A lovely day and . . .

. . . another Roman Fort!

 
This is the Lune Valley at Low Borrowdale (the ‘other’ Borrowdale – not the one in the Lake District). Between the hills there is a natural and relatively easily navigable thoroughfare and that’s what you can see in the distance. The M6, the A685, the mainline railway (you can just see a train and the vehicles on the M6), all run alongside the River Lune through here.
 
But this thoroughfare was also used a long time ago by the Romans as they built their roads linking forts. The Roman Road here was coming from Ambleside and would go on to Brougham, near Penrith.
 
And here was a huge Roman Fort – Low Borrowbridge. It was built at a point where two rivers meet and high up – an excellent vantage point. Very little remains of the fort on the surface – it is just really a turf covered platform, but its outline is very clear in aerial photographs. I was standing on the northern rampart of the fort; the space to my right was where the fort stood. To my left just on the other side of the fence is a double ditch. The fort has been well excavated over the years and some very detailed reports written about it.(Borrowdale = a valley with a fort)
 
It is actually on private land belonging to Low Borrowdale Farm, but the farm is currently empty and for sale. Luckily, I met up with a guy from a neighbouring farm who was going up to it and said we could wander where we wanted. So we did. He chatted for a while, telling us about the excavations etc. He told us about the old road that was lost when the railway was built. He also told us the farmhouse was once an Inn, as it was the meeting point of a few very old roads.  He even pointed to the outbuilding that was used by the navvies when they building the railway – apparently there was a hole in the wall through to the pub where they could get drink passed through, as they were not allowed in the pub itself! Local people are a mine of information and stories.