Leeds Castle

Visited 26th September 2004--------

Report by Shimmer

Move your mouse pointer over each picture to see the comments

I've been wanting to visit Leeds Castle for the last couple of years, so I was stoked when we organised a visit there. I've been there before when I was a kid, bit it was Midgey's first time. Unusually for me I'd been on the internet before hand to check out opening times, entrance fees etc. £12.50 for entrance to the castle and it's surrounding gardens. Not too bad.

Arriving at Leeds was very different from arriving at any other castle I've visited. Usually, you can see your destination dominating the skyline from miles away and it gives you something to look forward to (as well as helping with navigation). With Leeds, you don't actually see the castle itself until you are well into the castle grounds.

We were a little worried on arrival as the first car parks we came to were overflowing, and they were not small car parks, they were fields! It soon became apparent that there was some sort of run on, and thankfully the majority of the cars were parked in order to attend that.

The castle is in the middle of grounds, so there is quite a walk from the car park before you see any of the main building. This is a bit strange as it feels more like a nature walk than a historic monument. As is traditon, there are peacocks roaming in the grounds. Never worked out why, but they do add an air of class to things, and one in particular impressed us by managing to get half way up a huge old oak tree.

To enter the castle itself you have to walk through the gatehouse. This dates from an earlier period than the main building itself and looks a lot more as if were constructed as a fortication rather than a stately home! The first vistor attraction is the dog collar museum, sounds tedious but was actually quite interesting with spikes and barbs a plenty. Wouldn't have liked to have been a dog in those times, you'd gouge an eye out trying to lick yourself.

From here we walked down the steep steps to ground level, followed the edge of the castle around the inside of the moat/lake and into an old wine cellar. There was a no photography rule in effect throughout the castle, so we had to be sneaky taking photos. Jetsonik's camera was favourite as it can handle low light conditions without a flash. Out of the cellar we passed a suit of armour. If I'd had know it was the only one in the whole place I would have paid it more attention.

After visting the fountain in the courtyard it soon became apparent that the rest of the rooms were more part of a stately home than a proper castle, although they were a lot more tastefully done than Windsor Castle. There is a lot of history to be found here, but due the the volume of visitors there wasn't a spare corner to look through the guide while we were walking around, so consequently we must have missed a lot.

After crossing the bridge to the remainder of the grounds, we stopped off at the restaurant and managed to grab the last two edible sandwiches, leaving the prawn salads and whatnot for those unfortunates behind us. After a quick search we managed to find an empty antique bench that may or may not have been part of some exhibit to eat at.

From here we toured the aviary, which I didn't know was there. Got to see some wonderful looking birds up close, which was great. Then we went on to the maze, where I successfully managed to find my way back to the entrance several times. Shame the goal was to get to the mound in the middle. Jetsonik didn't use the left-hand theory that I was employing and consequently found his way to the mound before we did. I think he must have used his nose, probably someone had a hamburger there or something. The way out was via a grotto, which was less grotty than I was expecting.

After a tasty treat from the ice cream vendor we settled down and watched the birds of prey show. Better than the one at Whispnade as you got a lot closer to the birds, almost pant-wettingly close in fact as the trainer seemed determined to fly them within inches of my head. I ran out of film at this point, so only managed to photograph one of the three birds. Jetsonik was still snapping away though you have him to thank for the shot below.

After the display ended there was a bundle back to the car park, which we managed to get ahead of, and we had a clear exit from grounds and a straightforward drive home (that just happened to pass through McDonalds).