Hadrians Wall Country 2: Brampton & Lancercost Priory

Time for another travel update. As you may recall, we started our trip through Hadrians Wall Country in Carlisle, with the idea of walking or using public transport to cross the northern top of England from coast to coast.

The key to this trip was the AD122 bus service which is laid on for tourists from late March or April through October. The bus links all the important sites of Hadrians Wall and often has a guide on board describing the landscape and explaining the history. Other bus services can be used along parts of the route, so the idea is that you can chop and change at your convenience, flashing your 'rover' ticket as you do.

The trouble with bus services in the UK is that they have been privatised and are owned by companies out to make a profit. We are told that a free market leads to competition and lower prices, but it has been my experience it leads to a worse service and higher fares. This is because the bus companies only want to operate along the busiest routes, at a frequency that maximises their profits.

Beforehand we could complain about public transport to accountable, elected officials - but these days we are at the mercy of faceless corporations who are beholden only to shareholders who want dividends, not fairness. What little government influence remains ends up in the form of tax incentives, with taxpayers expected to subsidise private companies to run extended hours and maintain a skeleton service to smaller villages.

Privatisation has also had a detrimental affect on tourists trying to travel around this country. It is difficult to track down information about fares and connections because of the need to approach each transport company individually. Because they are private companies, the bus operators do not like to share information with their competitors or sometimes even disclose their own discounts. A website like Traveline does attempt to offer a route planner, but the fare information is non-existent so budgeting is impossible. And

This all meant it was almost impossible to buy our bus ticket to start the bl**dy trip out of Carlisle. We boarded a bus (not the AD122, mind) that would have been included in the rover ticket. The driver had no idea what we were talking about and could not have sold us the rover ticket anyway (he said). We called in at bus station's ticket booth. This at last set the wheels of bureaucracy in motion so 15 minutes and £30 later we had our two rover tickets valid for any specified bus in the region for the next 3 days. By now the 11am bus to Brampton had left.

We trudged back to another bus stop near the train station to wait for the AD122, thoroughly peeved at the tattooed squadron of knuckle-draggers that seem to comprise the majority of Carlisle's population.

The AD122, a small bus built to navigate narrow country lanes, arrived on time with a guide on board. He used his microphone to point out places of interest and offered some trivia, but we were hardly on board for 15 minutes before pulling into the town of Brampton. We wanted to start our walk here and thanks to the guide's local knowledge he made sure we alighted next to St Martin's church. According to him, the stained glass inside was not to be missed. Outside, we saw this reminder of the area's Roman past.

It was an unexpected surprise to step inside to see all the windows were done by one of Britain's most famous Victorian artists, Edward Burne-Jones.

The interior had the feel of an art gallery, with plain white walls and simple stonework enabling visitors to admire the windows.

The church's own website has photos and descriptions of each of the windows. You can enlarge my own snaps by clicking on them.

The photo at the top of today's entry is what you might expect to see in Brampton's tourist literature. It certainly has all that you would want in a small English town: old-fashioned streetlamps and chimneypots, a church tower, the Georgian windows of the local pub...

...and rain clouds! Zooming out offers a different perspective, but all these cars mean that the shops are busy and that the locals aren't heading off to the nearest Asda (Wal-Mart's UK brand).

This particular eatery didn't look too busy (who'd want to go to the 'All Alone Cafe'?), but a few doors down we found a chippie that dished up huge slabs of breaded cod atop fresh chips. After fortifying ourselves, it was time at last to begin our walk. On cue, the mist and rain descended, so our waterproof hoods went up.

Thankfully it was a short stroll of about 2.5 miles and we were protected by thick woodland most of the way. After following a ridge that on a clear day would have had lovely views, the path descends to a stream and keeps to the water's edge as it flows down towards the priory. This part of the trail was muddy and slick, but passes several rapids and waterfalls. Click here for a full-colour map and guide for the walk.

Emerging from the woods, we crossed an old bridge and saw our first glimpse of Lanercost Priory.

B&W photo for a change (because of the grey skies)

This ancient complex of buildings includes a small church nearly 300 years ago inside the ruins of a much larger priory, practically all of which was constructed from stone looted from Hadrians Wall. The church is free to enter when it is open, while the ruins are an English Heritage site. One of Christian's perks from work is that he has free entry to English Heritage sites, which was good because we only had 20 minutes before the bus was due (if only we'd been able to catch the bus we intended...never mind).

By virtue of being in ruin, there is not that much to see of the 850-year old priory, though some old carvings have survived. Click over to this site for more history about the place, plus photos taken on a sunny day.

Next stop: our first encounter with the Roman wall!