SkyBlueSophie

Fryup

I’ve titled this post ‘Fryup’ (because I think it’s a brilliant name) but I’m not sure these photos were actually taken at Fryup. It was just the nearest place to where we were. Fryup is a hamlet on the North York Moors and is separated into two small valleys, Great Fryup Dale and Little Fryup Dale.

However, it was a lovely little place for a walk. It was quiet so we parked on the side of the road and made our way up the heather-covered hill. What looked like sheep wool had caught on to the heather and made for a good picture.

Ripon is a cathedral city, the third smallest city in England and the smallest in Yorkshire. We parked and walked to the cathedral, where we went inside to look around. The current church is grade I listed and was built between the 13^th and 16^th centuries, though it was first founded as a monastery way back in the 660s. You can also go underground into the Saxon Crypt. As we were leaving, an orchestra was rehearsing for the evening, so we stayed and listened to them play for a while.

Kiplin Hall is a Jacobean house built in 1619. We paid £10 to look round, which included the gardens, lake, as well as the hall itself.

The walk around the lake takes about half an hour. There were lots of geese (who all made their way into the water when we wandered past), a couple of swans, and a heron perched on an island in the middle of the lake. There’s a lovely view of the hall from across the lake.

Returning from the walk, we looked around the hall. There are 3 floors to look around – my favourite room was the library. Before we left we made sure to visit the gardens. There was a new garden museum showing the history of the gardens since the hall was first built. I love a walled garden, and it was filled with roses and beautiful wildflowers.

I have several wildflower cards for sale in my Etsy shop.

Seaham is a little seaside town in County Durham. There was a fair on when we visited so instead we walked a little further and ended up at a beach, looking down across a beautiful stretch of the Durham coast. The descent to the beach is quite steep the way we came, but once we had walked along the beach a bit, we saw some steps leading back to the top.

The tide was out while we were there, so there were lots of little rock pools to look at, and, for the height of summer, the beach was lovely and quiet.