As Homer (that's Homer as in "D'OH!", not Homer as in "The Iliad") would say, "Mmmmmm... school camps" - or perhaps not. I endured the stone-age facilities of St Johns in the Vale a couple of times with Trinity; how I loved the 27 mile walk with my suitcase up a 1:2 gradient from the coach drop-off point to the dormitories. Much as I enjoy the countryside these days, I was bored to tears at the time; wandering round Keswick and Castlerigg stone circle in the pouring rain left my bell largely un-rung. Add to that the distinct possibility of all manner of foreign bodies being added to your sleeping bag by the class jokers and the inevitability of being jumped once the lights went out and the week positively flew by. The most interesting thing was trying to suss out whether Miss Wright and Mr. A.N. Otherteacher were getting jiggy after lights out. I remember several scouting missions leaving our dorm in the dead of night...

In earlier years, Underheugh was the destination of choice, this being a campsite near Gilsland, inherited from Carlisle Grammar School, and used from 1968 to 1979 by Lower School (mainly). Accommodation came in the form of 8 of yer finest Stormhaven tents (big green things that took a squad to put up and would hold up to a dozen first years in some discomfort). Underheugh was abandoned in 1979 because Big Jim Eaton went down and thought it too wet and nasty and decided to scrap it and get Embleton instead.