Tag: Wray Castle

Lake District 2023 10: Wray Castle

A look at Wray Castle as part of my series about my recent holiday in the Lake District.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my recent holiday in the Lake District. We are looking at Wray Castle in this post. Having seen if from afar various times earlier on the Monday we visited it as our last activity of that day before heading back to the cottage.

A 19TH CENTURY FOLLY

Castle Wray is not a real castle, it was built in the mid 19th century for a certain Dr Dalton. It is approached from a jetty with a boathouse that has been designed to look ruined. There is a very scenic pathway up from there to the castle itself. Immediately outside the castle there are some incredible views out over the lake. There is a large jackdaw population in this part of the world, and the castle was designed with various ways for the birds to fly in. They are a decent substitute for ravens, belonging to the same family. I did not actually go into the castle, preferring to enjoy the scenery outside.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Lake District 2023 7: Cruising on Windermere II

A second post about cruising on Windermere as part of my series about my holiday in the Lake District.

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the Lake District. This post completes the general picture of cruising on Windermere.

AN OUTLINE OF THE ROUTE

After Bowness the boat went on down Windermere to a place dubbed Lakeside from which a steam railway runs to Haverthwaite (this journey will get a post of its own later in this series). Then we journeyed back to Bowness and Ambleside, paused for an hour in Ambleside before taking the Green route to Wray Castle, Brockhole and back to Ambleside. We stopped to visit Wray Castle, which will get a separate post later. On the Tuesday morning we completed our cruising activities with a trip to Brockhole (also a post in this series). At that point we switched transport modes to buses for the rest of our explorations on Tuesday and all day on Wednesday.

CRUISING THE LAKE

The Lakeside Pier is almost as far from Ambleside Waterhead as one can get and still be on Windermere, so these cruises between them gave us a view of the entirety of the lake (and I was sat outside in good viewing positions for the whole of it). Wray Castle pier gives a clue as to what is to come – the boathouse is a remarkable structure in its own right. Brockhole pier is equally distinctive in its own way, advertising what that location has to offer in no uncertain terms.

PHOTOGRAPHS