The trees around Nunhead on Tour 16: Hadrian's Wall and Vindolanda

One of the greatest treasures in the British Museum are some dull-looking thin wooden tablets. These were found during an excavation of a fort on Hadrian's Wall, on the Scottish borders. Many of the tablets are on display in the Museum's Romano-British galleries (room 49, The Weston Galleries). However, to see where the people lived who wrote the tablets, you have to go to Vindolanda itself. So on the way back from the Lake of Menteith that is exactly what we did.
The fort in the picture above is not original....

In a rather neat way, the great Northern Tour was thus bookended by major archaeological sites. We began, pretty much, with Cresswell Crags and ended with Vindolanda. Both with strong links to the local landscape, and also with the Museum.

In between, we did an awful lot of history. York, Durham, Edinburgh and Stirling, of course - but also smaller locales such as Inchmahome and Doune. Well it's all over now; so time for another Tour, I think.

The challenge of touring

The problem is that the ‘On Tour’ pages take a reasonable time to put together and they don’t really cover Nunhead. They were meant as a quick and lighthearted record of the Summer hols. However, it is now February the First and so far I’ve only managed to get through the first week in August (Cresswell, York, Durham, Alnwick, Lindisfarne). At this rate I will overlap with next Summer. Is this is a problem? Should I speed up or give up?

The thing, there is lots I could write, but I need the time, and the on Tour pages seem to get in the way. They are like a big overhanging cloud. I dunno, perhaps I just need to write more often… Then the time for the Tour would not seem so snatched from other activities.

The trees around Nunhead on Tour 2: Cresswell Crags

August 3rd, 2008
Cresswell Crags is the only place in Britain where Palaeolithic cave art has been found (according to Wikipedia, at least). This picture above gives an overview of the site today.

The Cresswell Web site is a good introduction to the area and its attractions (http://www.creswell-crags.org.uk/). It includes artist’s impressions of the Crags as they might have appeared in the Ice Ages, with the caves looking out on a narrow river valley. I remember the launch of the site in the British Museum a few years back. The Beast of Bolsover (Dennis Skinner) came, as the local MP, and was very charming. I was involved in ensuring that the site would work when showcased in the Reading Room.

There is a new visitor centre under construction, which I guess was the reason why the entrance to the car park seemed a bit of a building site. However the existing centre isn’t bad, and gives a feel for Cresswell and the caves.

As you can see above, nowadays the valley that the caves look down is flooded, with a rather nice dark green, swan- and duck-filled lake. The caves themselves are only accessible as part of a guided tour (book in advance).

This was a short, relaxing break on the trip, but we didn't stay for the cave tours. The images here were taken through the protecting grills.

And, for the record, we spotted a rather nice tree.