There is a thunderstorm warning in the area today but no sign of any rain and to be honest it has warmed up significantly from yesterday so we decided to walk down the road to Lake Windermere to the Pier as it is only about a mile away. There is a collection of cafe and restaurants and the Pier where both the launch and the steamer go from so we stood looking over the lake for a while and watched the steamer come in. Lake Windermere is billed as being the largest natural lake in England which would suggest that there is a larger one that is man made but the information boards didn’t mention that, it is 10 miles long and 200 feet deep in places. It is fed from the Rivers Brathay and Rothay, the Rothay is the one which runs through Ambleside so we set off back along the river. There first part of the walk passes the ruins of the Galava Roman Fort, which has some information boards and requires a bit of imagination, one of the most interesting pieces of information was that they found a tomb stone which read something like ‘here lies a roman commander killed inside the walls of the fort’ which would suggest it was either not a very good fort or the soldiers weren’t very keen on fighting! We arrived back in Ambleside by Bridge House and this time it was open so I went in the top floor, the rooms are as small as they look from the outside so I am not sure how they managed to get a family of six into one! We then stopped for Afternoon tea having established yesterday that if you leave having afternoon tea until the afternoon they have run out of scones! It was really nice sitting by the beck (stream) running through the town drinking coffee and eating scones with jam and clotted cream. After this we decided to head over to Sizergh Castle and gardens, this is just outside Kendal and although run by the National trust is still the home to the Strickland family and has been for over 750 years which makes it one of the oldest continuously inhabited houses in England. The house was built around 1230 and it is believed that Catherine Parr lived here after her first husband died, it was extended in Elizabethan time and again around 1770 it was turned into a ‘Castle’ with the addition of the tower and the turrets. Its actually a really nice house and after walking through all the open rooms we went for a walk round the gardens, they have a really nice rock garden with some magnificent Acer’s but it did say on one of the information boards that some of them are over 100 years old which is probably whey they are so grand. From there it was only about 5 miles to Levens Hall so we decided to head round to there. This is a privately owned house which was built around a 13th century Pele Tower and Great Hall. it was enlarged and refurbished in the 16th century which is when the wonderful panelling and leather wall hangings were added, some of the rooms still have what are very obviously the original leather ‘wallpaper’ which despite being a little worse for wear are still holding up remarkably well. The gardens are very different to the ones at Sizergh house, laid out in sections they have a Topiary Garden, a Beech Circle, an Orchard, herb and fountain garden. They also have a Ha-Ha which is an arrangement of sunken wall and ditches which are put in place to allow uninterrupted views of the countryside while stopping cattle from encroaching onto the garden – or the high society guests. Having walked round the house we then set off back to Ambleside, stopping for ice-cream at Ambleside Pier on the way back.
