Carlisle and Carlisle Castle.

I couldn't possibly visit Carlisle without taking some time out to visit the castle and the town.

Extract from Britain's Top 25 Castles concerning Carlisle Castle, written but yet to be published..

The caste is situated on some high land on a narrow neck of land where the River Caldew joins the River Eden. The Romans built a turf and timber fort here in 72AD and established the town of Luguvalium.

Fifty years later Hadrian’s Wall was built just to the north. William II also known as William Rufus (1056 – 1100), third son of William the Conqueror defeated the local warlord and built a motte and bailey on the same site as the Roman’s had used in 1092. It was Henry I who visited Carlisle in 1122 and ordered a castle to be built and hence the large square keep that can be seen today.

The castle was the principal fortress of England’s north western border with Scotland. It changed hands frequently and was lost to David I of Scotland after Henry I’s death in 1135. The castle has suffered more sieges than any other castle in Britain with Scottish armies besieging the castle seven times between 1173 and 1461. A curtain wall was added to enclose the inner ward. Due to the shape of the site. it has a triangular shape. A large wall was added to create the outer ward and enclose an even larger area.

Henry VIII had divorced his wife, dissolved the monasteries and broke with Rome and had become internationally isolated. The threat from Scotland increased with their renewed treaty of alliance with France. Therefore Henry VIII ordered more defences for Carlisle Castle. The keep was lowered to make a gun platform, the inner ward walls were strengthened and the half-moon battery below the gate into the inner ward was added in 1542 which gave a commanding field of fire across the outer ward.

With the Act of Union in 1603, Scotland and England were united under a single monarch. But the sieges didn’t stop. Carlisle supported the king and was garrisoned by Royalists. After the defeat of the king’s army at Marston Moor in July 1644, a roundhead army arrived to besiege the castle in October 1644. The castle held on for nearly a year until news reached them of the king’s defeat at the Battle of Naseby in June 1645. There was little hope of any support arriving to lift the siege and the castle surrendered.

The castle’s tenth and final siege and the longest ever siege of a castle in Britain occurred during the second Jacobite rising of 1745. This was a last ditched attempt by loyal supporters with assistance from France to restore the exiled Stuarts to the throne. Prince Charles Edward Stuart also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, led his army south and after five days captured the castle in November 1745. The Jacobite army marched south and reached Derby. They had met little resistance. The bulk of the British army was fighting in Europe during the War of the Austrian Succession 1740–1748 and the French hoped that this would either be a distraction or at best make the British pull out the conflict.

The Jacobite army found little local support for their cause. Several English battalions had been recalled from Europe to deal with this threat. The Jacobite army saw the writing on the wall and retreated. In December it retreated over the border into Scotland and left a garrison of 400 in Carlisle Castle to hold off the English pursuit which was led by the Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, the third son of George II.

The Duke of Cumberland reached Carlisle and the final siege started. The old castle was no match for modern artillery and after just nine days the castle was captured. Some of the garrison were imprisoned and 31 were executed.

The Duke of Cumberland followed the Jacobites as they retreated to Inverness. They were finally defeated at Culloden in April 1746. This was the last battle on Scottish soil and the final defeat of the Jacobite cause. Prince Charles Edward Stuart fled with a price on his head and after traveling through the country eventually left the country aboard the French frigate L'Heureux, arriving in France in September. The Prince's Cairn marks the traditional spot on the shores of Loch nan Uamh in Lochaber from which he made his final departure from Scotland.

The castle was used to house Napoleonic prisoners of war. Various adaptions were implemented to make the castle suitable for a garrison until they moved out in 1959. Much of these additions have been removed to reveal a more authentic medieval castle. There is a lot to see with a wealth of history and must get into the top 25 castles.

One of a mirror image of a pair of towers built in 1812 either side of the southern entrance through the city walls into the city to replace the similar towers built by Henry VIII in 1542. 

William, Earl of Lonsdale, a prominent local politician and landowner outside the right hand tower of the entrance into the city.

A traditional stone building on the corner of Lonsdale Street, now a bank.

The old city hall in market square with its cross to the right of the picture.

The Crown and Mitre Hotel overlooking the Market Square, but not my hotel as I had booked into one at half the price but a couple of kilometres walk away.

I visited the old local covered market, built in the 19th century...

                                         

...the front entrance...

...details of the roof...

...the side entrance... and still magnificent to see...

...but even teh back entrance is still sculptured with Corinthinian yopped colums eitehr side of teh entrance.

The east facade of the cathedral.

The southern entrance to the cathedral.

An internal view of the east window.

                                         

                    

Some of the magnificent organ pipes as seen from the altar.

                   

And yet more pipes on the other side, the larger and deeper bass note pipes.

The south side of the abbey church next to the cathedral. 

Part of the city walls erected by Henry VIII that abut the castle.

                                        

A view of the keep.

The southern entrance into the castle.

A view of the city walls from the inside that run up tp and abut the castle walls.

If you have followed the Hadeian's Wall walk blog and all the photos of Roman walls, you will not need me to stay that this is a section of Hadrian's wall that abuts the castle walls with later additions added on top. 

Two mosaic covered concrete armchairs in the gardens that surround the castle.

Some of the northern walls' buttresses.

The entrance into the inner citadel defended by a half moon battery.

The Museum of Cumbria Military History located within the castle complex.

The castle is still technically an army base so some of the buildings are not open to visitors. All of them are named after famous battles such as Alma, Gallipoli, Ypres and Arnhan and I had both recognised them and had been to the site of teh battle all except one, the Battle Of Arroyo in 1811 during the Peninsula Wars.

A howitzer at the corner of the Alma building housing the museum and the Arnhem building to the left.

And just opposite the castle entrance is the Tullie Museum for those that have not yet had enough of history. 

Hadrian's Wall, Carlisle to Bowness on Solway facing the Solway Firth

 Hadrian's Wall, Carlisle to Bowness on Solway

A view form the Memorial Bridge up the River Eden that flows through the centre of Carlisle and connects Rickerby Park with the city centre. The Hadrian's Path runs along side of the river for a few miles although there is no wall or ditch to be seen along the whole section to Bowness on Solway.

Hadrian's Wall, Walton to Carlisle

 Hadrian's Wall, Walton to Carlisle

I started in Brampton which was as near to the Hadrian's Wall that I could get to by public transport. I had hoped to get a taxi from there to the wall but one wasn't available. I could order a taxi from a nearby village but I would be charged for the tie it would take them to get from their village to Brampton as well as the three miles to Walton and it would take time and I could walk half the distance by the time they got there so I saved my money and walked to the start.

I was morning and the sun was behind the statue so its not a great photo but it is a statue of Hadrian. I didn't know it at the time but I would see no more Roman walls, ditches of earthworks. There were marked on the maps but there was little to see on the ground, only the sites of turrets and castles and the line of where the wall used to stand.

I walked through Newtown, a pretty village with a green and flowers planted around the base of a road sign in the village.

A road sign with flowers.

On a barn wall were the trophies awarded to Newtown and White Flatts for various awards gained over a five year period.

I have been walking in UK for years but this is the first time that I have seen a footpath re-directed with a map in the centre of the photo explaining the changes and near the top of the post, a small green sign saying the change has been approved by legal order.

According to the map, there was a tarn just off to the right of the trail. I passed through Bleatarn Farm (tarn is of course local language for lake and there are no lakes in the Lake District as they are all called tarns, meres or waters). I kept looking that way but saw no water, It was a former quarry and in its heyday provided stone for the wall, and later aggregate but has now been flooded.

I had seen several of these milestones on roads but this was the first one that was not obscured by long grass.

In Linstock was the Women's Institute building, a well maintained but large wooden shed which is of little interest in itself but it was the sign in the gardens surrounding the building...

...so Newtown and White Flatts have some nearby competition.

The trail passes through a small village and wanders alongside the River Eden.

An odd tower in the middle of a field.

The War Memorial in Rickerby Park alongside of the River Eden.

A view of the Iron Memorial Bridge built in 1922 over the River Eden to connect the park to the city centre. I had finished my walk for the day.

As I made my way to the bus stop to get to my overnigh accomadation, I passed some of the flood protections built by the city to prevent reoccurrences of the devastating floods.

Hadrian's Wall, Corvoran to Walton

 Hadrian's Wall, Corvoran to Walton

I started the day's walk up a slope. There was no wall but just a massive ditch and earthwork.

                                        

I walked down into the ditch and even after more than 1,900 years, it was still deep and I couldn'r see out over the edge. Not a good photo but it gives an idea.

 

Some large fungi on a tree.

One of the ruined walls of Thirlmere Castle.

Thr next village was Gilsland. Overlooking the route are some new houses which have solar power and double glazing as standard which  together with insulation should be the modern building code for all new builds rather than trying to retrofit them.

Gilsland is famous for its Popping Stone where Sir Walter Scotti popped the question to his future wife and less well known for its Pultross Burn Milecastle, a larger than average sized milecastle.

This is an artists impression...

...this was the reality...

...and another view from the opposite direction.

At Willowford the wall marches across the bottom of a valley and up the hill opposite but the path takes a short cut diagonally across a field to a kissing gate. Note the farmer on the red 4x4 quad bike.

I followed a sheep track, thinking that it was the track, looking for the gate but it was obscured by bushes. It was a big field and the sheep track continued through an open gate on a diagonal. I looked for the gate but saw none and only realised I was off track when I reached the far end and found no exit. And it was a very big field, more moor than carefully tended pasture.

I wasn't the only stray trekker, two girls that I had chatted to at the milecastle had followed me and I waved and shouted at them to turn back. 

The farmer on the quad bike had come over and I apologised for walking on his land but he used to people going the wrong way and didn't exactly laugh but had a twinkle in his eye and said that the stile was three quarters of a mile back that way, pointing back the way I had just come and it had been uphill all the way, a serious issue when on foot for a log walk and carrying a day pack. It added time and distance to the schedule. 

It was a Sunday and I had had a late start as breakfast was 8am, not the 7am I had expected. Also it was 40 minute drive from my accommodation to the start of the days walk and I had already made a navigation error, missing a sign, not on a post but nailed to a gate that you would not see walking forward as it was behind you.

One of the Willowford Turrets of which all along the wall, there are two between each milecastle.

This is a view of the wall as it dips towards the River Irthing, just behind the trees. The wall crossed the river on a three span arched stone bridge and three bridges had been built but washed away or demolished to be upgraded. Now there is a single, modern iron span to take walkers across the river and up the steep bank on the far side.

The day's walk, except for the start, had a large proportion of almost continuous stone wall running alongside of the trail and much of it at a reasonable height rather than just a few courses at ground level or overgrown but this is over two metres.

A picture of me to show the height of the wall.

The next major fort on the wall was Birdoswald, run by English Heritage. Entrance for a single adult was £11 and I had seen plenty of other stones set on other stones, some no higher than your knee. 

I had already seen several ruins and glimpsing over the surrounding fences and through the gift shop windows, this seemed to be no different to the ruins that I had seen over the last few days. I am sure that it would be a great place to visit if it was your first or second ruin but I had seen a lot just recently. I walked on to Banks.

En route I came across an unusual stile and there were several on the route like this. It had stone steps up to about three quarters of the height of the wall and then a gap at the top of the wall protected by a little gate with a large metal spring to ensure that it always shuts after someone had passed through.

It is a steep walk down to the centre of Banks and an equally steep climb out of the village but on a good day, visiblr from here is the tower and ruins of the Lanercost priory, built with stone from the walls, just a few miles south and in the distance, the Pennines are visible and to the west, the viewer can make out the 12 storey, 44 metres tall civic centre in Carlisle and the 13th tallest building the UK to the west.

Between Banks and Walton are several long straight sections of wall and trail and the clouds had been blown away and it was a hot, sunny day making walking hard walk but if you are nt driving, there is always the Old Vicarage B&B and brewery for a lovely cooling pint!