Wednesday, August 27

After another look at the Bluefaced Sheep, we drove to Vindolanda, the site of a Roman Fort that predates Hadrian's Wall.  The museum at the site features wooden ink tablets discovered during archaeological excavations.  These tablets when first recovered in 1992 were the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.  The museum also holds the largest known collection of Roman shoes.  


The site has a full-size replica of two sections of Hadrian's Wall including a tower.  There is also a milestone replica near the museum. These were used to mark distances along the roads the Romans built in the area.  We were able to take a short walk to view an actual milestone from the Roman area in its original position not far away from the museum.


Some other exhibit highlights for us were the use of the "evil eye" like we saw in Turkey to ward off evil and the pottery display which included a dog approved tile.  


Then we drove to the Lake District.  Just outside Keswick where we are staying, we stopped to look at the Castlerigg Stone Circle. There are 38 volcanic stones arranged in a circle.  The formation is four or five thousand years old.  The stones probably had an astronomical or timekeeping function but no one really knows for sure.  Afterwards, we found our B&B and took a look around the neighborhood.





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