Castle Howard

On the very rare Saturday that I get off from work Robert and I made the most of it and visited Castle Howard. It wasn't our original destination, but once again the traffic around York was so bad and slow when we saw the road sign for Castle Howard we decided to go there instead. We only wanted to go round the grounds and half an hour into our visit the heavens opened. As it was nearly lunch time we went back to the car and sat like an old couple eating our picnic. It wasn't long before the rain was over the clouds blown away (it was very windy). To be on the safe side I took my rain mack and ended up carrying the rest of the day as the rain kept away and the sun shone.

There are lots of lovely stone garden ornaments.

This house is in the walled garden so we believe this may have been the gardeners cottage.

Sweet face

There were lots of fish in the pond some very big

The long borders looked as if they were past there best but the agapanthus were still in full bloom

This box hedging was in great condition and the bussie Lizzie was doing well considering all the wet weather.

There are a lot of yew hedges it must take an age to cut.

Back in the day of these large grand houses they wanted to extend the grounds into the surrounding countryside, with the cows and sheep but didn't want them to mess up the formal gardens. The photo of the steps looks out into the fields ( the trees would not have been so overgrown) but there is a hidden ditch so the cows look like they are just at the edge of the grounds but cant get past the wall. These walls became know as ha ha walls.

The water features are all man made enhancing the grandeur of the estate. The bridge doesn't go any where. The 1,000 acres are dotted with lakes, fountains, temples and statues.

This pillar standing in the middle of the reservoir had lovely detail on the base which looks like from the water mark as if its covered up most of the time.

This was a lovely place to sit at the end of the day over looking the lake. It had a cafe but there was only sandwiches and drinks no main meals which seemed a shame as it was so much nicer in my option than the main eating places. But I was a bit shocked at the price of the drinks we had, two small bottles of pop cost £3.50 I guess if your thirsty they know you will pay it. I felt sorry for the families with children as the playground was situated here also the ice cream van very tempting for children.

Not bad for the back door

and the view from the back door