Mirehouse itself is a country manor built in 1666 by the 8th Earl of Derby and in its lifetime it has only been sold once, in 1688. In 1802 it was left to John Spedding of Armathwaite Hall and various generations and members of the Spedding family have lived there ever since. Starting off as a smaller house it was added to over the years and adapted for several households to live there, and as it's still a family home there are only certain rooms which are open to the public. That being the case I decided that I would rather see the gardens than the house but first was a visit to St. Bega's Church situated in the Mirehouse parkland.
The church can be accessed without paying to go into the gardens, via a footpath a short distance from the garden entrance. It ran past the back of the gardens and across a couple of fields where several semi-comatose sheep were lying under a tree and eventually I arrived at the church which was surrounded by a medium height stone wall. St. Bega's dates from the mid 10th century though it was extensively restored in 1874; over the years it was visited by Wordsworth, Tennyson and Carlyle, and in more recent times it provided the setting for Melvyn Bragg's novel 'Credo'. Services are held there twice each month, it's also used for weddings and funerals and there are Bibles in 28 languages to make any overseas visitors feel welcome. It's quite a simple church and it didn't take long to look round before I collected Sophie and Poppie from where I'd left them, 'hanging' on a convenient railing just outside.
Walking back past the back of Mirehouse gardens I noticed two or three gates into the grounds with notices on them - 'Access for ticket holders only' - so I duly went to purchase a ticket from the tea rooms and handed it in at the entrance, where it was torn in half and one half given back to me. And I hadn't gone more than fifty yards or so when I discovered that I'd lost my half - it must have dropped out of my pocket when I fished out the map I'd just been given (or so I thought) so I went back to the entrance where I was told it was fine, no-one would challenge me anyway, and I was free to wander wherever I wanted.
The gardens were very extensive with several different areas but although they were very nice I felt that, unless I'd missed something, there was nothing really special about them - there were too many trees and not enough colour for me, though I could imagine the place would have looked quite attractive when all the rhododendrons were in full bloom. Once I'd seen just about every area I could see (with the exception of the adventure playground) I followed a path signposted 'Lakeside Walk' - and ended up in what I thought was the nicest part of my Mirehouse visit.
