Back to England 20 Sept

Continuing our full circle theme we head for Hadrien’s Wall once again, but not before we dropped in on New Lenark . New Lenark, still in Scotland, is a restored mill village and has World Heritage Site status. It was essentially built by a guy who wanted to make money out of cotton in the early 1800s but became a social first when his son-in-law took over the business and insisted that the people working and living in New Lenark had the opportunity of education and social activities. Unfortunately the village which is set in a valley has the mother of all hills to climb to get back to the visitor’s carpark!

Climbing was definitely a theme for the day. After the boys visited the Roman Military Museum (and I rearranged my sock cupboard in the MH), we drove to the Roman Quarry where we were told the best of Hadrian’s Wall would be within reach. What they failed to tell us was that we would have to climb out of the quarry and up a mountain of a hill spur to actually touch the wall. We took up the challenge and with a bit of humour, relating mostly to the sheep that we passed on the path, we climbed and stood on the roman wall built 2000 odd years before us (give or take a couple of hundred years). The Northumberland farmland was the vista below us.