June 8 Hadrian's Wall and Carlisle

Today dawned as rainy as I expected, so I waited around for an hour, working on yesterday's pictures and waiting to see if it would ease off. It did ease off to a slow steady drizzle, which it maintained all day - varied from barely enough to need my rain pants to slight enough that I could have done without them - but it never got so warm that they were uncomfortable, so I didn't bother changing back and forth.
I set out at a good clip, and made pretty good time. I stopped briefly at Birdoswald Fort, which wasn't open yet but isn't fenced, so I was able to look it over. It is not large, but I took a couple of pictures. Its primary interest is the evidence that it represents a late period when the Roman Empire was breaking up and the army was giving way to a warlord system.
The hike from there to Landercost Priory is through pretty farmland, but much of the view was obscured by rain and mist; most of the wall is gone, but there are occasional bits still visible, along with the foundations of some of the turrets. I took pictures of a couple of these mainly because they were among the last artifacts of the wall that I saw on the hike.
Landercost Priory is quite interesting for several reasons. The oldest parts date back to the 11th century. After maintenance stopped during the reign of Henry VIII, it started falling apart; only one part of it was maintained as a parish church. It is the first example I have seen where a currently active church is attached to a ruin. It also played an important role in English history - Edward I installed his court there for nearly a year, then visited again just before he died. The still active part has some very good stained glass windows among other attractions. The ruined part includes some really good examples of stonework, and a couple of very old tombs. I took a picture of two tombstones from Knights Templar; the images of swords are the exact size of their actual swords.
In Carlisle, I immediately found a tea shop for lunch, and had a quite good baked potto stuffed with corned beef and some other goodies. Then I crossed under the highway to visit Carlisle Castle, which also has a long and colorful history. It was built in the 11th century on the site of a much earlier fort; the location at one time had considerable military significance, the more so given its proximity to the Scotch border, and the fact that Scotland contested control of the region up until it was incorporated into the UK. Mary spent some time here as Queen Elizabeth's "guest" before Elizabeth realized she needed to move her troublesome half sister farther south. The castle was besieged, taken and retaken numerous times; it was clearly built primarily for defense, not for comfort.
Most of the city walls were destroyed during the 19th century; part of what is still visible was incorporated into the local government buildings, across from the rail station; I took a couple of pictures to upload.
I also visited Carlisle Cathedral which, I am told, is the 2nd smallest cathedral in England, but boasts some very nice architecture and some lovely windows, as well as an old and beautiful wood-carved panel behind the main altar.
It was a good trip all in all, not at all what I had planned but a lot of fun.