Yorkshire Dales, Castles and Wall Hunting

We spent the last 2 1/2 days in the Yorkshire Dales (with one adventure out to Northumberland, more on that later). I am a HUGE fan of the "All Creatures Great and Small" books (and shows) by James Herriot, which are all about the life of a country veterinarian in 1940's-50's. And these stories are what brought us to the Dales. In the books and shows the Dales are made to seem like the most idyllic, lovely country setting in the world... and quite honestly they are.

We stayed at a little Inn/pub/restaurant named the Wheatsheaf Inn in the village of Carperby. Village being key as there where about 15 houses total, a church and a pub/inn. For someone who likes to do a lot of shopping it would be a rough stay, but for us it was perfect.
Our first day there we took a short trip over to Thirsk to see the James Herriot museum. The town was lovely, with a big square in the middle where an open air market was going on. The streets where filled with tiny shops, so cute.
The museum was great, it is the home/office of the real James Herriot (Alf White), and they set up the house how it would have been during the period the book are set in.

 They also have a whole section on how the show was made. The upstairs was all dedicated to kids and I couldn't help bit think of how much the kids would have loved- I am missing my kiddos SO much.
Brynt did a great job birthing the calf, ha ha.

 Not far from Thrisk we found this giant white horse on the side of a hill, it was awesome.

The second Day we went to Castle Bolton. When we booked our room in Carperby, it said nothing about there being a huge Medieval castle 5 minutes down the road... so imagine our surprise and excitement when we saw it as we drove into town.

The castle was built in the 1300s and was used as military fortress/family home. It is partially in ruins but in the best preserved parts of the castle they have rebuild and recreated what they would have looked like.

 The bellow pictures are what results when Brynt makes an inappropriate joke while the automatic timer is on...

They also did a falconry deomonstration in the garden, which was awesome! We saw an Indian Own and a falcon (from Africa, but I can't remember the proper name for it). It was really cool. We also walked around the gardens and grounds and enjoyed the absolutely beautiful day.

We finished up at the castle around 3 in the afternoon, and so we decided to make a quick trip up to see Hadrian's Wall. 

Ha.

Ha Ha.

The first problems we ran into was Major  work being done on the A1 ( one of their main highways), we got super turned around and had to stop to get our bearing, plus we needed fuel. While at the service station another man pulled up and started telling us all about how crazy the road work was. We didn't understand all of it but it sounded something like, " 'ow 'm I s'posed ta get ta tha South!? Yon road keeps takin' me 'round an' 'round ta Catertick! I Don' need ta go ta Caterick, I need ta go away South! Sat Nav keeps takin' me back 'round!". It was a hilarious conversation, but I felt terrible for him because he was just as lost as we were!

After leaving the station we finally found the "diversion", aka- detour. which took us through tiny Yorkshire roads in huge long lines of traffic, thrilling! but about 40 mins later we where on our way to New-Castle and all seemed well. As we drew nearer we realized we need to head to Hexham, which added about another 20 mins... no big deal. except that when we got to Hexham we got a little confused as to where we were supposed to see the Wall. It's not like you can just say, "oh look, a stone wall! that must be it!". The entire country is covered in thousands of miles of stone walls.

 So we followed some signs, got confused, followed them again, got turned around, and repeated the whole thing. It sounds ridiculous to say we struggled to find an object that literally covers 70+ miles- but we did. Our rout looked something like this-

But, eventually we did find it! woo hoo! And despite our journey being confusing and about 3 times longer than we thought, it was worth it.

We hiked from one Roman century point to the next and were amazed by the views and how well preserved the Wall was.

We had a wonderful time in Northern England, and it was hard to leave today. I have loved every place we have gone but the Dales have been my favorite so far.