England In Photos: Cumbria - Part IV - Brough Castle

Brough Castle, located in Brough, Cumbria, England, is a castle built on the ruins of an old Roman Fort (Fort of Vertris). It is one of England's first stone castles and was built in the 1090's. It was rebuilt in the 1180's after an attack of England by William the Lion, a Scottish King, when all but it's keep (the most protected part of the castle) was destroyed. The castle has been handed down to one other owner before passing to the Clifford family who occupied the castle from 1268-1521 until the castle was ruined by a fire. After 140 years Lady Anne Clifford  and came under the protection of the Ministry of Works since 1920's.

We visited the castle twice in the same day, so some pictures are darker than others. It was an amazing thing, and the first castle we have been inside.  Castles are fantastic, and interesting to us. To learn something interesting about castle washroom/toilets make sure you take a look at the final picture in this entry.

Brough Castle ruins, taken March 18, 2012 by us.

From the inside looking out

Stainmore Pass, view from the remains of the kitchen of Brough Castle

Part of the square keep of the castle ruins

What we can only assume this is the remains of the garderobe (a medieval castle washroom)
A square room fitted with a stone or wooden bench, sometimes up to as many as 4-6 hole in it.
The chutes (the square holes you see) of the garderobe provided an exit for waste which often led
to the castle moat, or grounds.
A 'garderobe' is also the name for a cloakroom/wardrobe, even for the clothing of guest clothing
(which in some cases doubled as the washroom) because they believed that that ammonia
from the waste protected clothing from moths, lice and other community spread insects/bugs.

More info on Brough Castle: http://www.visitcumbria.com/pen/brough-castle.htm

England In Photos: Cumbria - Part III

We got a new camera this past weekend, the one we had been using wasn't ours and had broken pixels in the viewer...but never mind that. We took a trip to Mersea Island to take photos this past Saturday, which failed due to confusing road diversions; after nearly three hours of a trip that should have taken 20 minutes we got to the island only to find the camera wasn't working, even though we had tested it when we got in the car. So we ended up accomplishing nothing, and only taking one photo with our cellphone, and returning to one of the stores to exchange it. Nearly ten hours later we were frustrated.

Mersea Island, tide out, March 21, 2012

Thankfully we have a backlog of photos from the weekend prior, when we went to visit Kerry in Cumbria.

Part three of the photo series of Cumbria, England.

These are photos of the River Eden Valley, with Mount Ida across the the countryside, as well as the surrounding are just outside of Kirby Stephen. They represent two separate days.

Following this series of photos we'll have one more set...because castles! And history. Because it's more fun to know what your looking at with a little information. Or is that just us?

England In Photos: Cumbria - Part II

247 photos taken over a day and a half in Cumbria...not counting the ones on our smart phone (which takes awesome photos, so they totally count)...

Map of the Pennines (the highlighted square is where we

spent the weekend).

For photos of the villages of Appleby and Kirby Stephen
see the previous post of photos.

So out of those 247 plus we chose about 91 photos...looks like there will be at least another photo entry after this.

This entry will focus on the time we spent on the top of Mount Ida on Sunday afternoon, while we are still able to access the recall on it, and the walk down. A glorious day...it was a bit windy. Kerry says it's a nice place to go on hot days because the "breeze" keeps the small flies, which are common in the valley, at bay. If she means the ones we walked through on the way down then we can see why she likes to go up there.

The top of Mount Ida is off limits to most people, but Kerry's husband works with farmers and so has free access to the area. We are lucky...sometimes. So, after a ride up the mountain in his Land Rover, passing through closed gates, we stopped at the final one and hiked up the side of the mossy exterior of Mount Ida. Even at the high elevation there were boggy wet spots with long grass  in the crags of the terrain. We were struck by the amount of wild rabbits zig zagging everywhere. Apparently they are a problem, and part of the mountain that contains limestone has been fenced off to keep them from destroying the flowers and summer growth, we're guessing that protects the natural limestone through the summer. Kerry's husband walked alone the fence placing big rocks over the holes that the rabbits had started working on digging.

Mount Ida is a mountain summit which is part of the Pennines (North) that runs through the county of Cumbria, England. The Pennines has the nickname of "The Backbone of England" because it runs down the center of Northern England, like a backbone, separating the East and West sides of Northern England.

From it's highest point (around 1500-1600 ft) you can see Eden Valley, moss covered limestone and rocks, villages, castles, rabbits, dry stone walls, indicative of Cumbria, crisscrossing across the peaks and valleys of the landscape...immense beauty.

Photos of Eden Valley from the top of Mount Ida, and the walk back to the valley.

See that little red dot almost dead center? That's Kerry's son climbing the side of the peak.
This photo was taken for depth perspective.

Kerry giving us the layout of the land. Look at that cutie! We adore her.

Government protected limestone field.

Kerry's husband heading back down the hill, leaving Kerry, James, and
us to walk, and talk, and take in the light of dusk across the valley 

For more info:
Cumbria Eden Valley: http://www.eden-in-cumbria.co.uk/edenvalley.html
The Pennine Way: http://www.thepennineway.co.uk/