Coach trip to Castle

All the time I have lived in this area I have been intrigued by the story of a castle in our area, but it didn't come my way to visit there.  They do not take individual visitors now, and accept coach parties of up to 25 people so when I saw a visit advertised by the local Historical Society in the local free paper, I booked us both in immediately.

It was 1-1/2 hours, up the highway, then 46kms over a very corrugated road that we would not care to travel in our RV.  We came back on a sealed road, but it was very narrow.   When we arrived at the front gate we were told we weren't allowed to take photos. (pic above from internet).

To add to the ambience of the day, most of the participants had lived in the area, or had relatives who had been part of the large staff there in the early days of maids and governesses. There were many reminiscenes, and four on the trip were sisters whose Grandmother was Governess to the original family.  They were brought up in the area and had stories of riding their ponies to school etc.

We had a lovely day.... commencing with a DVD of the history, and then spending a very interesting time in the archive rooms.  We had a picnic in the lovely grounds overlooking the river and a walk up to the original gates.  As we were leaving the Curator asked us all to sign the Visitors Book, and took a group photo of us.  A very nice day out. Photo in the general area of the Castle.

To join in Outdoor Wednesday and see all the posts, click here

Have a lovely week, Everyone!