First up after breakfast, was the drive into Lancaster and viewing the castle and cathedral, and anything else that struck our fancy. We managed to park in a place that didn’t require paying and walked up the road, heading towards the castle, and found this cute little row of houses, which was actually the Penny’s Almhouses:
You can’t actually see very much of the castle, which has been a prison of some sort since its initial building 800 years ago! It sent a quite a few people to Australia too, from the courtrooms. We took the tour of the castle, which was really good and worth the 5 GBP just for the entertainment value of the tour guide:
Right next door to the castle, is the Priory Church. It’s quite pretty on the outside and has some beautiful stained glass windows:
It’s apparently famous for its choir chairs from 1340:
We wandered around town some more, including the Judges’ Lodgings:
and couldn’t resist having a beer in The Priory, a church that’s been converted to into a pub (one of many in Lancaster!):
Then we headed past the City Hall:
Next stop was the Cathedral:
Then back to the car to head up the hill to Williamson Park with its amazing Ashton Memorial and its fantastic views for miles around, including Blackpool (you can see the tower):
It was getting on in the day and we still hadn’t left Lancaster, so we took a northwardly heading towards the Lake District, but took a wrong turn and saw the longboats and the pub and had to stop for a picture:
Then we drove past a sign for Leighton Hall and thought…why not. Getting on those little narrow lanes and trying to pass other cars was a bit scary, but the view was very nice. We didn’t go in, since it was about to close:
Back to the highway, and we had to stop for some pretty views along the way:
with another (shorter) detour to another castle, which was already closed. We took the risk and drove up the path anyway:
Then we drove into Kendal and decided we’d stay the night, since it was getting quite late.
We asked around at a few places and decided on the Sawyers Arms for 60 GBP the night, including breakfast.
