Today we drove from York to the town of Barnard Castle. We went to the Bowes Museum, which is one of the first purpose built museums in the world, built by the Bowes in the nineteenth Century. It is dedicated to the decorative arts, and was filled with many lovely things -- as well as a two headed calf, for reasons that escape me at present. We then drove through the beautiful little town to the site of Barnard Castle itself, which is a ruin. There was an exciting half hour while I maneuvered the car out from where it had been parked in. We then drove off to cross the Scottish Border near Gretna Green, and saw the place where the blacksmith married so many English people in the Eighteenth Century who were escaping the marriage laws of England. We drove down the M6 and turned off at Moffat, and began a scenic journey through the border country.
Bowes Museum staircase
We drove the mile or so to Barnard Castle itself.
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| The town of Barnard Castle |
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| It was damp |
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| The castle is a ruin, but what a view from the window! |
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| Alanna can't figure out where to go on this path. We soon found out that we had been "parked in" in the little parking lot. It only took about 25 minutes to back out between cars. |
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| Gretna Green. This is about 2:00 in the afternoon, but it looks a lot darker. |
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| Scotland | |
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| The James Hogg Memorial |
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| Our room, with the shower stall right at the end of the beds, and the TV right beside, so you can choose your entertainment. |
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