to Birdoswald (beerdOZwld, I discovered, not BEERDozwld, as I had been pronouncing it).


Defenders of the empire

Another Roman fort - this one housed up to 1000 men at one stage, and is a lot less excavated than either of the places we visited yesterday. It too looks a lot more interesting in the sun, rather than in the rain (and, ahem, having gone in through the gates rather than over the fence... it was closed last time we were here). Once again we were trying to figure out which bits have been reconstructed/conserved; it's hard to figure out, in some areas. I'm still trying to figure out how much I care.

As well as the ancient and modern, we also had a dose of the very modern: as we were riding, two jets seemed to be trying out their banking maneuvers directly overhead and in the general vicinity. It was very, very cool watching them.

Finally, we finished the day having a pint at one of the many local pubs in Haltwhistle, at which we discovered that not only are there inter-pub (and inter-town and county) pool and darts competitions, but you can also compete in quoits and dominoes. And leek-growing.