With the easing of the Covid restrictions last Monday, for our first outing after the lockdown, I pre booked tickets for a walk around the Castle Howard estate today.

Although the morning started off dull and overcast, it was quite a mild start to the day, 12C at 6.30am when I was out with Meg and Gracie earlier this morning. I had to be at Castle Howard between 11.00am – 11.30am so I had plenty of time after our early morning walk to have breakfast, get a shower etc prior to the 50-minute car journey.

I put the dogs in the car and we set off from home at just after 10.00am, by this time the sun was shining nicely and a lovely blue sky above. It was a straightforward drive, the roads were reasonably busy, but traffic was flowing smoothly through the Hopgrove roundabout on the A64, if there was going to be a hold up it is usually at this roundabout, alas today we had a good drive without any delays. The long straight road onto the estate looked beautiful this morning, the sun was shining, and the daffodils were in full bloom lining both sides of the road adjacent to the gate house. We arrived in the car park around 10.50am. I took Meg & Gracie out for a walk around the back of the cricket pavilion and into the woods before we headed to the booking office.

After showing our tickets we made our way under the archway towards the house, the lawn on the western approaches is a mass of Daffodils at the moment and looks extremely colourful against the barren bare trees, the central tower of the Great hall is just visible through the trees and draws your attention. We continued our walk to the West side of the house and along the southern aspects, the house was looking pristine in the morning sunshine, several families were enjoying picnics on the lawns adjacent to the Southern Lake. After passing the house we continued along the Eastern Terrace leading to the Temple of Four Winds, daffodils adorn the sides and slopes of the terrace, every now and then we just had to stop and admire the view, the house and neatly cut hedges looked stunning. After a few minutes we arrived at the Temple and made our way down the slope towards the eastern corner of the South lake. We watched about a dozen Tufted duck, Mallard and Greylag Geese contently drift across the relative smooth water, basking in the afternoon sunshine.  We sat and admired the views from the eastern edge of the lake for a few moments before making our way around the southern edge of the lake, on reaching the formal lawned area we continued along the path, passing the Atlas Fountain on the right, before reaching the terrace of giant trees alongside the walled garden, we made our way back up the gravelled drive to the house and turned left and retraced our steps back to the gate house and stable courtyard. The temperature at this point was over 20C at this point, it was unseasonably warm but very pleasant, we were fortunate to be able to sit on a bench between the gift and farm shop and welcomed the shade from the side of the building. The sandwich and cake selection in the takeaway coffee shop was too tempting to miss so we had a very pleasant picnic in the courtyard, much to the delight of Meg, Gracie and myself.

It was great to be back again and look forward to many more visits throughout the remainder of the year.