Walking walking walking

We've been away with our walking friends again, to Richmond in Yorkshire, to the same house as the previous two years. We had a lovely time. 

Mr L and I visited Richmond Castle in a spare moment. It was probably built from about 1070, though as you can see, there's a lot of it missing now. Presumably people pinched the stone to build the surrounding houses. 

We walked along the river to Easby Abbey

and the nearby St Agatha's Church. 

Inside are wall paintings, including this one, which dates from about 1250. The church was built some time before that, obviously.

The Abbey itself was founded in 1152 but has suffered somewhat, becoming ruined after Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. It was huge, though, so there's a lot of it left, though it's all walls and no roof. 

The third day was the hardest. The walk wasn't much longer - 6 or 7 miles - but it was very up and down. Once we got high up, the wind fairly whistled and it was a bit wet, but really the weather was much better than had been forecast, so that was good. On the way down, mainly through fields with cows (I don't really trust cows) and sheep, there were a lot of stiles built by 6'5 men with long legs - quite tricky for 5'2 ladies with shorter ones. But we made it. Our ages are 71, 76, 78, 79, 80 and 95 (yes, 95! and she's the fittest of us all!) so we didn't do too badly. 

I didn't take any photos of the hard bits - too busy trying not to fall over. But this is near the end. We still had to go over that ridge and down the other side. 

We had a really great time with lots of laughter. Truly the best medicine for tired muscles.