Gisborough Priory Gardens

I visited Gisborough Priory back in February, but I decided to go back and take some photos of the grounds in autumn. The snowdrops had been replaced by colourful dahlias and crunching leaves.

Dancing Stone, Danby

We came across the ‘dancing stone’ on a walk through the countryside at Danby. Starting at the car park next to the church, you follow the path down through the woods, along country lanes, before making the ascent up quite a steep hill – which was like walking up a river when we were there as it had rained the days before. 

Nevertheless, the view from the top is amazing. You can walk out onto the stone looking down over the patchwork quilt of the moors. 

Thorp Perrow

We visited Thorp Perrow in Bedale a couple of weeks ago. It’s described as 'a Victorian Arboretum with 100 acres of trees and gardens'. We got there about midday, so it wasn’t too busy when we arrived, however, the Halloween trail had just started, and there was a giant (fake) spider in a tree which was unexpected.

After walking around the lake, we then went to watch the bird show. I was stood right next to where the owl was sitting. I also got pictures of the other birds, including the cute owl below. During the show, the owls and falcons can fly off before returning for food and swooping over the audience's heads.

Gibside

We went to Gibside at the beginning of October. The weather was still quite warm, so we decided to do one of the longer walks. (There were 4 to choose from.) To get in is about £9, so not too expensive and once inside, we headed off on our walk, beginning with the gardens. There were lots of little apple trees – I was on the lookout for more conkers after an incident with a spider earlier in the week. I took some photos in the orangery, and then we stopped off at the stables.

We trekked up through the woods, breaking off from the other routes, so it was a bit quieter. There were cows in the next field, which I was a bit wary of – one walked in front of us, blocking our way. After navigating past the cows, we crossed a stile and headed along a quiet road before re-entering the woods. I made the most of the quiet and took some photos and found some chestnuts.

At the end of the forest route, Liberty’s Column came into view, and we made our way over passing ‘Octagon Lake’ on the way. There was an avenue of trees towards the end of the walk, but they were nearly all oak trees so I gave up looking for conkers. We had a quick look around the markets that were on before we headed for the exit. As we were leaving, we found a lone conker tree - but I only managed to get one as they were all still high up. It's currently sitting on my fireplace at home to scare away spiders.