Standing Stones

Did you know there were ancient standing stones in Newbridge? Not many people do. Dad drove past them for years when he was at university and had no idea. Typically, it was geocaching that brought them to his attention. He found a cache there with friends a few years ago and didn't claim it at the time because he knew it was somewhere Mum and me would like to come.

However, it's taken him so long to bring us, the cache no longer exists - unsurprisingly, the stones still do though!

It's a single burial mound with three large stones around it. Experts think there used to be a dozen or so stones circling it. It made for a nice walk on a lovely day and I hope it wasn't disrespectful that I did some acrobatics on the burial mound - it wasn't meant to be.

Star jumps:

Cartwheels (you may need to zoom in):

And a cartwheel off the side (into some nettles - serves me right!):

Hadrian's Wall

The summer holidays are nearly over. It seems like such a long time ago that we had that amazing holiday in Findhorn - at least it does to me. Mum and Dad can't believe I'll be going back to school so soon.

I've had a busy holiday. It's not all on this blog but there've been things to do for me most days. The first week after Findhorn was swimming where I improved all of my swimming strokes and Mummy also had a swimming class and learned how to do front crawl properly. There's also been freestyle gymnastics, badminton, tennis and a selection of activities at the local high school. It's supposed to be a time for me to rest and I'm worn out!

Mum was getting really concerned about how tired I was and decided quite late to get us away for another wee holiday so that I could relax. Since we've been reading a lot about the Romans and I did the Romans at school this last year she found us a nice place very near to Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland for my last week of the holidays.

I wouldn't exactly describe it as relaxing though! We're home now and Dad says he'll be glad to get back to work for a rest! But it does appear to have done the trick for me. We spent most of the days outside in the fresh air getting lots of exercise and learning lots of things and had relaxing evenings in the cottage and then a good sleep overnight. Bring on primary four!

Here's a selection of memories from this holiday...

This is the garden of the cottage we stayed in. The photo is taken from the upstairs balcony and doesn't show much of it to be honest! The garden was huge and had loads of trails to follow. The owners lived in a large summer house in this garden and had a dog that I could play with in the evening. It was great fun!

The first day was spent at Vindolanda and then in the evening we headed out to the nearest bit of Wall to explore and, of course, have a fight! Dad was the Celt!

It was a beautiful evening up there.

The next day we went to the Roman Army museum and then Housesteads Fort. At Housesteads we followed the Wall for a while and collected a couple of Geocaches. And had a fight or two!

Hypocausts, you're allowed to play on them, right?

I'm the Celt this time!

All three of us in one photo!

Pretty amazing view...

Those Romans could build really straight roads. It's a real shame not all roads in the area were like this, some of them couldn't be more anti-Roman if they tried. I honestly wonder if that's what the road builders were going for - bung in as many corners as possible, and then add some more for good measure...

This isn't Roman but was the highlight of Dad's holiday and one of my 50 things to do before I'm 11 and three quarters. This is one that had worried Dad as he didn't know where we'd be able to do it... Walking BEHIND a waterfall!!!

And there was even a cave to walk through near the waterfall.

We then headed off to a lead mining museum where we got to go down the mine! It was a beautiful sunny day and very warm but it was freezing down the mine, especially standing in several inches of water the whole time. Great fun though!

Next day, it was back on the Wall. More fighting and a visit to Robin Hood's tree.

Then it was Belsay castle which had an amazing garden and I got to be a Knight!

And after this we went to see Brave at the cinema and had a go on the Dodgems!

Next day we went to Chesters where I dressed as a Roman soldier. And had a fight!

And then it was off to Corbridge, a Roman town to find all the Roman soldiers. By finding all the soldiers, I got a certificate. Luckily I found them all *just* before the heavy rain started...

Last day and we had some unfinished business to attend to on the way home. A nearby Earthcache we hadn't made it to yet and then back to Birdoswald where we'd been earlier in the week. We'd been a bit late to take part in the fun activities for the kids that day so wanted to get there to participate this time. We were cutting it a bit fine so Dad dropped Mum and me off at the door and then went to park - his turning up late didn't stop him from being enlisted though!

Buried

Last full day of the holiday today so we got out to the beach nice and early. It was a nice day too. Dad built a very nice sandcastle and while we waited for the tide to come in and fill the moat he buried me in the sand! One of my 50 things to do before I'm 11 and 3/4s is to bury someone else in the sand but all that digging really isn't so much fun as being buried yourself! Unfortunately, he'd taken so many photos on his phone this holiday that he ran out of space so evidence is more limited than any of us would have liked here.

Interestingly, it turned out the castle had been built on a bit of a sand bank so the water begun to surround us! We braved it out though and stayed long enough to see the castle be destroyed by the sea.

We stopped off at the Findhorn Bakery for lunch which was really tasty and then in the afternoon it was out for some more geocaches.

This is near a memorial just outside Kinloss:

This is a massive Pictish stone in Forres. We drove past it every day and Dad hadn't seen it!