Wetherby

The other day we visited Wetherby, a market town in West Yorkshire. We found a lovely little autumn walk after looking round the town that went along by the river into some woodland and passed by a golf course where you were warned to watch out for stray golf balls. Wetherby Bridge pictured below is a grade II listed structure crossing over the River Wharfe.

In 1824, the town of Wetherby (except for one house) was sold to finance Chatsworth House.

Hardwick Park

Hardwick Park is a country park in County Durham, near to Stockton-on Tees. The park gates are open from half 7 until 7 at night through to the end of October. The carpark is £3 all day so quite steep, or you can pay £2 for two hours which is probably long enough to be able to explore the whole park.

It was autumn when we visited and all the trees had started to turn. I love the colours of autumn so it was nice to walk through the woodland at this time of year. The lake is home to waterhens and geese and we also saw a couple of swans swimming about.

There are a number of grade II listed old buildings dotted about the 18^th century park. Four of the gothic ruins were restored in the early 2000s – the Temple of Minerva, Gothic Ruin, Gothic Seat and the Bono Retiro.

Afternoon Tea at The Grand, York

The other week we went to the Grand Hotel in York for afternoon tea.  The Grand is a five-star hotel, just a short walk from York train station. I wasn’t really dressed for walking about the cobbled streets but we were early so decided to walk along the castle wall. The wall gives you a brilliant view of the city and led us to Clifford’s tower. The tower is the keep of York Castle and was built way back in the year 1068.

Embarrassingly, I have to admit that I didn’t take any photographs of the afternoon tea as we were there for someone’s birthday. Except for this phone-quality one of one of the cakes which looked like it had a little apple sitting on top. The food was lovely though and now I have an excuse to go back to get pictures!

Afternoon Tea at Edinburgh Castle

At the beginning of September I was lucky enough to be treated to afternoon tea in Edinburgh, at the castle to be exact. After a three-hour train journey (which takes you along a scenic coastal route) we arrived in Edinburgh and headed up a really steep hill and made our way to the Camera Obscura. I’ve been once before when I was little but I couldn’t remember a lot of what was there, I mainly remember being scared sat in a dark room when you go to watch the camera!

There are so many different exhibits and I won’t spoilt it for you, but my favourite one was the mirror maze even though it did get a bit scary trying to find our way out. The Camera Obscura was founded in 1835 and the main feature allows you to see a real-time image of the city down below.

Our next stop was Edinburgh Castle. The castle sits on Castle Rock and is a historic fortress dating back to the 12^th century. The portcullis gate is at the entrance to the castle and just inside the gate is where the One O’clock Gun is located. The gun goes off at one o’clock every day except Sundays and Christmas and if I hadn’t known it was going to happen it would have scared me half to death!

The afternoon tea was lovely – the usual selection of sandwiches, two scones each and a variety of cakes with my favourite being the strawberry tart. Oh, and a pot of tea of course.

There is so much to explore inside the grounds of the castle including Mons Meg, a 15^th century siege gun, the Great Hall, and the National War Museum of Scotland if history is your thing.