Category Archives: Travel

Lyme Park

The drive from the Lake District to Derbyshire provided an opportunity to check out a place that Nancy was interesting in visiting. Lyme Park is a country house not far from Stockport. It is a lovely looking estate but the reason is it well known is that it was used in the filming of Pride and Prejudice. The lake from which a damp Colin Firth emerged in the production is now even named on their map as Darcy’s Lake!

The area around the house has some beautifully landscaped areas and an impressive glasshouse. There is a lake in front of the house and a structured garden area to boot. Outside the house area is a far larger estate that covers much of the local area. Deer roam through much of this part of the property. We did our usual thing of checking out the outside area but skipping the interiors. Our National Trust membership got us wherever we want to go but the interiors usually leave me less inspired than the exteriors. We also had to keep an eye on the time.

It was a slightly overcast day – maybe not a huge surprise for the outskirts of Manchester – which made the stone of the buildings look a little subdued. Stone buildings with grey skies are a touch trickier to work with. However, sometimes excluding the sky is the way to go to try and make the building stand out more. Nice looking place and worth a visit if you are in the area.

Chatsworth House

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As country estates go, Chatsworth House is probably up there as one of the more grand ones. Seat of the Duke of Devonshire, the estate is substantial and the house and grounds are quite something. We have visited on a number of occasions including touring the interior. While I don’t normally bother with the insides of these places, Chatsworth is certainly one that should be experienced. Some parts of the interior are quite stunning. This is not a collection of musty furniture that some long deceased monarch once slept on. This is a grandiose place.

This trip did not include an interior tour though. This was part of a hike that took us in to the grounds. It is fair to say that the distance we walked inside the grounds was actually longer than the rest of the hike but that is an example of how extensive they are. I will post separately about some aspects of the grounds as there are many different places that might fill up a single post. We had never explored the grounds so extensively before so some of these parts were new to us.

The house itself is a very grand structure. Located along the river with an attractive bridge leading you there, the setting is very impressive. Much of the surrounding countryside is elevated relative to the house so wherever you are, you get a view down to it. The effect is to remind you regularly of just how grand it is!

Cartmel Priory

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While Cartmel now seems like a pretty sleepy town, it once was a bustling center of commerce. The Priory was the heart of a local agricultural economy. While that might have changed a lot, the Priory itself is still an impressive structure and reminder of how things had once been very different. While not as grandiose as some of the UK’s cathedrals, it is still a pretty grand building to come across in an otherwise small town.

Ullswater

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Ullswater is gorgeous. Not a lot more to say to be honest. A large lake surrounded by impressive hills. Add a sunny day and what more could you want. This place is lovely and, since it is not on a main thoroughfare, once you are out of the main tourist season, it is not terribly busy. What more could you ask for?

The Mason’s Arms

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When you have been away from somewhere for a long time, there is a risk in going back to favorite old haunts. They may not be as good as you remember and you can harm a happy memory of a place. Despite this, we decided to take a chance and visit a pub that was always a favorite of ours when we lived in Lancashire. The Mason’s Arms is on the hillside above Bowland Bridge in the Lake District. It always used to have excellent food and a huge selection of beers.

The beer selection has changed. It is now a pretty normal pub with a few different beers but no longer are there hundreds of different bottles available to sample. That is the only significant change, though. Otherwise, it is just as good if not better than I remember. The food was first class and the view across the valley just as good as it has always been. They have even made some small changes outside to the seating area to make it more comfortable.

There are not many places that are quite as relaxing to be with a pint in hand and some good food in front of you than looking out over the valley on a sunny afternoon. There is only a limited amount of parking so the place can get busy but it doesn’t feel overrun. One surprise it did provide was the presence of an old boss of mine from my days at BAe. He was having lunch with his wife half way around a walk they were taking. We had quite a long chat and it was great to catch up. When he left, we continued to sit and enjoy our food and the terrific view.

Kirkstone Pass

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The Lake District includes a few pretty steep passes to let you get from one valley to another. The route to Ullswater from Windermere takes you over the Kirkstone Pass. It isn’t the steepest pass in the Lakes but it is pretty steep all the same. Definitely not something you want to be stuck behind a slow truck on.

At the top of the pass is the Kirkstone Pass Inn. If you were traversing the pass in awful weather (something that is not that unusual in the Lakes), reaching that Inn would certainly seem to be a very welcome development. On the day we came through, though, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. The light on the hills looked great and the view down to Ullswater was fantastic. The steepness of the descent is something that it is hard to convey in a photograph but the drop was quite something to see. As we started down, there was a turn out that allowed us to stop again and get an even better view on the route down to the valley. It also allowed some of the other traffic to move on. Climbing the hill and dropping down the other side is not terrible for a car but it is fair to say I was happier doing it with a rental car than with my own!

Heathrow Departures

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Terminal 5 at Heathrow has a massive wall of glass out on to the airport. However, it is not so easy to get any shots of the planes given the amount of space that is given over to retail. However, the piers from which many of the flights depart are a better proposition. Our flight was leaving from 5C so we headed over there a little ahead of time. Apparently, this might not always be a good idea if they change gates because transferring back is not as straightforward. However, we didn’t have any problems.

Head to the north end of the pier and you can sit with a pretty unrestricted view of the departing aircraft from 27R. They tend to rotate quite close to where you are so you have an excellent opportunity to watch the movements. Shooting through the glass is possible but not ideal. Internal reflections are, of course, a big issue but sometimes you can avoid them and other times you hope they are not too noticeable. Not material for publication but certainly useful for getting something that you would not normally see elsewhere.

I spent a happy half hour getting shots of departing jets prior to the time to head to our gate to board. The only disappointing thing was how many US airlines I got. I can get them at home! Our plane was actually in front of me while I was taking my pictures. It was connected to the terminal by a very long jet bridge so, when we finally boarded, we had a long walk to actually get to the jet. Not as long as the flight was of course!

Boating on the Lake

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A lone boat on the water always attracts my attention. When you see a small boat on a large expanse of water amongst the even larger background of the hills, it seems so vulnerable. I couldn’t resist taking this picture.

Edensor

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Imagine a stereotypical village in the Derbyshire Peak District – the sort of thing that might be snow covered on a Christmas card. The type of place that you think doesn’t really exist anymore other than in the minds of artists striving for some sort of tranquil setting for their work. Guess what – it does exist. Situated on the Chatsworth estate and right in the path of our hike is the village of Edensor. This is England so, of course, it isn’t pronounced the way it is spelt. It sounds more like Enzor.

As you walk down off the hills, you see the church spire in the distance so it isn’t hard to know where you are going. The village is small – a group of buildings off the main road through the estate. It appears to be a combination of converted large estate buildings and houses for the estate workers. Everything is built from stone and the lawns and roadsides are all beautifully maintained. I don’t know whether there are rules about how well you have to keep your garden or if it is just social pressure that does the trick but the place is immaculate.

We came in alongside the churchyard and walked down past some lovely houses. On one side appeared to be a converted stable block which was not accessible to the general public and on the other was a tea room but we did not check that out. This was just somewhere we were walking through en route to the main house at Chatsworth. I imagine on a sunny summer day Edensor is packed with people visiting. A slightly cloudy September makes for a far more peaceful visit.

Caves Above Rydal

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As we turned back towards Grasmere from Rydal, the path took us up the hill to the overlook of Rydal Water. At the top of the hill was a large cave. I have no idea whether it is natural or the result of some quarrying or extraction activity. It doesn’t really matter. It was a pretty large cave with plenty of water covering a lot of the floor.

Getting shots of the cave made for a challenge. It was pretty large and way too big for the lens I was carrying for the hike. Therefore, I went with a pano stitch to cover the full thing. However, this brought in the other limitation of the shot. The range of light between the sky and the entrance to the cave was way too large for a raw conversion to cope with. Going with HDR combined with such a large pano stitch seemed like more hassle than I wanted to deal with for what was really just a vacation snap shot.

I did head in to the entrance of the cave a short distance to see how far it went back. My cameras may be rather old and left in the dust by the modern bodies when it comes to high ISO shooting but they can still do a reasonable job of picking out the detail in a very dingy environment.