#CountryKids Exploring Waterhead and Galava Roman Fort

A friend has come up to Keswick for the Convention so we arranged to meet at Ambleside today for lunch. The easiest place to do this was at Hayes Garden World where we had lunch on the terrace with Mr Tod for company:

We then parked up at Waterhead (lucky that it didn't take long to get spaces!) and the children wanted to paddle in Windermere:

Of course we hadn't come prepared so they just waded in and got their bottom halves wet:

Fortified with English Lakes ice cream we headed off for an exploratory walk through Borrans Park which is next to Waterhead. There were some lovely views down Windermere and benches to sit on to enjoy them:

On the far side of the park the National Trust look after Ambleside Roman fort which was probably called Galava in Roman times:

Whilst exploring the ruins we witnessed a parachutist landing after he had jumped from one of the nearby fells. 

Here is my video of him landing:

In recent years plenty of work has been done to protect and showcase more of the fort. It is protected from the livestock grazing in the field by fences and we had to climb a stile to get into the Principal buildings:

Its great to be able to see the foundations of the buildings and the information panel explained what their functions were:

Luckily the resident cattle were friendly although this cow did move to protect her calf when I got too close for her comfort:

We then spotted a gate out of the field heading to an intriguing looking path so we headed off out:

It came out into Birdhouse Meadow which is full of wild flowers:

As we walked around we saw evidence of the damage from Storm Desmond. This is my daughter looking at how the river bank was undercut by the power of the water:

This bench has been washed out from a garden or a park:

We then found a really good spot for some stone skimming:

We completed our circular walk by heading along the road and back through the top of the park. It was a case of just in time to get back to the car park under the 2 hour mark! A lovely little walk with plenty of things to do on the way (I even caught some Pokemon...)