20240524 Friday, May 24, 2024; Edinburgh to England’s Lake District
Breakfast at the Motel One seemed a whole lot less hectic than yesterday, although we did get an earlier start today. The rain had let up so we could walk from the Motel One to the Q-Park where there car was situated about a 15 minute walk from old town to new town. We took one last look back at the Old Town and then headed forward past a statue of Wellington to the car.
The roads heading out of Edinburgh down the west side of the British Isle were pretty decent. For the most part, there was a painted center line and at least 10’ of pavement on either side. There were stretches of nice multilane divided motorway which was vastly easier to drive on than the unpainted 12’ wide bit of twisty pavement we drove north on from York to Edinburgh.
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The country side was rolling hills and valleys with lots of sheep. We couldn’t tell when we passed from Scotland back into England on the motorway. It wasn’t really marked, but as we headed into the the town of Moffat, we were back on those narrow unmarked roads.
Moffat was a wayside located about half way between London and Edinburgh and Glasgow so it was a natural stopping place for mail and passenger coaches. Someone had discovered a sulfur mineral spring in the vicinity which formed the basis of a mineral spa resort during the 1800’s. They piped the sulfur smelling mineral water to the town hall and a huge 300 room hotel had sprung up. It eventually burned down and the hydropathic fad faded leading to a decline in the town. Railroad service between London and Edinburgh did manage to keep a stream of tourists and holiday seekers from both ends of the rail line.
Today, it is a modest town which boasts is home to the world’s narrowest hotel according to the Guiness Book of World Records, The Star Hotel.
It is famous for Moffett toffees. We picked up a small bag to sample later when we meet up with our kids in Lyon.
There is a small but very interesting little museum in Moffat, staffed by some very enthusiastic historians. They had exhibits on Reivers, raiders who inhabited the borderlands between England and Scotland in the Middle Ages. These were lawless times and people who wanted to survive built towers like mini castles where they could barricade themselves for protection from Reivers. We had seen mentions of such tower houses at Hadrian’s wall.
There was an interesting exhibit on the Merlin Trail, and the history of the legend of Merlin. This had its origins in Scotland, but was adopted and modified by authors as the stories spread to incorporate localities to increase interest in the legends.
Perhaps the most odd and interesting exhibit was one on the Moffat Ravine Murders. In 1935, a passerby discovered a sack of dismembered body parts that had been chucked off a bridge in Moffat. This lead to an extensive investigation considered the birth of modern forensics- CSI Moffat. This included the first use of etymology to date the time of death and superimposition of a skull X-ray over a studio photo of a missing person to identify the victim in the absence of dental evidence. The murderer turned out to be a surgeon who became jealous and murdered his wife and maid in Lancaster. He had removed the teeth and dismembered the bodies to make identification more difficult, but all murderers make mistakes. The story of the investigation would make a good movie plot.
We continued our journey south visiting an ancient stone circle outside Keswick England called the Castlerigg Stone Circle. It has been dated to about 4500 years old and is situated on a hill top with a magnificent view of the surrounding valleys. These stone circles are very mysterious and wondrous.
Our next stop was in Grasmere, a small village renowned for two things. One is being the burial site of the poet William Wordsworth.
The other is Sarah Nelson’s famous Gingerbread, a unique confection she developed in the late 1800’s. The recipe remains a secret that has been held by only two families and multiple generations. We purchased some to also share with family in Lyon, as well as some of their similarly famous fudge.
We then ventured off the main road to Moss Force waterfalls. To get there, we had to venture 10 miles down an extremely narrow winding and twisting “road” that was 10’ wide blacktop with crumbling edges, frequently flooded and with two way traffic that required scraping hedgerows or putting tires on the edges of cliffside drop-offs to get to. Driving any more than 30mph would be suicidal.
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The scenery is spectacular, but white knuckle driving all the way. Fortunately, on our return trip, we could follow another car, which served as our forward blocker. You still have white knuckling, but the forward blocker provided advance warning of oncoming traffic and frequently forced the oncoming traffic to yield so we could sneak past right on the blocker’s heels.
We arrived at our destination for the next two nights, Ambleside at the head of Windermere Lake. Windermere is the longest (10 miles) and deepest (220’) lake in England. We checked in at the Waterhead Inn, which is a small boutique hotel. Parking was first come, first serve, and when we arrived at 5:30pm, there were just 3 very tight spaces left. Ben had to complete a multipoint parking maneuver to squeeze the car in with inches of clearance.
The room is nicely appointed and spacious, but did require climbing up 2-1/2 flights of narrow stairs. We again left our larger suitcase in the car trunk, only bringing up our small carry on suitcases.
We went for a lakeside walk and had fast food fish and chips and sausage with chips and gravy for dinner, washed down with Scotland’s most popular soft drink Irn Bru, which comes in a bright orange can, but tastes more like a vanilla cream soda with a hint of citrus. Interestingly, it contains caffeine, sugar, and aspartame.
We then walked around the Ambleside Roman Fort remains, which are in a city park “guarded” by a small herd of curious cows. All that remains of this fort are foundation stones, not unlike what we had seen at Hadrian’s wall.
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In exchange for foregoing daily maid service, you can opt to reuse your towels and make your own bed and instead grab a free pint of beer or cider. So we hit the bar and had a pint of their local cask ale, and cider. The cask ale was similar to the other cask ales we have had, which is to say somewhat bland, but authentic. The cider was quite bright and sweet- refreshing.
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Tomorrow we will explore the surrounding area which includes the childhood home of Beatrix Potter, the creator of the Peter Rabbit series.
