A wedding and a visit to Killhope

For the August Bank Holiday we travelled north, further north than we've been for quite some time. On the Friday I drove the almost 7 hour journey to County Durham. The traffic was slow almost all the way. We arrived in time for an evening meal. The Foresters Guest House seems to be the village pub and restaurant as well as a B&B. I can definitely recommend this place, the food is good, the room was lovely and the views are outstanding. The wedding of our God son was a lovely service even if Brancepeth church, in the grounds of the castle, was quite hard to find. The church looks lovely, not just because of the wedding but because it has been partly re-built after a fire. The brides mother presided at the wedding service and the grooms father preached the sermon. The bride and groom assisted with the cups at communion - a lovely meaningful act demonstrating the service that they are both committed to in Christ. I had never seen that before, but would love to again. 

Jo ready to go underground

On Sunday we visited Killhope lead mine.  What a name!  Lead mining was undoubtedly difficult and this mine is certainly out of the way, but Killhope - surely not that bad.  Well not now anyway, we were shown round the mine - loaned wellies as the paths in the mine are under water. Its only enough to cover shoes in most places, but without wellington boots you'd get very wet feet. I won't tell you their little underground secret.  After the underground tour finished we spent some time watching the water wheel and looking at all the ancient machinery - most of it still working- well moving anyway.

What a shame they don't put the water wheel to good use and generate some electricity!

They have a woodland surrounding the mine where they are planting Juniper trees and turning the habitat back to a native English environment.  See the panel below for more details.  We set out for a walk through the woods, the paths are carefully marked because of the work that has been done in the hills to channel water down to the reservoirs. 

Killhope Site and Wildlife Information

There are also natural sink holes that exist because of the geology and have nothing to do with human mining activity.  You could easily be forgiven for thinking that the holes are caused by us and the channels are natural, as some of them are not very straight.

There are Red Surirrel in the wood also.  They have a hide set up, it is surrounded by all manner of nut dispensers, so the squirrels should never go hungry.  We were told in the shop that they had been active so were looking forward to seeing one.  I had never seen a red squirrel.  We sat in the hide watching various birds eat the nuts and a solitary rabbit pretend to be a statue.  It was warm and I was tired.  I began to doze.  Two or three times I woke and tried to pay attention, to keep the camera pointing at the most likely location for action. Then there it was my first red squirrel.  First I watched it, then I got my camera and it started to run.  I didn't know they were camera shy.  I snapped and hoped.  Here's the image, cropped and 'fixed' so that the animal is more visible:

There is just enough evidence to tell it is a squirrel - look at the ears.  My career as David Attenborough's successor has got off to a poor start, but we had a fantastic weekend and completed another of the 25 things project.