7/11 Aira Force and Castlerigg stone circle

Today we had a driving day with a little walking.

We had a bit more rain, but we were lucky to not get too much while walking.

We went to investigate the Aira Force and the stone bridges that cross over and back on the walk.

The intial plan was to do a 7-8 mile loop walk which took in Gowbarrow (a hill) , with wonderful views, but I wimped out and we turned back at the top of the waterfalls (high cascades bridge) and ended up only completing about 4.5km, and eating lunch in the National Trust tearooms while the rain proper started.(good timing). We even managed to find a couple of geocaches on the way.

we came across yet more "money trees"

lovely old stone bridges - lots of the buildings in these parts are made of the same stone.

Dry stone walls abound around here. Plenty of resources to use.

Practicing with the camera again.  The force was so forceful that slowing the shutter made the water look a bit weird really.

the water was moving too fast for Pooh sticks

one of the lovely old wooden National Trust signs.

I'm enjoying seeing holly just growing wild. 

many many dry stone walls.

signing the cache log

We then diverted onwards to see the ancient Castlerigg stone circle and trusted our car navigator a little too much - we ended up in a very narrow lane with no parking and had to continue on to the next road (along with the car which had come the other way reversing its way ahead of us) , before coming around again to use the official parking space.

The sign about the stone circle basically said "we don't know who built and used this or why "

Through the mist you can see the lattice work of stone walls across the green paddocks. Lovely wooly sheep (some with black faces,some with long, bushy tails, some outside the walls, some very rotund) graze across the landscape.

It was quite dark and gloomy by the time we got to Bowness .  It might be a summer playground, with many icecream shops, but today it was wet and time to go home instead. 

Scenic trip back past more lakes and more lovely Autumn colours, stopping briefly at Bowness to watch the ferry across the lake and see the little boats bobbing on the water. Glad we are not staying there. Very touristy.