A weekend in Eden

Our annual weekend away was spent in the Eden district starting at Allenheads.  As we assembled and took refreshments ....

This sort of thing was going on.....

I think we generally like that sort of thing. We had to drag ourselves away to start the first walk led by John & Marie. Most of it was in the upland reaches with a lot of deserted barns and hovels.

The long and winding road

A wonky cairn was a good lunch spot

We descended to the valley...

At the end we had drinks at the pub in Allenhead but were plagued by the Eden midges( which nobody told us about!). We then checked in at the Nent hall country house which did us proud providing our evening meal and were helpful and friendly.

Before our dinner we went to mass in Alston where we were made most welcome especially as we had probably doubled the mass attendance! The church (more a chapel really) was shared with the Methodists who attend on Sunday morning.

Back at the hotel Pre-meal drinks...

Caption competition time anyone?

After an enjoyable meal (sorry the photos were bad) and more drinks we retired to bed.

On Sunday we checked out and headed to Alston steam railway where Ken finally found someone on the same wavelength...

The first part of the Sunday walk was along the South Tyne trail. Cue passing train

We briefly left the historic (i.e. defunct) county of Cumberland - but not for long.

We left the South Tyne trail to join the Pennine way back to Alston and things got hilly, rocky and Sheepy. Some of the sheep were quite friendly and approached some of us in order to eat our clothing.

Beyond yonder wall is the site of the Epiacum Roman Fort also known as Whitley castle. This was used to protect the lead mines from marauding barbarians.

Lunch time. Although cloudy for a bit it was sunny most of the time.

I think the path was supposed to go through this thing

The view from a bridge before starting another climb- you certainly knew you had been for a walk by the time we arrived back in Alston. After refreshments at the station some of the party went for a drink at a nearby country pub before returning home.
It was a great weekend with splendid weather (again). It was nice to see Andrea join us for the evening at the hotel. Roll on next year.
Next walk is 3rd August probably in  happy Valley (sounds promising).