Saturday, July 19, 2014

I'm Still Here

Still here and hopefully getting back to normal after feeling under the weather for the last couple of weeks.  I've also had some sort of allergic reaction to something which caused my eyes and cheeks to swell up and the skin to discolour making it look as if someone had socked me in the eyes.  I don't normally suffer from hay fever and I didn't seem to have the same symptoms as that so I'm not sure what it was all about but as the saying goes  'all things must pass' and eventually it did. Consequently, I haven't felt much like sorting photos or writing posts although I have tried to keep up with commenting on some if not all of your blog posts so huge apologies if I have missed anyone and hopefully I'll be back to normal soon. 

 It seems ages since we were in Scotland but there are still one or two posts I want to write about our visit - first up our 'stop off' visit in Cumbria on the outward journey.

 Just a couple of miles from  the motorway we found the ruins of Shap Abbey.

 We parked the car and walked over the bridge

 It was so quiet and peaceful after the noise and speed of the M6
 The ruins stand next to a working farm but is administered by English Heritage and free to walk around.
 There are still enough foundations left to get a good idea of the layout of the abbey and plenty of interpretation boards to help.

The Abbey was founded c.1200 when monks from a Premonstratension order of white canons, so called because of the white habits they wore, came to Shap.  



The monks of this order chose remote places in which to build their abbeys and apart from the farmhouse and a couple of other buildings on the way down the valley and over the River Lowther to the ruins the area still retained that feeling of remoteness.

  The chickens from the farm had free entry too!

I guess some people do try to climb the walls but some of them looked very fragile and quite dangerous.

Not far away, across the fields in the pretty little village of Keld is another religious building, the very tiny Keld Chapel. 


  We were searching for this chapel when we found Shap Abbey and there is supposed to be a connection between the two buildings.

It was one of those lovely places where trust is high on the agenda as they key to the chapel was on a peg next to the door of the people below.  We collected the key.......

and turned it in the lock....

To discover what was inside.

It was a charming little place and we sat for a while savouring the quiet and the cool darkness inside.  The chapel seems to have quite an interesting history and for most of its life hasn't been a chapel at all.


From about 1698 it was used as a home and through the next couple of centuries passed through many hands, escaped demolition at the hands of  Lord Lonsdale as he said it was in the way of his shooting carriages getting out onto the moors and ended up in the hands of the National Trust who still care for the building.


Some local historians think that it was built as a chantry chapel for Shap Abbey other say that it wasn't.  Apparently there are no records surviving to prove either way as there is no mention of it up to the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  It is thought though, that the building was built of stone from the nearby Abbey.


After returning the key to its hook and a little stroll to the end of the village it was time to leave the peacefully grazing sheep behind


and move on to discover what lies behind this door......


20 comments:

  1. I'm glad you're feeling better Rosie. What a lovely building that little chapel is.

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    1. Thanks, Jessica - the chapel was a lovely building:)

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  2. glad you are feeling a bit better.We came through Shap a few weeks ago on the old road to avoid the M6.I wish I had known about the abbey and the chapel.

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    1. Thanks, Barbara. I wish we could have avoided the M6 but it was the quickest way up to Carlisle and then Scotland. If ever you go that way again both buildings are worth a visit:)

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  3. Sorry to hear that you have not been well, but I am glad that you are on the mend again. The chapel is beautiful! xx

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    1. Thanks, Amy - the chapel was beautiful in fact the whole village was beautiful:)

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  4. Sorry to hear that you have been laid low Rosie - I hope you are over the worst of it now. e have never really done Scotland - Can't wait to see where else you ventured xxxx

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    1. Getting there, Diane - I will write some more posts on some of the places we visited in Scotland over the next few weeks in between other ones:)

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  5. I am sorry to hear you have been unwell Rosie. Loads of people seem to have things wrong at the moment! Lovely post - how wonderful to colllect the key and let yourself into Keld chapel. It is wonderous that these types of buildings still exist. x

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    1. It does seem to be a time of year when lots of people are feeling low and under the weather. I loved opening up the chapel and peering inside:)

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  6. Sorry to hear you've been unwell, hope you are fully recovered very soon. I've never been to Scotland so it's nice to see it through blogs, this looks like an interesting area.

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    1. I'd never been to that part of Scotland before and would return as there is so much to see. I've never been further north than Edinburgh and Glasgow though - maybe one day:)

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  7. I hope you have recovered from this sort of allergie, Rosie.
    What interesting ruins. I'm glad Keld Chape has escaped from demolition, it's lovely.
    Take care.

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    1. Thanks, Dolores. The people who save these places for future generations are to be applauded I think:)

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  8. Glad your allergic reaction has gone - funny how the body reacts isn't it - sounded nasty. I love this little chapel - beautiful in its simplicity.

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    1. Thanks, Elaine - I hope it has gone now although I'm still very low in energy. Yes, the chapel was lovely - so cool and peaceful inside:)

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  9. Sorry to hear that you've been feeling under the weather. Allergies do seem to be particularly bad this summer. I'm hearing of many who do not normally have symptoms experiencing similar reactions. Glad to hear that the worst symptoms have gone.

    What an interesting place to visit Rosie. I love old churches and chapels. They have such a sense of peace about them and I always find myself thinking about the generations of people who have worshipped in them.

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    1. Yes, Marie there does seem to be a lot of allergies and others things around this year I keep hearing of people who have been laid low by non specific things. they were both lovely places to visit and a nice break from the travelling and the busy roads:)

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  10. Lovely atmospheric photos Rosie, hope you are feeling better.

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    1. Thank you - lovely to see you here again, I'm begining to feel better now although still feel lethargic in this heat:)

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