Day 15 – A day around the Carlisle area.

We breakfasted at the apartment and wandered across to the car in the carpark. It’s a pay at exit- very easy, just tap your car reg in and it I mediatly finds your car and states what you owe…a quick tap with the card and our £10 was paid….

We headed off to Brampton station….on the line to Newcastle. It has a beautiful over bridge….

…and a handsome man taking photos from it !!!

……then on through some delightful countryside and little hamlets before getting to to Armathwaite…..

A quaint station with a bright yellow signal box which offers tours on a Sunday. This station is on the Settle to Carlisle line. Like all stations on this line it is nicely kept by The Friends of the Settle to Carlisle line. This group do a fantastic job in keeping the stations authentic and the gardens cheerful.

We circled back around to Carlisle and took a rest before strolling across the road…a few short strides to Nando’s for supper.

We left the apartment fairly promptly in the morning….

…and said goodbye to Carlisle for another year..

As we headed off out of town and for some time we followed a van which made us all laugh …especially as John loves bacon

We took the motorway towards Kendle and on to Kirby Lonsdale before heading towards Ingleton we saw a good many sights on the way…including some Galloway Belted cows…which really stood out on the hillside.

The countryside was superb

We passed a lay-bye full of travellers caravans ponies and a couple of real Romany Gypsy Wagons. Our Sat Nav showed slow traffic and we soon understood why…

This sight reminds me of when I was a kid and seeing Gypsy Romany Wagons on the move meant Summer had begun.

From Ingleton we passed the very populat tourist/walkers area around the Ribblehead Viaduct. This viaduct has a checkered history behind it….In the late 1980’s it was due for closure, until in 1989 a young politician named Micheal Portillo took over as Public Transport Minister. He agreed with his predecessor to try and keep the line open. He faced 2 problems …the low passenger numbers and the estimated £9 million cost of repairing the Ribblehead Viaduct. Spurred on by Mr Portillo “The Friends of Settle-Carlisle line”, managed to increase the numbers of passengers. Mr Portillo then found a British Rail Engineer who said he could repair the viaduct for £3 million and actually did it for £1.8 million ….thus saving the line. To this day Micheal Portillo is the Honorary President of The Friends of Settle -Carlisle Line.

From here we headed to Horton in Ribblesdale station.

Another delightful station,…

After we had all stretched our legs and watched a train come through the station we headed on to Hellifield station for John to take some more pictures….

Another beautifully authentically kept station, which has so many items from bygone eras making it a very well visited tourist attraction.

From the carpark you can view the station in one direction and the beautiful countryside in the other direction….we sat and ate our picnic lunch looking across “Englands Green and pleasant lands”.

After lunch we continued our trip across The North Yorkshire moors to Steeton Hall Hotel.

We have stayed here before…having booked deluxe doubles we knew exactly what we were getting…This quirky hotel is right up our street…it’s old world ambience is superb….greeted by a very dower Yorkshire lass, who started to show us to our rooms until she realised we’d been before…..The rooms are huge…in-fact Dads is really a suite, where as ours is a bay windowed large room….

Dad’s room has a super kingsize bed, table and bucket chairs, 3 seater sofa…en-suite with a shower which has coloured lights, music, jets all over the place…although Dad did manage to “just shower” in it!!!!!! Our room also has a super kingsize bed with a table and bucket chairs and a single bed acting as a sofa/ bag rack. Our en-suite has a jacuzzi bath with a shower over it….both rooms have sky tv and great wifi reception, coffee and tea making facilities and each room has a phone and plenty of power points.

Throughout the hotel the floor boards all creak endearingly, and I struggled to stop both John and Dad from sliding down the beautiful wooden banisters…..only the mention of splinters where they didn’t want them deterred them !!!!! Honestly you’d think a 73 year old and a nearly 95 year old would know better….they are incorrigible !!!

This hotel is superb value at £69.30 per deluxe room bed and breakfast … 2 rooms B&B for 2 nights £277.20…..

We booked a table in the restaurant and were told it was Wednesday Steak night. After a restful hour or so …. John and I had sirloin and Dad had Gammon steaks which came grilled to perfection with large mushroom, beef tomato, chunky chips, corn on the cob and a sauce….it was really good and all dishes came with a glass of wine, beer, cider or soft drink….the sirloin steaks were under £20 each and the gammon steak under £15 …tremendous value…we couldn’t manage a dessert so we retired to our room for a game of cards…..A lovely day ending in a lovely hotel.