Day 9: Barstobrick to home

It was a bit damp again when we woke up in our lodge in Barstobrick this morning. This definitely hasn't been a holiday for sunny weather, although somehow I have still managed to pick up a bit of sunburn  

Even though it wasn't a sunny morning, the view from the lodge was lovely.

We'd been provided with a leaflet about a local walking trail, so once we'd had breakfast and checked out we decided to give it a try. We were able to start walking right from where we'd been staying.

The walk started off fairly sedately, but it soon began to climb higher.

The good thing about climbing higher was that we had some good views out across the surrounding countryside.

We were walking towards this monument, on the top of Barstobrick hill. It was erected in memory of the inventor James Neilson, who invented something called the hot-blast process which apparently increased the efficiency of smelting iron. The trail we were walking on was called the Hot Blast Trail

We were rather out of breath by the time we got to the top, but the views were pretty.

And we could see for a really long way

The path uphill had been quite wide and easy to follow, but the path downhill turned out to be considerably narrower.

I wasn't really thrilled about how steep it was

Parts of the path were also quite overgrown, so we had to push our way through bracken at times. It felt like quite a remote part of the country and we didn't see anyone else doing the same walk.

Once we got down the hill the path became more sedate again, leading us through a forest.

We also passed through a pretty garden before ending up back at where we'd left the car.

Before we set off on the journey home, we stopped for coffee and cake at the Barstobrick cafe  

The drive home was 275 miles - so rather long(!) -  but we've had such a great holiday that it definitely felt worthwhile