Peak District, 8 July 2007

On the 4th of July Marian and I said our goodbyes to Dympna and drove from Louisburgh through to Limerick from where we flew out of Shannon Airport to Manchester. We were lucky to have somewhere to stay temporarily; Brad and Sue, friends from Christchurch, very kindly lent us the spare room in their apartment which overlooks the Old Trafford football ground. This is the view from their balcony showing the sun setting behind Old Trafford:

It was apartment-hunting on Thursday and Friday (5th and 6th July) and after traipsing around in the rain for two days looking at apartments, we were a bit frazzled and glad to have the weekend off. On Sunday Brad and Sue organised a nice gentle walk in the Peak District, which lies to the east of Manchester.

We started and finished the walk in Castleton, which does indeed as the name suggests, have a castle on the hill above the village. This quaint village seemed straight out of an episode of Miss Marple or Midsomer Murders. We carefully avoided the vicarage lest one of us got mysteriously murdered.

We climbed out of the valley where the village is situated, and were soon strolling along country lanes. In these very English surroundings, Marian said that she felt like she was in the Famous Five off on an adventure. All we needed was Timmy the dog:

On the way back to Manchester we stopped at Lyme Hall, an old country estate mansion. Lyme Hall was originally a remote hunting lodge. In Tudor times a house was built there and this was turned into an Italianate palace by the Venetian architect Leoni in the early 18th Century.

Lyme Hall is the celebrated location for Mr Darcy’s famous dip in the lake in the BBC adaptation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, and playing the exterior of his house, Pemberley. Marian’s sister has the series on tape so perhaps she could confirm this.