I don’t know about you, but as far as I am concerned, I prefer châteaus and stately homes to fortresses and castles. I find them and their interior ambience more interesting and appealing. The majority of the castles remind me of wars and are full of canons and the armour of knights and the whole building is stern and foreboding. However, sometimes they are not what they seem and that was exactly the case with Powis Castle in North Wales. At first glance it seems to be a huge fortress, but looking at its inside and gardens, it has so much more to offer. On this occasion I would like to focus on the garden to show you what makes it really special. Let me show you, why!

01. Garden

Behind the building there is a multi-layered garden which was built in the 1680 in the Baroque style. Gardens of this era are also called French gardens (jardin à la française), or geometrical gardens (think about Versailles) where the garden is based on symmetry, and all plants are trimmed to a formal, geometrical shapes. Very typical elements are “parterre”, a planting bed, usually square or rectangular, “broderie”, a curling decorative pattern within the parterre, “bosquet”, a small group of trees, “allé”, paths often lined with trees, “topiary”, trees or bushes trimmed to ornamental shapes and “patte d’oie”, three or five paths or allés spread outwards from a single point. The garden is also animated with sculptures, fountains, maze, tea house, pavilions and open air theatres.

So this was the time when the yew trees at Powis were planted and they were trimmed to an obelisk or cone shape. 100 years later, however, a completely new garden design appeared in England: the English landscape garden. This replaced the formal symmetry of the baroque garden and represented an ideal view of nature. The English garden usually includes a pond or lake, sweeps of gently rolling lawns, groves of trees, Gothic ruins and follies, paths and pavilions. According to this, the yew trees were not trimmed anymore and they could have a natural look. But if you think about it, these yew trees at Powis are 350 years old and need maintenance. So that the sunshine can reach the bottom of the tree, gardeners trim them accordingly. Apparently, it takes 3 months to trim the 14m high trees every year and they use a cherry-picker to reach the top.

The multi-layered terraces were designed on the basis of the castle in St Germain-en Laye, France in Italianate style. It has three levels: Top Terrace, the Aviary Terrace and the Orangery Terrace. From here the pathway leads you to the Lower Terrace, the Western Bank and to the Great Lawn. The latter is surrounded by woodlands, however, to the left of the lawn is the formal garden and orchard, created in the early 20th century.

02. Patagonian foot

Being an English landscape garden, it is inevitable to have quirky things in it. There is a sundial, which we know is essential in England, a romantic lake and a pet cemetery, just like the one in Balmoral. But the quirkiest of all, is a huge, stone Patagonian Foot by Vincent Woropay from 1987. No idea what it has to do with the medieval castle or the garden, but it is certainly a refreshing quirk to a Welsh national emblem. (We thought it was to stamp on the English!) 🙂

03. Plunge pool

Interestingly, there is a plunge pool in the garden as well, with a fantastic view of the castle. It was built around 1770 and Clive of India advised the 1st Earl, Henry Arthur that exercising followed by a plunge into cold water was beneficial for his health. Using a plunge pool in the open air also enabled the user to enjoy the fresh air and the landscape. Hm… I am not sure I would want a cold bath in the middle of the winter no matter how beautiful the view is…

04. Wyvern

What is a Wyvern in the first place? Well, I must admit, I had absolutely no idea, until I was intrigued why the dragons on the top of the gates have a severed hand in their mouths.

I probably would be banned from Wales for calling these creatures dragons because they are not! In heraldry they differentiate between a dragon and a wyvern. The latter include “basilisks” (legendary reptile supposed be a serpent king who can kill with a solitary glance, mixture of a cock, dragon and lizard), “hydras” (many-headed serpent) and wyverns. While dragons always have 4, scaled, webbed legs with claws and often wear spurs, wyverns have two eagle-like legs. Dragons have long, scaled fish-like tails, bat-wings, crocodile or lizard heads with ears and forked tongue, wyverns, however have bat-wings, a long tail, one lizard-like head, forked tongue and its body is scaled. Dragons are able to blow fire, wyverns are unable. They are said to be more dangerous and less magical and less intelligent. Dragons often have the ability to speak but wyverns cannot.

Why does it have a severed hand in its mouth?

Apparently there are a few theories, but there is one which I find extremely bizarre. According to legend, the seven sons of the Celtic king, Miledh of Esbain went to conquer Ireland and they had an agreement between them, according to whosoevers hand touched the soil of the islands first, will become the ruler of the new land. When the boat approached the land, one of the sons cut off his own hand with a sword and threw it on the island to become the ruler. If the story is true, I wonder which of his hands were stronger. I am right handed and I would struggle to throw anything with my left hand further than a few meters. Nevertheless, it has to be mentioned that the symbol of a right hand appears in a few coat of arms, such as in the province of Ulster and in the flag of Northern Ireland.

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In the film Love Actually, before Rowan Atkinson puts candies, dried lavender and a cinnamon stick (as part of a Christmas gift wrap) into a plastic bag along with a necklace in a box, he says:

This is so much more than a bag.

This is how I feel about Powis:
This is so much more than a Castle.

The first things come to people’s minds about Scotland are probably “Nessie”, whisky, kilts and castles, which of course have their own ghosts. I did a little investigation and found that there are approximately 1200 castles in Scotland, however, a few of them do not look like castles. Anyway, if you visit Scotland, visiting a castle is a must.

So did we and visited 3 castles on our Scotland trip which I am going to present in this post. I will try to be brief (it is difficult) and let the photos do the speaking.

Scottish Style

As an introduction though, let me explain the styles of Scottish castles quickly. There are some which look more like a medieval fortress and then we have some which have Renaissance, or Gothic style. However, the most popular style is the Scots Baronial, merging the styles of a medieval fortress with the French Renaissance chateaux style. The result is a Disney like castle, which can be understood better if we remind ourselves that this was the period of the Romanticism, when people turned away from the present and recalled the past and found comfort in that. The style became popular in the Victorian era from 1850 onwards. Characteristics are: pepper pot turrets, towers, crenelated battlements, porches, porticos, porte-cocheres.

Glamis Castle

Click on the photos below to see them in a slideshow.

The first castle on our trip was Glamis Castle, which I believe would take anybody’s breath away. The medieval building was extended and rebuilt in Renaissance and Gothic style. I loved this castle in spite of photographing not being allowed in the castle. There was a very interesting and well narrated 50 minutes tour. Let me share three things:

1.
Royal Family

The castle belonged to the Bowes-Lyon family, the Earls of Strathmore for centuries. In 1900, the Queen Mother was born here and grew up in the castle. Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, Princess Margaret who by the way was born here, spent much of their childhood in the castle. You can see their little wooden chairs next to the huge fireplace where the family would sit in the evenings.

2.
Ghosts

Glamis Castle is said to have 9 (!) ghosts having the title of the most haunted castle in Scotland. So there is a Grey Lady, who appears from time to time in the little chapel of the castle, therefore, locals who attend the mass today leave one chair for her. Who was the Grey Lady? Her name was Lady Janet of Douglas and her brother happened to be the step-father of King James V. The King hated his step-father and his family and when Lady Janet’s husband died and there was no one else left to protect the family, King James V allowed Lady Janet and her 16 year old son executed for witchcraft in Edinburgh. Then there is The Gambling Earl, the Earl of Crawford also known as Earl Bardie who had a passion for playing cards. One night when one of the servants reminded the Earl to stop as it was sabbath, the Earl said, he would not stop playing and would play until doomsday even with the Devil. Apparently, a stranger who was said to be the devil himself appeared at midnight and joined the Earl to play cards. Since people reported loud swearing and rattling of dice which annoyed the tenants of the castle so much that they bricked up the room. Then there is a black, African servant boy who was badly treated 200 years ago and who today is said to mischievously try to trip up passers by sitting on a stone seat next to the Queen’s bedroom. Others are a ghost of a woman with no tongue who is said to haunt the grounds, a Green Lady, the Hanged Butler, the ghost of King Malcolm II, Duncan and Macbeth and more importantly the Monster of Glamis. According to the legend, the family had a child who was severely deformed and locked up in a room in the tower. Others believe he died on the day he was born.

3.
Strathmore Blue

What I do like about the English (in this case let’s say British) is that they have a name for every colour or shade. You could read about the London Cabmen’s shelters on the blog’s Facebook page where I explained these shelters were painted Buckingham Paradise Green or in my post about the phone boxes you could find Battleship Grey and Brunswick Green, in another post a fabric and colour is called the Lavenham Blue. Well, the Strathmore family’s colour is called Strathmore Blue which was the Queen Mother’s favourite colour. Not to confuse it with the equally popular and similar shade of Duck Egg or Sea-spray Blue.

Balmoral Castle

When we hear the name Balmoral, many of us associate it with Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth II driving her Land Rover on the estate or walking her corgies wearing a headscarf. The estate was acquired by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1848, 5 years after their first visit to Scotland when they fell in love with the Scottish countryside. They bulit a new building on the estate (the castle today) and the old building was later demolished. Prince Albert influenced the design which was Scots Baronial.

Unlike the Glamis Castle, Balmoral did not have a wow factor for me. The castle itself is beautiful, but quite small. I think, what frustrated me was the fact that only the ballroom was open for the public, which is understandable considering the Queen still uses the castle from August until autumn. Yet I believe, the tour of the grounds could have been constructed in a more interactive way rather than just having an audio-tour where you have to hold a phone like thing to your ear all time. This made taking photographs difficult carrying round this extra equipment. I have seen the English doing a great job in visualising or making an excellent creative and interactive exhibition and it would be great if Balmoral could come up with something similar. Anyway, the estate has everything that you would find on an estate: vegetable garden, conservatory, flower garden, garden cottage, deer larder, park, riverside, pet cemetery. Without a doubt my frustration was compensated by the quirky details of the castle.

Balmoral is said to have one ghost, the ghost of Queen Victoria’s servant and friend, John Brown. He is said to walk down the corridors always wearing his kilt. Queen Elizabeth II said, she saw the ghost of John Brown at Balmoral and could feel his presence.

Dunrobin Castle

The Dunrobin Castle is beautiful and could easily fit into a fairytale with its pepper pot turrets. When I first saw it it reminded me of the Disney Castle and I bet, you do the same. The castle has belonged to the Earls of Sutherland for centuries. The Castle was re-built in Scots Baronial style after 1850. With its 189 rooms, the Dunrobin castle is the biggest castle in Northern Scotland – how they did not get lost in it, I have no idea…. The view from the rooms overlooking the North Sea is fascinating both in sunshine and I guess in a storm as well. I have visited many English castles and stately homes and what I found interesting walking through the rooms at Dunrobin is that they did not seem to be overly wealthy. I am sure the Earls of Sutherland were very wealthy, yet somehow it appeared in a very different way than you would normally find in England.

Dunrobin Castle too has its own ghost. The Earl of Sutherland locked up a young woman of a rival clan in the upper floor and he wanted to marry her. The woman wanted to escape through the window by tying sheets together but unfortunately, she fell off and died. Her crying is said to be heard coming from the seamstress room.

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Scotland has some amazing castles which during our visit we were very lucky to visit in fantastic weather. Matching the beautiful Castles with the most amazing scenery touring around Scotland has ensured that we shall return. If a countries beauty and assets inspires you, Scotland is a must.

I realised the other day that we have been to many places during the 2.5 years since we have been living here and as a result I have loads of photographs which I can only share step by step depending on different topics presented on this blog. Therefore, I decided to share these trips and photographs with you – it is surely better sharing, than just storing them on my laptop, isn’t it? (What sort of impact photos will have on my site speed, that is a different story, but I give it a whirl.)

So we decided to visit Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire two years ago. I think Bill saw it on the telly and he was interested. He did not have to convince me, I instantly agreed to go especially because at that time we were short of cash and could not really afford any trips, plus I welcome the opportunity to get out and about.

It was a wonderful sunny day, although the weather forecast said it would rain. During breakfast I quickly read the section about the Cotswolds of my Britain’s Guide book and became very excited as the Cotswolds seemed to be a very authentic and magical part of England. William Morris, one of the key members of the Arts and Crafts movement said, Bibury was “the most beautiful village in England”. As Bilbury was on our way to the castle, we planned to stop there.

It took 2-2.5 hours to get there and I was amazed how quickly the landscape changes from flat to hills. Sitting in the car I too could feel the ambiance of the countryside changing as well as we traveled along. Although Maidenhead is in the countryside, it does have a town ambiance, not quite the same as London, but its own hustle and bustle. The capital is close, people are commuting every day to the city, you can feel and see there is money around, whilst in the Cotswolds it feels more like a proper countryside and a fairy tale land. Having said that, I feel that the whole UK is like being in a fairy-tale world. Because there weren’t any wars on the British Isles and none of its enemies managed to step on its ground, the British were able to preserve their architecture and traditions. But back to the Cotswolds and its fairy tale, on this beautiful, sunny day.

Bibury

We got to Bibury and indeed we saw lovely cottages. Interestingly, all the houses are built of yellow lime stone, even the window frames are made of stone. Slate is used for roofs and they are laid out in the fish scales style, meaning beside the ridge slates are small and they are bigger and bigger on the way down. We also had a look at the local church, which to me is always mysterious and reminds me of English ghost stories, especially when I walk in churchyards. I guess it is not too exciting for Bill as this is just another Anglo-Saxon church, but for us, foreigners, they are exciting! To be fair with Bill, I imagined the situation where I would travel around Hungary with someone being excited about my country and culture. You would probably find at least one church in every village and most probably it would be a Catholic one in baroque style with a distinctive dome, or twin dome which to me would be equally boring. I guess, this is how Bill feels when I am excited about English churches. 🙂

As we drove by the village, I saw the little street Morris talked about. It was slightly disappointing as it was full of buses and tourists and we could not stop. Never mind, next time, I am sure we will come back here. I was interested to understand what brings Japanese tourists to Bilbury and I found out that Horihoto, Emperor of Japan stayed in Bibury on his England’s tour. Where we could stop was a small Cotswold pub at the edge of the village and even popping into a pub for a while and having a cup of tea makes me happy. (Yes they do serve tea in an English Pub! 🙂 ) I love watching people come and go…

Sudeley Castle

Shortly after we left the pub we arrived at Sudeley Castle. The building and the grounds were just amazing. Lady Ashcombe still lives here but opened her home to the public in 1969. No wonder, it must be extremely difficult if not impossible to maintain a property like this.

There were so many interesting things displayed in the castle, that it was impossible to take everything in, no matter how much I wanted to. It would have been good to learn everything about Henry VIII who lived here, or about the story of the lace, about the gardens in the Great War (First World War), but I just simply could not. When I say there was a lot, I do mean it and it was brilliant, on the other hand maybe too much. Maybe this is the reason you can buy an annual pass – if you come back several times, you might be able to finish reading the exhibition. 🙂

Unfortunately, it is not allowed to take photos inside the castle, therefore I am not able to show you the servant’s staircase in the back of the building which is said to be a haunted staircase and which was not used by servants because of that. (No idea which staircase they used instead…) We walked through rooms/suites in which Lady Ashcombe still has guests today. One of the guides explained that one of the four poster beds was made in the 17th century and was the portable bed of Charles I. It was later restored in Victorian style but the mattress is contemporary. Bathrooms were refurbished according to today’s needs keeping the old character. As we walked through the castle, I could not even imagine how it can feel like having a castle and garden like this. How must it feel to grow up in a castle like this, which has its own private chapel as well? How must it feel, that one day you are going to be responsible for a castle which had belonged to kings before you and where you have so many antiques and valuables that it is difficult to make an inventory of…? This is beyond my imagination! Surely it is a very unique feeling and scary at the same time, as it is a huge responsibility to maintain and preserve it for future generations.

If this was not enough to visit Sudeley Castle, here are some more reasons why you should:

• It is one of the most beautiful Tudor castle which is still a residence.
• Exhibition about Tudor attire.
• Exhibition about laces and gloves and a family badger. 🙂
• Amazing gardens
• Pheasantry with 16 rare and endangered species.

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I always find places, buildings like this inspiring, not just because of the history, but simply just because of the ambiance. Especially on a beautiful sunny day, it is worth leaving the town behind and exploring the countryside. As we walked in Bibury and traveled in the Cotswolds, I had the feeling houses in this area look like real homes. Homes you can see in fairy-tale books and you dream of…