Cumbria

posted in: fun, hiking, travel | 1
hills, cows, gate

We came in to Carlisle train station (after a short trip from Edinburgh) and were greeted by Eamon and Lucy!! They drove us back to Rose Cottage, which is Eamon’s childhood home and where his dad lives. Over rolling green fields and past hedgerows, out into lands of wide open pastures and huge craggy hills and lots of sheep and cows. Despite all the bustle of the upcoming wedding, John and the whole clan welcomed us into their cozy house and wonderfully warm family.

dinner with the bourkes bonfire

todo el mundo aca en Cumbria caravan: before

flowers for planting garden

wedding preparations at Rose Cottage

Rose Cottage is in Whitrigg, which is a tiny farm town that has a lot more livestock than people, and hasn’t changed too much in the past few thousand years. It’s next to Torpenhow, which is pronounced more like “trapenna.” Supposedly the name kind of means “Hill” three times; Tor and Pen and How each meant something like “Hill” in different ancient languages, Saxon and Briton and something else. Whitrigg is right outside the Lakes District National Park, in Cumbria, which is in the north of England. We were pretty intensely impressed with the sense of being in history all the time and everywhere. Things are just so much older there.

Mike had work to do that week, since he works from home anyway, he was able to get online and work just about like normal, though the time difference made it a little awkward. I got to help with wedding prep, gardening and tidying up the beautiful garden, and painting a mural on the side of an old white caravan in the yard! The neighbors’ cows kept me company while I painted. Each day we went out for walks around the fields, admiring the stone walls and the views to Solway Firth and to Scotland beyond.

sheep farm

mike little blue flowers

sheep in the road sunshine

around Whitrigg

scotland in the distance

fields of Cumbria, seen from Rose Cottage. and that’s Scotland in the distance.

Each day more and more friends and family arrived at Rose cottage, coming from all parts of the world, by train, plane, car and bicycle! Friends from Argentina came for the wedding too, and we hadn’t seen them since we moved back to Maine. It was amazing to be with them again, and to speak Spanish with friends again.

One day Eamon and Lucy took is out for an expedition to an ancient stone circle (I think it was Castlerigg) where we watched dusk settle over the mountains.

stone circle

stone circle

stone circle, Castlerigg

And they took us to the pub with the best sticky toffee pudding. We’ve heard a lot about sticky toffee pudding so we were really looking forward to it, and it definitely lived up to expectations. Buttery and sweet and cakey.

The Old Crown STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING!

The Old Crown

sticky toffee pudding at The Old Crown

One day we went with Eamon’s sister in to Keswick, which is sort of the tourist center of the Lakes District, it’s a pretty little town filled with hiking shops and has the nearest big grocery store. There was a farmer’s market and we got freshly made sausages and cheeses.

keswick

And then as more and more friends and family arrived, colorful tents sprouted in the field, everything at Rose Cottage started to come together into a most beautiful array and it was time for the wedding party!

Eamon and Lucy ribbons on the tree

signpost John and Anna wooden crate

picnic mirror

tea cups flower cake

Mike and Lizzie cute wellies! mel with grandkids

the caravan painting the caravan at rose cottage

Eamon & Lucy’s wedding party

It was a spectacularly pretty and joyful day. Lots more pictures here.

Next day was sunny and we walked over to nearby Ireby with Argentine friends. We walked on the empty road into the little town and had some ales at the pub, sat in the sunshine and looked around.

walking to Ireby the pub in ireby

Ireby

Ireby market stone

Ireby

We found this ancient-looking carved stone in the village center; later John told us that it was very ancient indeed, and once (in medieval times?) signified that the village had permission to hold a sanctioned public market.

After we finished all our ales and crisps, our friends walked back to Whitrigg and we walked onwards to Uldale, enjoying the quiet road, beautiful countryside and sunshine. When we got to Uldale we stopped in at a pretty tea-house situated in what used to be the local one-room schoolhouse.

queen anne's lace school house tea room

mike and tree Uldale church yard

tea-room

Uldale

After tea we started back home; on the road back to Whitrigg we bumped in to Eamon and Chris, who were out for a drive and/or looking for us. They brought us to see this pretty magical place, an unused 12th-century church in the middle of a cow pasture in Ireby. We stood inside in quiet for a few minutes while sheep grazed outside the door. Eamon said it’s still used sometimes for events, performances and poetry and such, though it hasn’t been used as a church since the sixties or seventies. Outside we found beautiful gravestones, some from the 1700’s and some that looked older.

old stone church

eamon in the old church door

old church, chris and eamon

graves at the old stone church in memory

Ireby Old Church

When we got back to Rose Cottage, everyone walked up the hill to watch the sun set over the fields and Solway Firth.

john comes to see the sunset sunsetters watching the sun set over solway firth

watching the sun set over solway firth

Next day Lizzie enthusiastically organized an expedition up Scafell Pike, which is the highest peak in England. We made a group of five: one englishwoman, one north american (me), two argentines, and a frenchman. It was a really gorgeous climb in excellent weather, even though my fellow climbers were pretty fast and I felt a bit old and slow, like I was trying to keep up with a bunch of mountain goats! I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go all the way up to the tippity top, but in the end I did and it was spectacular. There were sheep grazing alongside the trail, almost all the way up to the summit, and lots of spring lambs clambering on the cliffs.

farm hiking up scafell pike

hiking up scarfell pike

hiking up scafell pike hiking up scarfell pike hiking up scafell pike rock lines

high-altitude sheep

scafell pike panorama

this is the highest place in England

hiking up Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England

The hike was mostly all through open green pastures, with loose rocks and occasionally mud underfoot. There were a few spots we had to scramble up vertical rocky bits, and a few spots where the land plateaued into a flat easy stroll before getting steep again. Near the top the grass and sheep disappeared and it was just scree and rock and wind. The summit was very rocky and very windy, and we could see a million miles in every direction. The summit elevation is 3209 feet.

Our last few days in Cumbria we spent mostly strolling and relaxing with friends inside the national park. One day Mike and I took a long and leisurely walk around Buttermere Lake, surrounded by mountains on all sides.

the neighborhood

a tree in buttermere farmhouse

buttermere path eliza's bridge buttermere

pontura

friends on the rock sheep skull

thistles and hills the kirkstile pub in loweswater

moonrise

And then one by one, friends got on trains and planes and buses back to Argentina and Venezuela and South Africa, and we got on a plane to Spain, along with Pontura and Leo. All together we had 10 days in England, and they were so intensely magical and green and happy.

More Cumbria pictures here.

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