How You Get There

Willis, if you can get to Scotland, go on the Jacobite railway (hopefully steam hauled) from Fort William to Mallaig. The scenery is stunning; keep an eye out for the Glenfinnan Viaduct (aka Harry Potter’s).
Also, try to visit the Western Isles and the Corryvreckan – the world’s third largest whirlpool. Great B&B at Seil Island here:- http://www.innish.com/ . At the southern tip of Seil Island is Ellenabeich and the Slate Islands Heritage Centre with the excellent Oyster Bar nearby (great ale and sea food).
Of course, Scotland is also known for that other amber nectar….
If you return south down the eastern side of the country try to get to York (great city) and Norwich (first part pedestrianised city in Europe, capital of Norfolk and the waterways system known as The Norfolk Broads) with its equally superb cathedral.
BTW, ignore the comment above about the Highland clearances: they happened and were appalling.

Having been a student in Bath I was once quite an expert on its city-centre pubs. Memory’s fading a bit, but the smallest pub was either The Volunteer Rifleman’s Arms or The Coeur de Lion (both in the Passages, quite close to The Old Green Tree). The Old Green Tree was one of our haunts until we were asked to leave after one of our group was accused of barracking the landlord’s wife. After 30-odd years I expect it’s safe to venture back. Sadly, no chance of revisiting The Beehive, another tiny pub that used to be up the hill in Lansdown Road, purveyor of scrumpy (rough cider, unfiltered so quite cloudy) at the then bargain price of 50p/pint, but which is long gone.

London247:
You mention Indian Queens here in Cornwall.
Willis being an American he may be interested that local legend says Indian Queens is named after Pocahontas whom the locals believe resided there with her husband for some time. The legend is probably not true but is firmly believed by many locals and so Pocahontas Crescent in the town is named after her.
Pocahontas was a Powhatan native American lady who saved the life of Englishman John Smith then married John Rolfe who returned to England with her where she became a famous figure in London social life.
Richard

For the record, there are two deep – that is, underground – coal mines still operating within 20 miles of the Drax power station. There have been surface mines in the neighbourhood too, (mostly on former underground mine sites) but I don’t think any are active at present. That said, Drax and the other coal-fired power stations nearby take surface mined coal from other parts of UK, such as north-east England and central Scotland, as well as imports.
Inevitably, any mention of the UK coal industry raises the usual spectres of closures under Wilson, Thatcher, etc. But they were amateurs compared to the three Secretaries of State for Energy and Climate Change, starting with Ed Miliband in 2008. These have cut to the chase by carbon-taxing coal out of the mix by 2018 at the latest, with the inevitable effect on the future viability of the remaining mines, underground and open air.
All of these politicians have, of course, had considerable help from the fossil fools in the mining unions…

North from Bath to Liverpool and Beyond.
Hi Willis,
The following are some suggestions for your itinerary as you head north.
At Bristol you are near the mouth of the River Avon (Afon is the Welsh word meaning river, so Bristol is on the banks of the River River). At Portishead the Avon joins the estuary of the River Severn famous for its tidal bore.
The River Severn is the longest river in the United Kingdom, it rises in the Cambrian Mountains of Central Wales and first flows north to reach the English county of Shropshire. At Shrewsbury its former course to the north to the Irish Sea is blocked by the terminal glacial moraines located around Ellesmere, formed at the southern limit of the ancient Irish Sea ice-field, instead the river turns south through the Iron Bridge Gorge, following a route cut by the glacial melt-waters as they flowed south from Shropshire at the end of the Ice age. The river’s course passes by Worcester and the Vale of Evesham, famous for its apples, to reach its modern southern estuary.
The main modern road route north, the M5, misses many tourist spots. In the east is Stratford-upon-Avon (another afon), Shakespeare’s birthplace, while in the west are the Malvern Hills and the spa town of Malvern. In the Malvern Hills a wild apricot Golden Glow was discovered growing on the slopes of the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire. Apricots are believed to originate from China and were widely distributed in the ancient world and the possibility that these Malvern apricots date back to an introduction to Britannia in Roman times is pure speculation on my part!
Ironbridge is a must see. This bridge was built by craftsmen who were skilled at working with wood and stone and so the bridge is designed in the traditional way but constructed with iron and not wood.
North from Ironbridge head for Chester the county city of Cheshire located at the tidal limit of the River Dee. Chester is an ancient town with a medieval wall and superb examples of Tudor timber frame buildings. Chester has Roman origins, its name derives from the Latin word castrum (the fortified camp). In Roman times it was the main base for the XXth legion
In Roman times Chester provide access to the Irish Sea 20 miles to the north via the wide tidal Dee estuary, now heavily silted up with tidal flats alongside the Wirral peninsula and the reclaimed marshes of Sealand. The question as to whether the Romans maintained a military presence on the east coast of Ireland is moot (think Guantanamo Bay for a possible modern superpower example). What is clear historical record however is that by Viking times Dublin (Dubh-linn or Black Pool) was the premier Viking City of the Irish Sea region.
On expulsion from Dublin the Vikings settled on the Wirral where many villages have the suffix “by” in their name e.g Irby, Pensby, Greasby. The by is a city in modern Danish, but here the word refers to a farmstead or small village, the word “by” is found in terms such as “Highways and Byways”, the By-laws (the village laws) and also By-elections.
By modern times ships where no longer able to easily sail to Ireland from Chester and the Port of Parkgate was briefly developed with its Old Quay and New Quay. Admiral Nelson’s mistress Lady Hamilton was born in the nearby Wirral village of Ness. Ness means headland or nose and has the same etymological roots as the French word Nez as found in Le Gris Nez, the Chalk cliff headland near Calais on the north coast of France.
To visit Parkgate now none of this maritime activity seems possible as the vast coastal marsh extends out across the Dee estuary from the old sandstone seawall that lines the Parade. However even in the 1920s Parkgate had a shrimp fishery and the navigable tide reached the wall every day. Now only the extreme equinoctial spring tides with their 10 metre range, flood the marshland because the mud has accreted by up to 3 metres in 90 years.
With the silting of the Dee estuary Commerce turned its attention to developing the small Lancashire port of Liverpool on the east bank of the Mersey estuary. The key to the development of Liverpool was the creation of the dredged Crosby Channel through the Great Burbo Bank, lined by the revetments and marked by the Bar Lightship in Liverpool Bay, (Bar, or Aber, refers to the mouth of a river as in Barmouth or as in Aberystwyth).
The Northwest region is the most densely populated area of the British Isles. Its two major cities, Liverpool and Manchester have always been rivals. Liverpool as the major port city of Lancashire controlled the commerce to such an extent that Manchester funded and built the Manchester Ship Canal on the southern side of the Mersey, through Cheshire (thereby avoiding Lancashire) to reach the navigable Mersey tidewater at East Ham near Ellesmere Port. The canal was built with locks identical in size as those of the St Lawrence Seaway, allowing ships to sail from Manchester to Port Duluth, Minnesota at the head of Lake Superior.
You will have many things to do in Liverpool. A must is to take the Ferry across the Mersey to Birkenhead. Birkenhead Park opened in 1847 and is the model for Central Park in New York. American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted incorporated many of the features he observed into his design for New York’s Central Park. He wrote about the strong influence of Birkenhead Park in his book Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England.
Overlooking Birkenhead is Bidston Observatory on Bidston Hill a local landmark and weather station of historic importance.
After Liverpool, the Lake District has a huge “to do list”, but do visit Brockhole, the Visitor Centre on the banks of Windermere for ideas. Finally returning to my Roman Theme, High Street the Roman Road from Ambleside to Penrith takes the ridgeway route north avoiding the forested valleys of Cumbria and rising to an elevation of over 2,500 feet. A high level route, now used only by walkers, that bears witness to a different climate in the past.

The Roman baths are still there… I learned about “curse tablets”… thin sheets of lead with a curse on someone…rolled up and…thrown into the bath… a curse on whoever it was who stole someone’s clothes or shoes when they were in the bath a couple thousand years ago

Perhaps cursing the last soldier out for leaving that terrible ring.
[Sorry – I am enjoying your travelogue]

I hesitate to publicise this, but the best restaurant I’ve been to in all my quite long life is just near Keswick in the Lake District. It is called The Lyzzick Hall Hotel and is described as ‘Under Skiddaw’. It is on the north side of the A66 right near Keswick and is really under Skiddaw. It’s marvellous in every way I can think of and I’m looking forward very much to my next visit.