RYDAL BECK

A lovely day today, much needed by me.  

Inspired by a couple of blips on here I realised I hadn't been up to Rydal Hall since before covid. So we headed off fairly early, about 9.15 this morning up to Ambleside, to the Rydal Road Car park.   BLINKIN' 'ECK prices have shot up in the last few months.  It cost us £6 to park for 4 hours PLUS 60P to spend a penny!!!!  WHAT A RIP OFF.

We arrived nice and early, about 10:15 I think.  Then we set off walking along the road towards Rydal Water to start with before turning off to walk along the track to Rydal Hall.  We only met one person coming the other way.  We stopped off at the Old School House Tea Rooms for fika.  

We then walked around the gardens in front of Rydal Hall, which belongs to the Diocese of Carlisle.  The house was built as the country seat of the Le Fleming baronets, and was sold with its gardens to the Diocese of Carlisle in 1970. The estate remained in the ownership of the Le Fleming family as of 1997. The house plays host to retreats, conferences and courses, and holiday accommodation.

We got chatting to the lady volunteer gardener, apparently there are only two of them herself and her husband plus one paid gardener, who has several places linked to Rydal Hall to look after.  They do a fantastic job.

We then walked through The Quiet Garden, into the little hut to get a great view of the waterfall, as seen above and then back up past Rydal Hall to William Wordsworth's House, Rydal Mount.  It was busy by now so we didn't go in just walked up a steep (for me) hill past it, before coming back down and then climbing up some steep steps to walk around the sculptured gardens.  It was really busy now so it was time to walk back to Ambleside.  A good leg stretch for us and a lovely morning.  This time the pathway was busy but still pleasant.

On the way home we stopped off at The Belsfield Hotel in Bowness for a lovely lunch and were back home by about 3.00pm. 

Do take care everyone and stay safe and I will see you all tomorrow.