I had a restless night last night and was up at 2.00am with one of the dogs, that aside I managed to take them both for a walk at 7.30am on Brayton Barff. It was a lovely morning, a little on the cool side at 3C, but fine and dry with the early morning sun shining nicely.

With it being such a nice morning, after breakfast we decided to go to Castle Howard. Although the house is currently closed, the grounds are open to the public and it is a real pleasant walk through the woods and around the South lake.

We arrived in the car park at around 10.30am, there was very few visitors at that time which made for a very pleasant morning. Meg and Gracie were both on good form, they enjoy the change of scenery with plenty of different smells and sniffs. I had left my camera at home today so all my images from today were taken on my iPhone.

After a very pleasant coffee from the Courtyard kiosk we made our way through the visitors centre and into the grounds, the walk from the courtyard to the house at this time of year is usually a mass of Daffodils, and today was no different other than they weren’t yet in flower, I have noted before on previous visits over the years that the Daffodils here are about two weeks behind ours at home and I put that down to the difference in altitude, with Castle Howard nestling quite high up amongst the Howardian hills.

The house was looking quite breath-taking this morning, the sun was shining, a lovely blue cloudy sky and it was dry underfoot. We continued our walk along the South Terrace, climbing the hill slightly to Ray woods, lots of Daffodils on both sides of the terrace but not yet ready to flower. Passing through the gate into the woods, large swathes of Snowdrops were covering the woodland floor, their delicate white florets swaying gently in the light morning breeze. We continued walking through the woods towards the ‘Temple of Four Winds’ passing several Azalea/Rhododendron bushes in flower, these will look beautiful in several weeks’ time in full flower. On reaching the Temple we sat for a few minutes to admire the view over towards the New River Bridge and Mausoleum beyond. To the left of the Temple the views across the arable fields are just as stunning, made even better as we watched a pair of Buzzards calling to each other as they circled high above the trees in the distance.

Although it was a beautiful morning there was a slight chill wind and after a few moments we decided to head back along the Southern Terrace towards the house. We enjoyed a very pleasant brunch in the Courtyard restaurant before heading back to the car for the journey home with two exhausted dogs for company.