Day 17 New Lanark to Lancaster

[vampyresheep]

our last day in Scotland :-(

Breakfast was an "interesting" experience!  We'd pre-booked a full brekkie but of course with the Polish group staying here, we were the only ones being catered for.  However we did manage to pick the exact same time as them to have breakfast.  Cue a noisy, chaotic affair, with the Hostel warden doing his best to find space for us, cook and try to rescue cutlery and plates from the Polish hoarde!  I know they wanted exclusive booking but they really weren't prepared to be flexible for us!

After checking out, we took a walk up to the Falls of Clyde.  3 falls in all, over a distance of 4 miles, so we only had time to do 2 of them.  A very pretty route though and the falls were lovely, if not in full spate due to the lack of rain.

 

 

We really didn't want to leave Scotland, particularly hearing weather reports in England, so we took a slight detour, to avoid the motorway for a while and headed to Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland.

A beautiful route there, rolling moorland, gradually getting higher and first reaching the mining village of Leadmills (pretty much what I expected it to look like, a twee, slightly ramshackle former mining village) and then on to Wanlockhead.  It was surprisingly busier than we expected, as there was a Bank Holiday event at the mining museum, so we carried on to the Beam Engine.  Used to the grand iron victorian beam engines, we weren't expecting a little timber one here!  It was beautifully located though, very atmospheric.
 

   

 

   

Still reluctant to leave, decided we had to have a drink at the highest pub in Scotland. :-)  A no-nonsense pub, sadly with no decent beers, however it was located just above the town with a lovely view and a family of very domesticated and inquisitive sheep!  A bit of a shock to find them all approaching me, bleating loudly!

   
sheep attack! ;-)
   

pretty, ramshackle Wanlockhead as viewed from the pub garden
 

 We carried on from here, down through the stunning Wanlockhead valley. 
 
However upon reaching the bottom, the route following the stream was littered with overnight caravanners and, even worse, the piles of rubbish they were leaving behind in such a beautiful tranquil place.  It nearly brought me to tears, seeing the sheep rummage through the rubbish and people just yards away picnicing oblivious to the mess (and undoubtably leaving bags of their own to add to the pile).  I was pretty close to getting out of the car and ranting at them all – what goes through people's heads, to chose to go to an out-of-the-way remote, beautiful location like this and then litter it with their waste.  I feel guilty when even leaving crumbs on the ground after I've picniced!

So annoyed by this, we forgot that we were actually looking for a spot for a picnic but then, we wouldn't want to be associated with scum like this anyway.  Instead we had to wait until we'd reached the Sanquar-Dumfries main road and pulled over at a rather uncharismatic picnic site next to a stream.
not a bad stream, just nowhere to sit near it other than in the car!
 

Rejoined the motorway at Dumfries (boo!), said goodbye to Scotland and carried on to Lancaster.  I'd booked the Central Travelodge, thinking it would be nice to spend our final night in the town, with pubs etc nearby.  However didn't realise what a car-unfriendly city this was.  Drove round the one-way system a few times, finally finding the hotel and then a few times more to find nearby parking (the advertised nearest carpark only held about 20 cars!  Travelodge website should really warn people that this place was not ideal for arrival by car).

Finally got a space and checked in, rather flustered, then went to find food.  Not so easy on a Sunday, during the Jubilee Bank Holiday.  I'd been recommended the Water Witch, by the canal but that was fully booked.  Carried on wandering, finding pubs had either stopped serving or just didn't do food at all until we eventually found the Merchants, the pub we went to with the LVG about 15 years ago when we came here for the Lancaster Ball.

Found a seat, menu looked great, went to order – we'd just missed last food orders by 10 minutes.  Aaargh!

In the end we had no option but to return to the rather busy Wetherspoons next to our hotel.  By the time we got there, chaos had set in.  We were able to order food but then we ended up waiting an hour for it to arrive, whilst watching the poor bar staff getting confused with the orders at the servery and having to put up with other impatient diners being rude and abusive to them – it wasn't their fault, something must have gone very wrong in the kitchen that evening!  However when it finally arrived, the food was better than we were fearing.

After dinner, headed back to the Merchants for a drink in better surroundings.

They were in the middle of a quiz night, however it was still a relaxing place for a drink, with clientele being more "our sort"* of people than were in the JDW!

 

*not goths or alternatives mind, just a more laid back, grown-up-studenty sort of crowd instead of tarted up beer-swilling partygoers!

That's pretty much all the photos from day 17, however for the sake of consistency, they're all also here

Comments

[demonmoonglow.livejournal.com]

we spent a weekend in Lancaster can't remember the hotel name but we had to park a fair distance down the road. WE were next to the river there and also a large pub that played loud music until 3 in the morning on fri, sat and sun! Like you we got caught up in the one way system and drove round and round trying to get out!

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

yes, we were quite familiar with that one way system by the time we'd finished! :-/ Its really not a car friendly city.