13/14 August - Augill Castle in North England

13/14 August - Augill Castle

We drove from Nottingham to Brough near the Lakes District in North West England. It is in the Cumbria region of England. The drive took about 2 hours including a big stop for morning tea. As we drove closer to Brough we noticed rolling green hills and lots of small farm allotments bounded by rock walls. The views were incredible and the hills seemed to go on forever. It was all very green.

We stopped at Barnard Castle on the way. Barnard Castle is a town named after the large castle in its centre. The castle dates back to the 1100s and was owned at one time by an England king.

We later had a quick look around an old medieval abbey called Egglestone Abbey which was falling down. It was built in the 13th century.

We arrived at Augill Castle about 2pm. We drove down a long winding gravel driveway. The castle was down in a small valley surrounded by trees and a couple of low hills in the background. It had the appearance of a medieval castle but it was built in the early 1800s. It had stone walls, old fashioned rectangular and arched windows, timber arched front doors, a fortress style upper wall and centre, and cylindrical corners and turrets. It looked a bit scary from the outside.

We went inside and our room wasn't ready so we talked to the owner about the history of the castle. Then our room was ready so we moved in. We had the Arthur Pendragon Suite which was the main room in the castle. It was huge. The castle had about 6 rooms which were for guests.

We found out that Queen Victoria stayed in our room in the 1800s. The room was pretty flash with a canopy king bed and old antique furniture, old piano, wardrobes and tables. The ceilings were very high and wall paper was distinctly victorian. There were 3 fold-out sofas for us to sleep on. There was an old victorian style bathroom off one end of the room on a lower level. It had a big free standing bath tub. There were doors at each corner of the room leading to the narrow cylindrical turrets which were blocked inside. That was a little creepy.

We explored the castle and discovered many interesting things. There were 4 separate downstairs rooms including a large study, large dining room, a sitting room and kids play room. There was a grand piano and all the rooms were furnished in victorian period furniture. There were paintings and photos all around. There were stuffed deer heads and antlers mounted on the walls. The lights were antique chandeleers and wall lights. There were several large fireplaces, antiques, soft sofas and window seats and clocks everywhere. There were crossed swords mounted on the walls. It was really very old fashioned but very welcoming and warm looking. There was a 10 seat cinema out the back which looked a bit creepy.

We had read that some people think there are ghosts here. We felt like the eyes of some of the mounted deer heads and faces in paintings were watching us as we moved around. It was a very creepy.

Erin played the piano and it sounded really cool, echoing through the castle. We played games including cards and pictionary in the kids play room.

We went out for dinner in a nearby town. That was fun. We came home and watched a dvd (Peter Pan and then the first part of Journey to the Centre of the Earth).

We were watching the dvd and suddenly the wardrobe door squeeked open. That was really creepy especially because the wardrobe was really weird with the doors at each end shaped like coffins and the grain pattern on the front doors and panels being in the shape of deformed human figures with bulging eyes and a large head. Very scary.

There were creaks in the floorboards and noisy pipes sometimes and the faint noise of the other people staying in the castle sometimes (or at least we think it was the other people staying there).

Given all that and even given that dad tried to make it scarier, we had a beautiful sleep. We slept in until 8am.

The next morning we watched the end of our dvd, and some of us had showers and some had long soaking baths in the big bathtub.

Then we went downstairs for a formal breakfast with the other guests. We met some families from the Netherlands and some from London. We had cereals, muffins, toast, bacon, eggs, tomato, mushrooms and other stuff including delicious pancakes.

We ate up big and then went out and played tennis and then played in the other play areas with our new dutch and english friends. We had great fun. There was a mini fort and a tree house.

We went and saw the farm animals including cows and sheep, a goat, a big pig, a floppy nosed turkey and lots of ducks, geese and chooks.

We left in the early afternoon bound for Sharon's place in Durham near Newcastle. On the way we went to Barnard Castle and had a big lunch in the park next to the castle.

We then drove to Raby Castle for a look. This was a large really impressive medieval castle in really beautiful green open parkland. An english lord still lives there. The castle was built in the 14th century.

Then we headed off for Durham. As we got closer and closer to Sharons we got more and more excited.

The Creber Girls xxx