Friday was dry and sunny so we returned to Croft Castle where I had pre-booked tickets. Arrangements were slightly different this time as you had to show your membership cards in a ticket office but it was a one way system and we waited until the people already in there had left.
I thought we were going to redo the Ancient Tree Walk but B had spotted a pool and bridge down in the valley when we drove in and decided to walk up hill through the parkland and then go through woodland in fish pool valley to find the features. Of course, I hadn't brought the map of the walk with me so it didn't exactly go to plan. There are so many beautiful ancient and veteran trees at Croft Castle - I am sure there was once a programme on Radio 4 about them which is something I will have to search for.
We then turned off the main path going uphill to walk through woodland above Fishpool Valley.
We didn't find the path down to the pool and bridge as we came back out near the cafe and toilets! Next time I will take a map of the walk with us. There are certainly some lovely trails and much to see at Croft Castle and it is a real discovery.
We carried on to the castle and had another look round the walled garden.
There was a lot of mistletoe growing on apple trees in the orchard. You could buy a bag from the shop for £2.50 to pick your own apples and afterwards I rather wished we had.
The castle is now open but we didn't go inside. The church of St Michael and All Angels was also open and I did go in there but will write about that in Part 3.
Rapunzel's Tower
Tree Art
I have slowly got used to new blogger although I still don't like it very much and it takes a lot longer to write posts. I am still not happy about photo quality on the actual post although they do look a little better in the gallery. I am still using "compose your own view" rather than html and find I add far less text as I get fed up of changing settings e.g. left align, paragraph and font size every time.
All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera
What fabulous trees! I feel an Entmoot coming on. Some glorious splashes of Autumn colour too, and a rather splendid bug hotel to boot!
ReplyDeleteAbout your text, I just highlight everything once I am done and adjust it all in one go. Sometimes the spacing needs tweaking, but it is one way around it.
Oh wow, what amazing trees. Croft Castle will definitely be on our places to visit once we move.
ReplyDeleteThose gnarly old trees are fabulous :-) I don't think we have done that walk on our visits there.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Love those trees!
ReplyDeleteRustic Pumpkin - Thanks so much. The Autumn colours are really starting to come out now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for tip re: highlighting - think you have mentioned it before. I haven't yet tried because I am worried I will highlight photos and it might affect them.
Bove Belle - Thank you. You must visit - it is wonderful there. A lot to see and many walking trails and we still have to go inside the castle but that will wait until current horrors have passed.
CherryPie - Thank you. You go up the hill behind the toilets and cafe and then when nearly up there is a gate (from memory) across the track. Here you veer to the right into trees follow the edge and find a gate that descends through the woods.
Niki - Thank you so much for your comment.
nice set! I like Croft
ReplyDeleteThe Quacks of Life - Thanks Pete. I think the same as you initially ie uploaded photo quality is not good :( Yes, it is great there -a real discovery. Thanks for recommending it :)
ReplyDeleteAh, lovely Croft. It's great to see all these nooks and crannies and the bee post!
ReplyDeleteCaroline Gill - Thank you - Croft is a great discovery :)
ReplyDelete