Northern England in Sept 2011
 

This is an initial scouting message. This forum has been very helpful to me in the past planning trips to Scotland so now I am moving south. My hubby and I will travel to northern England for 2 weeks. We are tentatively thinking of flying into Glasgow and driving south, spend a night at Culzean Castle, big splurge, then head south to Hadrians wall. The furthest south we will go is Rutland, just above Birmingham, where hubby traces his roots. Rough plan was 3-4 days in each of Lake District, Yorkshire dales and northern Wales, particularily Snowdonia. Do I need to drop something before I get too far into it. Google says 5 hours Glasgow to Birmingham so I don't think we are biting off too much driving. Of course we won't be on the M6 but 300 km maximum distance doesn't seem to me that we will be spending all our time driving. What thinks yee?

You are going to some of my favorite places -- I'd definitely consider open jaw tickets into GLA (or EDI if the fares/schedules work better) and fly home from MAN.

That way you don't have to backtrack and your 2 weeks will be fine for what you have planned.

Staying at Culzean will be wonderful - there is a lot to see in the area and between Ayshire and Hadrian's Wall. I know 2 nights at Culzean might be a budget buster - but maybe consider a second night in Galloway/Dumfries. That would give you time to see Crossraguel abbey, Robert Burns sites and some of the lovely places in the SW w/o cutting short your time at Culzean.

Then a night along Hadrian's Wall, 3 nights in the Lakes, 3 nights in Wales, 3 in Yorkshire, and a night or two on Rutland Water or in Stamford. (I'd actually re-order things a bit to have N Wales at the end because it would be an easy drive to MAN)

OR - you could do the whole thing in reverse - start at MAN > Rutland > N Wales > Dales > Lakes > Hadrians Wall > SW Scotland/Ayrshire > GLA.

looking good so far, any dates yet?

If anyone is still following this line here is an update. We will arrive in Glasgow and spend Aug 31 at Culzean. Sept 1-3 we are at the Hollies in Lake District, Sept 4-6 we are at low Raisgill in Yorkshire dales, Sept 7 - 9 we are in Rutland area ( this part of trip belongs to Mr Mac so not arranged yet!) then Sept 10 - 12 in Wales. Still consulting in Wales. I do like to be on the beach so I can get up and walk in the morning on the beach and have feelers out. Anyone have a favourite place in Wales. Concidering blowing the budget and staying at the lighthouse at Great Orme. Things are progressing and I am excited. Mac3

Sounds good. If your husband needs a bit of a shove . . . this place is a very nice resort w/ hotel and timeshare chalets on Rutland water

http://www.barnsdalehotel.co.uk/

And this is a nice pub/restaurant w/ rooms in Hambleton in the middle of the lake.

http://www.finchsarms.co.uk/

I quite like the Wipper-in (Inn) in Oakham if he is looking for a pub to stay in Rutland

Low Raisgill is a lovely area - well away from the bright lights!
Langstrothdale is a quiet Dale and very beautiful.
Give me a yell if you need any more Dales info.

One route would be to leave Culzean and head down the A713 through New Galloway to Kirkcudbright on the coast. The coast between here and Dumfries has views over to The Lakes, The Isle of Man. On a very clear day usually in winter you can see both these and Ireland.

From here you could take the coast road along to Dumfries and then the A75 down to the M6 and the A66 to Keswick (if it is The Hollies in Keswick). The route from Dumfries to Keswick is all very, very straight wide A roads and should take around 2 hours tops.

Our backyard : Rockcliffe

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flieder...n/photostream/

or Kippford

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flieder...n/photostream/

Which has The Anchor (great for lunch)

an alternative is to try a visit to the Red Kite feeding station at Laurieston. We have seen over 100 Kites (together) at this sites and considering we have travelled the world in search of wildlife, it always makes us smile that one of the best sights is 20 miles away.

http://www.drumlanrig.com/

is home to the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry. One of the few "old" Scottish families still to have there estates as healthy income sources.

Let me know if you would like any information about Keswick (home to my mother in law).

The Welsh coast is very, very hit and miss. Try do some thorough research, as some of it is just down right awful. The coast between Abergele and Prestatyn is a case in example. I personally like LLandudno (the beach is steep and pebble but OK for a walk). Conway is lovely but no beach. If you can justify the time and effort Anglesey is the place to head.

If you want a beach and would also like to hear Welsh spoken, you could try Aberystwyth. If you want a really long beach walk, you could try Ynyslas beach which is not far from Aber

bookmarking

i don't have time to read the details now but i love you guys. M

Hi All, So i have now had time to examine all your comments with a map beside me. Where ever I decide for Wales it will definitely be on Anglesey. I am waiting to hear back from a couple of places. I found humptynumpty's comments very useful. On the drive down to Keswick I will follow your suggestions. Last year stayed in Castle Douglas, loved Threave Gardens and New Abbey but really missed seeing Hadrians Wall. We really want to fit this into this trip. According to suggestions we will be going through Carlisle, to get a good view of Hadrains Wall do we need to drive as far west as homestead? I was surprised to only find one reference on a search of past posts. Mx3

That would be Housesteads -- not Homestead, and no, you don't have to travel quite that far. Lanercost Priory, Gilsland and Greenhead are closer to Carlisle - so I'd detour at least that far, and then if you have the time you can always continue on to Housesteads, or not . . .

To see Hadrian's Wall as anything approaching a wall, you'd ideally need to be at Birdoswald or further west, but if you're driving, it really doesn't take that much more time to go on to Housesteads - we are only talking 15-20 miles along the main road that runs parallel to the wall.

Patrick is right and beat me to posting by a couple of minutes.

It is fairly easy to drive from Carlisle, I think you get off the A69 at Naworth, past Lanercost then on what is actually the old military road ( which shows the Roman approach to engineering) to Bridoswald.

If you have the time, Brampton church by Pre-Raphaelite architect Philip Webb, has some pretty impressive examples of stained glass made by William Morris and designed by Burne-Jones.

Carlisle's Tullie House currently has a good Roman exhibition but failed in its attempt to buy the gold Roman helmet which was recently dug up just down the road in Cumbria.

Indeed, The Tullie gives a very good insight into life in Cumbria and the Scottish borders over the years.

I would actually skip Hadrian's wall (travel sacrilege?), there isn't much left of it and I have never had a feeling of what the place is all about whilst being there. Compare this to :

http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/hermitage.html

which freaks me out every time we go, and we do go frequently due to my 6 year old's obsession with the Border Reivers. You can smell the blood at Hermitage.
http://www.tulliehouse.co.uk/welcome...nd-art-gallery

Read The Steel Bonnets during your stay. It gives you a very good idea of how lawless the borders were for so long. It also is interesting to see the family surnames which sprang from the borders and have achieved so much over the past century. Although most of those who stayed have fallen on hard times, many of the original estates are for sale and their prices are falling like stones in the recession.

Good to see you made it to Castle Douglas and New Abbey, so few foreign (or British) visitors do! Did you go to The castle at Threave ? (2 miles down the river) Great experience, as you have to get a boat over the river to it.

Lewis is a family name for me and so we tramped around a lot of grave yards in and around Castle Douglas for my mom's sake. My great great grandfather was a marble carver in the area before he emmigrated so there was a good chance we were looking at some of his work. We thought the whole trip to the island castle was awesome. The whole 'ring the bell for the ferry' had my sister and I singing the Chris deBurgh song "don't pay the ferryman". We never would have found it without the excellent guidance of our bed and breakfast host. That castle has some outstanding views across the country side and one of our favourite pictures of the whole vacation has each of us sitting in one of the deep window slits of the building...what a great day.