Abbotsford, The Border, Hadrian’s Wall, York Minster...and Ghosts!

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We pulled out at 8:00 on the dot, heading south towards the Scottish /English Border and missing the 12 folks who ended their part of the tour yesterday. Our first stop was at Sir Walter Scott’s home, Abbotsford. The architecture was a big surprise...it looked like a palace and the tour we took was excellent.

Abbotsford is a historic country house in the Scottish Borders, near Melrose, on the south bank of the River Tweed. It was formerly the residence of historical novelist and poet, Sir Walter Scott. It is a Category A Listed Building.

”He first built a small villa and named it Abbotsford, creating the name from a ford nearby where previously abbots of Melrose Abbey used to cross the river. Scott then built additions to the house and made it into a mansion, building into the walls many sculptured stones from ruined castles and abbeys of Scotland. In it he gathered a large library, a collection of ancient furniture, arms and armour, and other relics and curiosities, especially connected with Scottish history, notably the Celtic Torrs Pony-cap and Horns and the Woodwrae Stone, all now in the Museum of Scotland.”

From Abbotsford, we once again added south through the beautiful Scottish countryside. We are in the middle of the Fall Foliage season, and it is spectacular! Our next stop was at the Scottish/English Border where we got out and took pictures. It was very cool and blustery. Onward from there, making VERY good time...until we didn’t! Today is our longest day as far as miles to drive and things to see. Unfortunately, we came to a road block for a damaged piece of road that was only 1/2 a mile long but we had to turn around—Martin is a fantastic driver, backing this huge bus around like it was a VW Beetle!—and headed miles back up the road to get on to our destination.

We had a major (for me!) stop at Hadrian’s Wall. I was thrilled because I remember studying about it in high school.

“Hadrian's Wall (Latin: Vallum Aelium), also called the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or Vallum Hadriani in Latin, was a defensive fortification in the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. It ran from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea, and was the northern limit of the Roman Empire, immediately north of which were the lands of the northern Ancient Britons, including the Picts.

It had a stone base and a stone wall. There were milecastles with two turrets in between. There was a fort about every five Roman miles. From north to south, the wall comprised a ditch, wall, military way and vallum, another ditch with adjoining mounds. It is thought the milecastles were staffed with static garrisons, whereas the forts had fighting garrisons of infantry and cavalry. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts.

A significant portion of the wall still stands and can be followed on foot along the adjoining Hadrian's Wall Path. The largest Roman artifact anywhere, it runs a total of 73 miles (117.5 kilometres) in northern England. Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major ancient tourist attractions. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. In comparison, the Antonine wall, thought by some to be based on Hadrian's wall (the Gillam hypothesis), was not declared a World Heritage site until 2008.”

We made it to York around three in the afternoon...today was a long driving day for sure. We had a short time to quickly see the highlights of this Medieval church and town. Both were spectacular! I am running out of time to write much as we have an evening meal to go to and then a Ghost Walk. I will try to get some pictures in of this afternoon so I can go ahead and post this evening. I had WiFi on the coach for the first part of the day but not the latter, so it slowed me down on the writing part. I have added in some info from the internet since I don‘t have time today to do it myself. We are now at our hotel and will be here for two nights before going to London.

“The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is the mother church for the Diocese of York and the Province of York. It is run by a dean and chapter, under the Dean of York. The title "minster" is attributed to churches established in the Anglo-Saxon period as missionary teaching churches, and serves now as an honorific title. Services in the minster are sometimes regarded as on the High Church or Anglo-Catholic end of the Anglican continuum.

The minster has a very wide Decorated Gothic nave and chapter house, a Perpendicular Gothic quire and east end and Early English North and South transepts. The nave contains the West Window, constructed in 1338, and over the Lady Chapel in the east end is the Great East Window (finished in 1408), the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. In the north transept is the Five Sisters Window, each lancet being over 53 feet (16.3 m) high. The south transept contains a rose window, while the West Window contains a heart-shaped design colloquially known as The Heart of Yorkshire.“

We had a great evening out at The Black Swan, and then a walking Ghost Tour of old York. It was a lot of fun, but this has been a very long day. We haven’t proof read this yet but I was able to post LOTS of pictures. Hope you aren’t bored by the large number. John will proof it tomorrow and if he finds any glaring mistakes, I will let you know. We will have a train ride tomorrow through the Yorkshire countryside which should be fun. Right now, we are heading to bed. This tour stuff isn’t for sissies for sure!

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Photos

Samuel Owen Shade
Couldn’t resist...our great grandchild is just too dang cute and we had to share!

Penelope Ann on the way!
Our soon to be second great grand!

Comments

[Judy Hooker]

Love it
Gave me laugh today!

[Betty Shanks]

Samuel Owen Shade
He is precious; I think he looks like John.

[D. Crip]

Ghosts!
Oh, after writing you about our York ghost tour years ago, I now see that you had one planned as well. I hope nothing cold blew up John's pant leg, ha! Isn't York a totally neat place?

[Mike]

York Minster
Another beautiful cathedral. Are you going to Westminster when you are in London? At the end of this trip, it would interesting to get your observations on all the cathedrals and castles you saw. What would you consider must-sees.

[DWLPtravelkids]

Going to be hard to do...
I suspect we will see several Cathedrals in London and I am looking forward to it. So far, they have all been spectacular in their own ways. York Minster is different from any of the others we have seen because of the stone it is built in. I think our bus guide said it was Yorkshire stone, but wouldn’t swear to that. At any rate, the color of the stones is a light, creamy color—not stained at all which, to me, makes it look like that huge edifice could almost float up into the air, it really is an amazing building.

[Lora Carbary]

Loved the cute pics of Great Grands
Loved all the pictures and especially John by the sign and your great grandson so adorable and soon new little girl. Very blessed indeed. Safe Travels enjoying immensely.