September 21, 2013: Liverpool, England to Dublin, Ireland
	September 19, 2013: Aberdeen to Carlisle, Scotland
	Return to the Index for Our British Isles Trip

We are going to spend most of today right here in Carlisle, walking through town and touring the Carlisle Cathedral and Castle. Later this afternoon, we'll be driving to spend the night in Liverpool.

Walking to Carlisle Cathedral

This morning, we got our stuff out of the Langleigh Guest Hou se and loaded it into the van which was parked right out front on the street. Then, we headed off on foot to see some of the town of Carlisle.

On the aerial view at left, you can see the route we took through the city today. From the Langleigh Guest House, we headed west through the residential area, coming to streets that were a mixture of shops and houses, and then to the center of town. As we crossed Lowther Street, I looked to my left and I could see an interesting, old round building. I wanted to go see what it was, but didn't want to get separated from everyone else. I thought I might go by the building (which I found out had been a gaol over two hundred years ago) on our return, and I did take a detour to do that a bit later in the day. Once at the end of the street we were on, we turned north through what was a large pedestrian mall, looking in store windows and taking candid pictures as we went.

Presently, we came to the Carlisle Cathedral, so we detoured into its grounds to see the cathedral itself and the other old buildings in the complex. Leaving there, we continued northwest towards Carlisle Castle. We passed the Carlisle Museum, went through a tunnel under the major street in front of the Castle, and then headed into the Castle itself for an extended look around. Following our tour of the Castle, Nancy, Prudence, Ron Ruckman, Guy and Fred went to go through the Carlisle museum, while Karl and I waited in the museum cafe for them. Finally, we headed back to the Langleigh, and I made my detour somewhat south to see two round buildings that had been former gaols before I rejoined everyone at the guest house for our departure.

In this section, I'll put the description of our walk and include the pictures we took along it. The Cathedral, Castle and Museum will get their own sections below.

One of the Many Shops We Passed

The walk to the center of town was quite pleasant; we passed an old church, a good many row houses and some interesting shops. And I found the occasional oddity to photograph. Click on the thumbnails below to see some of the best pictures we took on the way into town from the guest house:

Street Scenes in Carlisle

Eventually, we came to a wide street running north-south that was closed to autos; it was a fairly large pedestrian mall.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) In the Center of Carlisle

When we got to the mall, I stopped to make a movie, and you can use the player at left to watch it.

We walked north through the mall until it got to a place where it opened up. In the center of this area we found a city building/tourist center and there was a monument column in the center of the large open space. Fred took closeups of the column and of the clock atop the civic building.

We left the plaza to the northwest, went past the Crown and Mitre Hotel and arrived at the entrance to Carlisle Cathedral.

The Carlisle Cathedral

From the plaza we reached the entrance to the cathedral after just a short walk. Here, looking at the cathedral from the east, we had a good view of the outside of the east window, which, we would learn later, is the most complex window of its style in England. We came in off the plaza and passed through the entrance gates to come onto the grounds of the cathedral.

The Carlisle Cathedral - South Side

The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, otherwise called Carlisle Cathedral, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Carlisle. It was founded as an Augustinian priory and became a cathedral in 1133. It is the second smallest (after Oxford), of England's ancient cathedrals, and is notable for its fine figurative stone carving, a set of medieval choir stalls and the largest window in the Flowing Decorated Gothic style in England.

As we came in alongside the cathedral, we were quite close to it, making a picture of the entire building impossible. Nor could I get back far enough into the plaza to both see all of the building from its southern view and get all of it in one shot. So I did the next best thing. I took three pictures and put them together. But because I couldn't use the same vantage point for all three shots, when I put them together I couldn't straighten the perspective; that's why the nave roof looks curved in the picture at left.

If you are curious, there are clickable thumbnails below for the three individual pictures:

Walking along the south side of the imposing building, I got a better shot of the tower, which is 110 feet high. At some point after the original construction, it blew down, and was rebuilt about 1420. As we moved back towards the main church entrance, I got a nice picture of Fred, Prudence and Nancy with the entrance in the background.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Carlisle Cathedral

I made a movie of the cathedral just after we entered by its south side, and you can use the player at right to watch that movie.

Carlisle Cathedral was begun in 1122, during the reign of King Henry I, as a community of Canons Regular. Although many large churches of Augustinian foundation were built in England during this period, the Archbishop of Canterbury William de Corbeil, being a member of this order, Carlisle is one of only four Augustinian churches in England to become a cathedral, most monastic cathedrals being Benedictine.

The church was begun by Athelwold, an Englishman, who became the first prior. In 1133, the church was raised to the status of cathedral and Athelwold became the first Bishop of Carlisle. In 1233, a Dominican and a Franciscan friary joined the Augustinians, and the building was refurbished in the 13th and 14th centuries, receiving impetus from the presence of the court of Edward I in 1307.

The Carlisle Cathedral Tower - South Side

In the 15th and early 16th centuries, the monastic buildings were renewed, but with the establishment by Henry VIII of the Church of England as the country's official church in 1536, Carlisle, along with the other monastic cathedrals, was taken over by a secular chapter- which practice has continued to this day. The cathedral was damaged severely during the English Civil War, but it was restored in the mid-1800s.

Carlisle Cathedral was first constructed in the Norman architectural style with solid masonry, large round piers, round arches and smallish round headed windows- features that can still be seen in the south transept and two bays of the nave. It was built out of local red sandstone, which has discoloured almost to black on parts of the exterior. The building has also suffered from subsidence which is evidenced by the piers, which lean at different angles, and by stonework arches that have sagged.

While outside, we took some additional pictures worth including here, and below are some clickable thumbnails you can use to have a look at them:

We found the main cathedral entrance and went inside to have a look around. In the 13th century, the choir of the cathedral was rebuilt in the Gothic style, and by 1322 the arcades and the easternmost bay were complete, with the elaborate tracery and glass of the east window being in place by about 1350. The upper stages of the walls were finished, as was the Gothic arcade. The arcade has richly moulded arches with dog's tooth decoration, and the twelve capitals are carved with vegetation along with small lively figures representing the labours of the months.

The Nave of Carlisle Cathedral

The interior of the cathedral had some really beautiful aspects, both in the architectural elements and in the various altars, memorials and crypts. I have taken the best of our pictures and put them into a slideshow. To view the slideshow, just click on the image below and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

The most significant architectural feature of Carlisle Cathedral is its East Window. The tracery of this window is in the most complex of English Gothic styles, Flowing Decorated Gothic.

The Carlisle Cathedral East Window

The Carlisle Cathedral East Window is the largest and most complex such window in England, being 51 feet high and 26 feet wide, with nine lights. The tracery of the window still contains much of its original medieval glass. You can see another view of this amazing window, taken at an angle from the inside, here. And Fred got quite close to the window to take this amazing closeup.

In addition to the East Window, there were four other major stained glass windows in the Carlisle Cathedral, and between the five of us taking photographs, we got pictures of each of them. You can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look:

Stained Glass Windows in Carlisle Cathedral

Although the roof of the nave looks quite plain from the outside, inside, looking up at it, we could see an entirely different aspect.

The Barrel Vault

The choir is roofed by a fine wooden barrel vault dating from the 14th century. In 1856 this was restored and repainted to a new design- a royal blue with intersecting gold borders, gold stars and medallions at the border intersections. I liked the view of the barrel vault looking towards the organ; the glow of the back of the nave sets off the blue color of the vault, although Fred's view looking towards the East Window was impressive as well.

I had to lay down on the floor to steady my camera to get a view looking straight up at the vault, but Fred outdid that by using his zoom at three different settings to get even better views. Click on the thumbnails below to see three different pictures he got of the amazing ceiling:

When it was completed, the cathedral was 239 feet long and 141 feet wide, with an interior height of 72 feet. It was as impressive inside as any of the churches that we have seen so far on our trip.

The Ruined Wall of the Chapter House

Back outside, we explored some of the other buildings in the cathedral complex. There was not much to explore of the Chapter House, for all that remains of it above ground are these ruined walls. Its medieval tiled floor still lies three feet below ground.

The "Chapter" was the name used of the whole community gathered together, and a "Chapter House" was a building used for these meetings. Here the community met daily to deal with the practical aspects of their lives. The prior who ruled over them gave instruction concerning the Rule, and dealt with matters of business and discipline. Work and worship duties were also assigned. The life of the priory continued until 1540 when the monastery was dissolved.

Today the Chapter consists of the dean, four residentiary canons and the three lay members. together they constitute the cathedral's governing body. They now hold their meetings in the Prior's Tower.

The Chapter House, with other parts of the priory, was destroyed during the Commonwealth period (1649-1660). There are ruins here of two sides of the walls of the House, and you can see two more pictures of them here and here.

Another old building that is part of the cathedral complex is a building called the "fratry."

The Fratry and Adjoining Building

The Augustinian canons of Carlisle Cathedral Priory at their meals in the fratry on the upper floor of the building you can see in the picture at left. They slept in a dormitory on the upper floor of an adjoining building, which stretched from the end of the fratry to what is now the main door of the cathedral.

The canons got up at midnight and processed into the cathedral for Matins, the long first service of the day, returning to bed until dawn. Worship in the cathedral church took up a large part of their day, together with reading and manual tasks.

Also near this spot was the Infirmary, where the sick and elderly canons were cared for. Many of the medicines were prepared by the canons from plants, some of which they grew themselves. Every seven weeks the canons were bled in the Infirmary. This was believed to be good for their health. Spiritual health and healing remain a concern at the cathedral in modern times.

Another building of interest in the precinct is the Gatehouse that dates to 1527. There is also a building called the Deanery which incorporates a 15th‑century pele tower, called The Prior's Tower, containing a fine contemporary painted ceiling.

When we were done inside the cathedral, we wandered around the area for a while, looking at the old and newer buildings and taking a few candid shots. Fred got a particularly nice one of the rest of us in front of the cathedral, and Nancy got what I thought was a nice picture of Prudence and Fred. Below are clickable thumbnails for a few more of our candid shots from Carlisle Cathedral:

Walking to Carlisle Castle

We left the Cathedral precinct by the gatehouse, walked down a back street and then cut through an area called The Roman Garden to go behind the Tullie House Museum.

Our Route From the Cathedral to Carlisle Castle

The Roman army arrived in Carlisle in the winter of 72/73 AD, and built a fort, which is under the front of the museum. They remained here until the early 5th century; during that time, a town grew up and some of the stone remains in the garden have survived from the period.

The Romans introduced new plants which have since become naturalized. Remains of plants, such as coriander, have been found during excavations in the city. figs would have been imported in dried form. Other plants, such as acanthus, inspired decorative motifs on lamps and buildings. The stone capital in the Border Gallery of the museum, features acanthus leaves in its design.

Below are clickable thumbnails for some of our views of the Roman Garden:

Views in Roman Garden, Carlisle, England

At the end of the garden, we went through an archway to Castle Street and turned left to walk towards the Castle itself. Along the sidewalk, there were inlaid panels marking historical events, and when we got to the corner by the Tullie House Museum, the lnlays marked the boundaries of the old Roman fortification- now underground. Just by the entrance to the museum there was an interesting inlaid mosaic.

On the Tunnel Wall

At the corner, there were stairs down to a pedestrian tunnel that went under the busy street and over to Carlisle Castle. We went down the stairs and walked through the tunnel where there were interesting items that seemed to have to do with early Carlisle- like the wall-mounted display at right. There was also a large boulder with carved words on it. You can read many of them, but they seem to be in Old English, and I didn't see a placard to tell me their meaning. On the far side of the tunnel we came up the stairs and we were right in front of Carlisle Castle.

Carlisle Castle

We walked through the tunnel under the street and when we came up above ground Carlisle Castle was right in front of us, in the middle of what appeared to be a medium-sized park. The view of the castle was tremendous, and so I thought it was worth putting together a panorama:

A Panoramic View of the Front of Carlisle Castle

Pretty impressive. Carlisle Castle is situated near the ruins of Hadrian's Wall. The castle is over 900 years old and has been the scene of many historical episodes in British history. Given the proximity of Carlisle to the border between England and Scotland, it has been the center of many wars and invasions. Until recently, the Castle was the administrative headquarters of the former King's Own Royal Border Regiment; it is now county headquarters to the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and a museum to the regiment is within the castle walls.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Carlisle Castle (Panorama from the City)

Just after we came up from the tunnel under the street, I also made a movie, and you can watch it with the player at left.

In just a few minutes, we'll enter the castle and begin our tour, but first, a bit of history:

Carlisle Castle was first built during the reign of William II of England, the son of William the Conqueror who invaded England in 1066. When William II arrived, he drove the Scots out to claim the area for England, and then ordered the construction of a castle on the site of an old Roman fort. Construction began in 1093; the purpose of the castle would be to secure England's northern border against Scotland. In 1122, Henry I ordered fortifications; a keep keep and city walls were constructed. The existing Keep dates from somewhere between 1122 and 1135.

The castle (and Carlisle) changed hands many times over the next 700 years. In the 13th century, the Scottish King, David, captured the city, and it was he who completed the walls and stone keep. The English reclaimed the castle some years later. From the mid-13th century until the unification of England and Scotland in 1603, Carlisle castle was the vital headquarters of the Western March, a buffer zone to protect the western portion of the Anglo-Scottish border.

Henry VIII converted the castle for artillery. For a few months in 1568, Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned within the castle, in the southeast corner which has since been demolished. Later, the castle was besieged by the Parliamentary forces for eight months in 1644, during the English Civil War.

A Diagram of Carlisle Castle's Point of Interest

The last and most important battles for the city of Carlisle and its castle were during the second Jacobite rising against George II of Great Britain in 1745. The defeat of the Jacobites by the son of George II marked the end of the castle's fighting life, as England and Scotland were again united. Some parts of the castle were then demolished for use as raw materials in the 19th century, leaving more or less what is visible today. Since 1959, the castle has served no military purpose and is now an English Heritage Site.

As we tour the Castle, you can refer to the diagram at right to see where we are in the complex; I'll key the sections of pictures to the numbered legend.

The Outer Gatehouse (1)

Of course, the first point of interest was the structure through which we entered- the Outer Gatehouse.

The Outer Gatehouse

Also known as "de Ireby's Tower" the Outer Gatehouse is the main entrance to the castle today. Inside is a hall which contains replica furniture from the castle and a small windowless dungeon lies beneath. In the gatehouse are the remains of a Roman altar, which has been reused as a door lintel.

As we headed up the walkway to the Outer Gatehouse, we crossed over what appears to have been, at one time, a moat, although on looking at the picture now, it seems that the shallow, narrow depression would not have been wide or deep enough to serve as any sort of defense, so we now assume that it was added for effect. Investigation reveals that no reliable sketches or images from the time when the castle was in active use exist that would reveal whether a moat ever existed.

I need to return to the outside of the castle in a minute, but first I want to include some additional pictures of the Outer Gatehouse that we took after we had passed through the entrance.

View of the Outer Gatehouse from Inside Carlisle Castle

From inside the castle, Nancy happened to take a couple of individual pictures of the Outer Gatehouse and the archway though which we entered. These, as it turned out, stitched together nicely into a single large image of the gatehouse. It is at right. You can see the entrance to the small gift shop (Does every attraction worldwide have a gift shop?) up the wooden ramp. And inside the archway, on the right wall (as the picture is oriented) you can see a doorway into a small guardroom; this is the doorway the lintel of which is the old Roman altar.

From over near the Half-Moon Battery (see below), Guy took another good picture of the gatehouse, and you can see it here.

The Curtain Wall and Lady's Walk (8)

Just before we passed through the entrance arch in the Outer Gatehouse, we could see another point of interest off to our right.

The Curtain Wall and Lady's Walk

The imposing castle walls protected it from attack and held prisoners secure within. As noted above, the walls may have been quite sufficient for defense as there is no mention of a moat around this particular castle.

When imprisoned in the castle, Mary Queen of Scots promenaded just outside the walls under the watchful eyes of her jailers. The route is still known today as "the Lady's Walk."

The Half-Moon Battery (2)

When we came into the newer area of the castle a broad area between the Captain's Tower and the Military Buildings, we could see ahead of us and to the right the Captain's Tower and, in front of it, part of the semi-circular Half-Moon Battery. Take a look at the picture that Guy took of that area here.

Front View of the Half-Moon Battery

Pardon me for including here a picture that we didn't take. It seems that none of us thought to walk out into the parade ground between the newer Military Buildings and the inner ward of the castle to get a front-on picture of the battery. The one included here was taken from Heritage Explorer, a website devoted to English Heritage Sites (much like our own Register of Historic Places).

The Half-Moon Battery was built in 1542. It is built of sandstone, is a single storey high and in a half moon shape. It had a double row of guns; at ground level cannons could fire across the outer bailey, while below a number of square openings allowed defenders to fire on assailants attempting to cross the ditch. It was built to provide extra protection to the approaches to the inner ward of the castle. It was originally next to a moat, but when it was no longer required the moat was completely filled in 1827. Today, only the lower part of the battery now remains.

Underground Passage in the Half-Moon Battery

Steep steps lead underground to a firing gallery where stationed soldiers would have fired hand guns.

I went down those steps and through a semi-circular tunnel, expecting to get to a point where I could look out the firing windows, but somehow I missed it, at the end of the tunnel coming again to a set of steps leading back up to ground level. From that ground level, Fred got a nice picture looking back towards the entrance to the castle- and you can see the place where the moat was and where our walkway from the entrance led over it. You can see that picture here.

The Captain's Tower (3)

The actual entrance to the inner ward of the castle is through an archway under a structure called The Captain's Tower. You can see this archway behind me in a picture Fred took while I was standing on the Half-Moon Battery here.

The Captain's Tower (from inside the castle)

The Captain's Tower was only recently re-opened to the public for the first time in 20 years. The Captain's Tower is one of the best preserved gatehouses in England. First built in the 1160s and later modernized, it once featured 'murder holes' in the passage so that castle defenders could pour liquids or hurl missiles at attackers.

Coming in through that archway brought us into the inner ward of the castle (the area within the inner walls). We headed up the stairs to the top of the wall next to the Tower to have a look. (You can see a view looking back down the stairs here.) From the wall, we got a good view looking back down at the Outer Gatehouse.

Underneath the walls by the Tower there were arched rooms whose use four hundred years ago is unknown but which today, as you can see, contain exhibits, vehicles and storage. Below are clickable thumbnails for some other views of and from the Captain's Tower:

Since we were up here on the wall already, it seemed to be a good time to walk entirely around them.

The Castle Walls (5)

Four of us- Fred, myself, Prudence and Nancy- walked around the walls while Guy, Ron and Karl spent time in the courtyard, in the Keep and in the museum. Our walk took us counterclockwise around the walls, starting out heading southeast past the Keep and then around the walls to end up again just north of the Captain's Tower.

Our Walk Around the Carlisle Castle Walls

I have put a diagram at left to act as a key for the pictures we took on our way around the walls. I've divided the walk into numbered sections, and the pictures we took will be keyed to those sections. Seeing the buildings on the diagram and in our pictures should enable you to place the location and direction of most of them if you care to.

The first section of our walk took us from the Captain's Tower, past the Keep to the southwest corner of the wall. Approaching the corner, Fred got a nice picture of Prudence and Nancy and Carlisle Cathedral, and from the corner he could also look back past the Keep into the inner ward of the castle.

For my park, also at the corner I got a good view looking back along the front wall and the Outer Gatehouse. You can look at some of the other pictures I took along this section of the wall walk by clicking on the thumbnails below:

The next section of our walk took us along the top of the Curtain Wall, where we had excellent views of Carlisle; we passed the museum and ended up at the most eastern point on the castle walls. Near that corner, we passed some firing slits, presumably used for arrows or, later, for guns.

Views Along the South Castle Walls

If you'd like to see some of the other views from our walk on the wall along the front of the castle, just click on the thumbnails at right.

Next, we walked along the northeast wall that curves around to the west. The first part of this section is a narrow, stone‑supported walkway. This part of the walk goes by a set of old cannon, and also overlooks what appears to be a park to the north. Take a look at some of the views along here by clicking on the thumbnails below:

At this northernmost point on the walls, I made a panorama taking in the entire castle complex from the eastern wall we've just come along all the way around to the western section- including the military buildings and parade ground. This view is in the scrollable window below:

We turned the corner to walk back towards the Keep, and this time we could look southeast across the inner ward; you can see that view here. When we got back to the Captain's Tower, I took one more picture looking towards the north wall corner. The walk along the walls was really interesting, and we four went back down the stairs to see the courtyard, museum and Keep.

The Military Buildings (4)

The Military Buildings and Parade Ground are an important reflection on the castle's role as a military base in the 19th century. Now used as council offices, the buildings once housed the officer's mess, a military hospital, barracks and the Master Gunners House for the Border Regiment. When we were at the north corner of our wall walk, we could see that the military buildings were also surrounded by a wall, although that wall was blocked off from tourists such as ourselves.

The Inner Ward Yard (6)

In this section, you can see some of the pictures and movies that we took while wandering around the ground-level courtyard in the inner ward of the castle.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Looking Around the Inner Ward Courtyard

When we first came in through the Captain's Tower, I made a movie looking around the open area between the Keep, the museum and the walls, and you might want to use the player at left to have a look at it. We also took a number of odd shots around the area, and I have put clickable thumbnails for the most interesting of them below:

The Keep (7)

We entered the Keep on the ground floor; the entrance opens from the inner ward of the castle. Immediately, we began ascending a spiral stone staircase from level to level.

Stairways in the Castle Keep

The castle keep is the oldest surviving part of the castle. For centuries, it was the main part of the castle and used as a residence or as lodging. Later, it became a magazine, a prison, a barracks, and an armory.

The Chamber

On the third level, we came into a room called The Chamber. Originally this was a big, high room, intended as the main living space for the king or his representative here. It disappeared when the keep was remodelled in the mid-16th century. An extra floor was inserted, the original roof and turrets were removed, and brick vaults added to support the heavy cannons mounted on the roof.

In the thickness of the west wall, there was a small kitchen- still recognizable by its fireplace- and a small chapel or orotory. In 1153, King David I of Scotland died here.

When we got to the top floor of the Keep, we found a series of small rooms that were used for various purposes.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) The Top Floor of the Keep

On the top floor, I made a movie walking through a couple of these rooms, and having a look at the stairways. You can use the player at right to watch that movie. Both Fred and I took pictures on the spiral stairways. You can see my picture here and Fred's picture here.

We took some pictures in some of the other rooms on the second and third levels; you can see one of Fred's pictures here, and you can use the clickable thumbnails below to see a couple of mine:

On one floor, the stairway ended in one large room and then continued, through a separate shaft, to the floor above. I thought that this room was particularly interesting, and took a number of pictures in it. Then it occurred to me to merge those pictures together, and you can see the result below:

An Interesting Room in the Castle Keep

The last thing of note here in the Keep that I'd like to include pictures of was the graffiti that we found carved into the soft sandstone of the walls. Bored prison guards, as they sat on duty here, might have made these remarkable 15th-century carvings. Covering the lobby and the door to this space, they are a unique survival; similar carvings in other castles, like the Tower of London and Dover, were all made much later and by prisoners.

Wall Carvings in the Castle Keep

Little is known about the carvings (click on the thumbnails at left to see some of them), but they seem to fall into two main groups. There are numerous crude scratched carvings, mostly of four-legged animals, which seem to be earlier. A second group is more finely carved, with a much wider range of subjects and motifs. They incclude a variety of coats of arms and heraldic images of the local lord wardens and other important figures. They are probably expressions of loyalty to the local lords and families. And then there are more mysterious emblems. Some of them seem to tell stories, like the one with a fox preaching to hens; or a mermaid with a mirror.

The man who carved these obviously had a strong artistic sense and an urge to create, but he probably could neither read nor write. The carvings here are a remarkable piece of folk art, and show the importance of signs and symbols in an age when most ordinary people were illiterate.

The four of us left the castle Keep and met up with Guy, Ron and Karl down in the courtyard and, our visit to the castle complete, headed back out of the complex and through the tunnel under the street to the museum.

The Tullie House Museum

The Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery opened in 1893; the original building is a converted Jacobean mansion, with extensions added when it was converted. At first the building contained the museum and also a library, an art school and a technical school.

The two schools were moved in the 1950s and the library in 1986. The museum expanded into the city Guildhall in 1980 and with new space available underwent an extensive redevelopment. There are now classrooms and a very pleasant cafe where we all had some lunch and where Karl and I waited as everyone else went through the museum for an hour or so. Click on the thumbnails at left for some outside views of the museum.

The museum houses the Human History Collection, most notable for antiquities associated with Hadrian's Wall and the two Roman forts established in Carlisle. It also has large and eclectic collections of zoological, botanical and geological material, as well as fine and decorative arts collections.

When everyone returned from the museum, I found that only Fred had taken any pictures; these were of four items in the ceramics collection that he thought were particular interesting. Fortunately, he also took pictures of the descriptive cards for these items. So, you can click on one of the thumbnails in the top row at right to see an item, and then click on the thumbnail below it to read about that item.

When we finished at the museum, it was time to head back to the guest house, collect the van, and drive on down to Liverpool.

Walking Back to the Langleigh Guest House

When we were done at the Tullie House Museum, our group headed back pretty much the way we'd come to get to the Langleigh.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Walking Through the Central Plaza in Carlisle

As we walked back through that large plaza near Carlisle Cathedral, I made another movie of our group, and you can use the player at left to watch it.

When we got back around to the street that headed southeast towards Langleigh Guest House, I peeled off from the group to continue down to the two circular buildings that I had seen on our way up. As I learned, the place where the two old buildings stand was the site of Botchergate, the original southern entrance to the city. In the 16th century a fortress designed to house artillery was built here. The present two towers date from the 19th century and were designed by Thomas Telford and completed by Sir Robert Smirke as assize courts and a prison. The statue in front of them is of the Earl of Lonsdale, the man who promoted their construction. The west tower is occasionally open to the public.

I took some pictures of the towers and of the Earl of Lonsdale's statue, and you can click on the thumbnails below to have a look at them:

The city gate no longer exists, as a goodly portion of Carlisle's old city walls were torn down years ago to make room for the expansion of the city; but these two buildings flank the position where the gate used to be. To emphasize this, I stepped to the far side of the intersection in front of them and took a series of three pictures, stitching them together into this panoramic view:

The Telford Towers in Carlisle, England

I started back to the Langleigh, and passed another interesting shop which reminded me that it had been a couple of weeks, now, since Fred and I had had any Tex-Mex and it was likely to be another week at least before our next fix. Despite a wrong turn on a side street, I actually got back to the Langleigh before the rest of the group. Prudence got a last picture of Nancy, Karl and Guy just before we headed off to Liverpool. You can see that picture here.

The Drive to Liverpool and Dinner

We pulled away from the Langleigh Guest House in late afternoon for the 100-mile drive down to Liverpool and our hotel for the night.

It would have been a pretty easy trip, except for the fact that the M9 motorway that we took south from Carlisle slowed down and then stopped about fifty miles south of Carlisle. We sat on the stopped highway in a line of cars as far as we could see. At one point, I got out and walked a quarter mile ahead to see what I could see. Someone with access to traffic reports said there had been a bad accident ahead and the highway was closed. When traffic started moving, slowly, we were directed off the expressway onto a side road that took us forty miles on a two-lane country road, through a couple of picturesque small towns until we could get back on the expressway again.

This slowed us down considerably, but the upside was that we got to see rather more nice scenery than we would have on the motorway. I took a couple of good pictures that you can see here and here, and Fred got a number of nice shots that you can use the clickable thumbnails below to have a look at:

Once we got back on the expressway, the rest of the trip was pretty easy, although the turns once you got near Liverpool were a little tricky- what with all the roundabouts after we turned off the M9 onto the M58.

The M58 wound down to the north side of the city of Liverpool, and I was thankful for Prudence's iPad because the route until we got on the main road that runs along the east side of the River Mersey was a bit complicated. But we found the Hotel Indigo without too much difficulty, parked the van across the street in a loading zone, and took our stuff into the hotel to check in.

Actually, we were fortunate in that the time for the loading zone ended just when we pulled in to park, and didn't pick up again until after Ron and I took the van to return it the next morning. So we just left the van there all night- saving what I am sure would have been expensive hotel or garage parking.

The hotel was quite nice (albeit expensive, but that was to be expected). I'll save our hotel pictures for tomorrow's album page.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible) Church Bells as We Walk to Dinner in Liverpool

About eight o'clock, the seven of us left the hotel to follow a couple of restaurant recommendations from the front desk. Both of them were about three blocks away. The first one we went to had a long wait, but at the second one we tried we got a table fairly quickly. It was just the kind of restaurant that the Ruckmans and the Lucases and Guy like- upscale food, good drinks, and an extensive wine list.

The meal was quite good (thank you, Ron and Prudence), and we returned to the Indigo Hotel about ten, as Ron and I had to be up early to take the van to the local office of the rental agency to return it.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	September 21, 2013: Liverpool, England to Dublin, Ireland
	September 19, 2013: Aberdeen to Carlisle, Scotland
	Return to the Index for Our British Isles Trip