Scotland England and the Wall: keswick

Showing posts with label keswick. Show all posts

Monday, June 15, 2009

Red Squirrels?

Shelley and I are sitting here in the bar below where we are staying having a bowl of olives with olive oil, garlic and chili and drinking shiraz. We thought we'd share the sign we saw this morning with you.

What is so special about red squirrels I had to ask? Shelley who is my source of all knowledge reminded me that grey squirrels have been pushing out the native red squirrels and of course Beatrix Potter lived close to here. Her story about Nutkin squirrel and his brother Twinkeberry remind us that red squirrels are precious.

We never saw one.

(For the record Shelley did not remember the names Nutkin nor Twinkleberry but we do have access to Wikipedia)

A Very English Town

Despite being very Scottish, Edinburgh is a very international city. The street is full of tourists from all over the world and you hear a a chorus of differant languages. Walking Hadrian's Wall we met Australians, Germans, Dutch, a Finnish couple, plenty of Brits. We were the only Canadians we came across and we one person in our group was from New York City.

The Lake District must be where the English come on vacation. You do hear the occasional accent but, it is fairly rare.

So Keswick is a very English town. Last night as we walked to dinner the locals we lining up for their fish & chip take away.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

It is Pronounced Kisick

This morning we said our goodbyes and headed off our separate directions.

Shelley and I caught the bus to Keswick where we are staying at the Cafe/Bar 26. After about a 30 minute drive through pasture land and through small villages we started to get into the mountains.

I thought Keswick was a quite little town with not much going on. It turns out to be quite the bustling little community. We wandered around a bit a grabbed a bite to eat after arriving. It reminds us of Banff or perhaps an Adirondack village with a British flavour. Lots of gift shops and an outdoor store on every corner.

We are staying at the Cafe/Bar 26 which has rooms upstairs and good lunches and breakfast in th bar downstairs.

Hadrian's Wall Background

Hadrian's Wall was built following a visit by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 122 AD. He was quite concerned about raiders from the north. The Roman's were experiencing military difficulties in Britain and he was eager to impose order. He also most likely saw the building of such an impressive wall as a symbol of Roman power in occupied Britain. It was constructed to keep Roman Britain safe from hostile attacks from the Picts. It took somewhere between four to six years to complete.

It was the northernmost boundary of the Roman Empire at that time. The wall stretches from Newcastle, Wallsend-on-Tyne in the east to Bowness on the Solway Firth in the west.

The wall was 73 miles or 117 kilometres long, about 8 to10 feet wide, and 15 feet high. In addition to the wall, the Romans built a system of small forts called milecastles which housed by 60 men every Roman mile along its entire length, with smaller towers every 1/3 mile. Sixteen larger forts holding from 500 to 1000 troops were built into the wall, with large gates on the north face. To the south of the wall the Romans dug a wide ditch called a vallum with six foot high earth banks.

The width and height of Hadrian's Wall was dependent on whatever construction materials which were available nearby. East of River Irthing the wall was made from squared stone and measured 3 metres (9.7 ft) wide and five to six metres (16–20 ft) high, while west of the river the wall was made from turf and measured 6 metres (20 ft) wide and 3.5 metres (11.5 ft) high. This does not include the wall's ditches, berms and forts. The central section measured eight Roman feet wide (7.8 ft or 2.4 m) on a 10-foot (3.0 m) base. Some parts of this section of the wall survive to a height of 7 or 8 feet