I had a free day today, so decided to take Meg & Gracie to Castle Howard to have a good walk around ‘Ray Woods’ where the Azaleas and Rhododendrons were in full flower.

I was up a little earlier than usual this morning, Meg and Gracie think its great fun when I get up at the crack of dawn. I took them for a shorter walk around Brayton Barff before breakfast as we were going to have a busy day.

It was a pleasant morning, the weather forecast was pretty good, fine and dry with a gentle breeze and some sunshine, a band of rain was supposedly coming over later in the day. As soon as we had finished breakfast, I put the dogs into the car and set off for Castle Howard. 

It was a pleasant fifty-minute drive to the stately home, arriving for 9.45am, we popped into the takeaway café for a coffee to take out and headed across the courtyard to the booking office. It was relatively quiet walking across the cobbled stones of the courtyard, just a couple of estate workers going about their business. After passing through the office, we made our way through the trees, huge swathes of Forget me nots and flowering wild garlic provided some colour under the trees now that all the daffodils have faded and started to die back. 

This morning instead of our usual walk, i.e., heading for the South front of the house, we headed over to the North side. After passing the house on the right, which was just opening for the first of the morning’s visitors, we followed the road and headed left, making our way down the slope towards the boathouse café and adventure playground, turning right into the wood just before we reached the playground. We went through the gate and made our way up the slope, sunlight was beginning to glisten through the trees, huge swathes of Forget me nots covered the woodland floor. We continued up the slope till we reached the reservoir, we stopped for a breather and took some photographs before continuing through the woods till we reached a derelict small building which looks to be used as a store. Huge swathes of Bluebells swayed gently in the morning breeze. We turned left at the building and followed the main trail through the woodland, it wasn’t long before we came to the Rhododendrons and Azaleas. The scent from the flowers filled the air, the colours were vibrant, pinks, reds, whites, orange, and blue, mixed with more pastel colours. We veered of the main path onto a smaller track and followed the meandering trail, around every corner was a palette of colour, it was absolutely beautiful. I think we spent nearly two hours just meandering along the several trails, stopping to admire and photograph the sheer beauty and colour of the plants. As it was getting near to brunch time, we headed out of the woods and up the slope to the ‘Temple of Four Winds’ where we had a sit down for five minutes, the dogs had a drink and biscuit. The views looking over the Howardian hills were breath-taking, the pastureland was looking lush and vibrant, I watched a Buzzard soaring high above a copse of trees over towards the Mausoleum, the warm air enabling it to glide effortlessly on the thermals. After a few more photographs we headed down the slope towards the ‘South Lake’, stopping every now and then to photograph yet more Rhododendrons. Just emerging through the long grass were lots of ‘Bugle’, I had to take a closer look as at first as I thought they might have been emerging orchids. Bugle is an unusual wildflower standing about three to four inches in height, with a long stem with rosettes of green, purple-coloured leaves and blue flowers with white markings. After leaving the wildflowers we headed down to the South Lake, stopping for the compulsory photograph with the house in the background. We continued our walk along the southern edge of the lake, stopping occasionally for some other visitors wanting to chat and stroke Meg & Gracie. Passing the west edge of the lake, we headed through the trees and made our way over to the ‘Atlas Fountain’ which looked majestic, especially under the bright sunshine and with the house as a magnificent backdrop. 

The Atlas Fountain was the centrepiece to ‘William Andrews Nesfield’s’ garden layout and dates back to 1850-1853. The huge figure of Atlas, the decorated basin, and the four tritons with their conch shells are carved out of Portland stone by the Victorian sculptor John Thomas and weigh just over 20 tons. The huge globe is made of copper with a gilded band showing the signs of the zodiac. The jets and cascades are all fed from pipes in a chamber below the fountain, and the water comes directly from Ray Wood Reservoir, which we passed earlier this morning up in Ray Woods.

After spending some time admiring the beauty of the fountain, we had a gentle walk back to the house, where we turned left and made our way passed the walled garden to the Courtyard and over to the café for brunch. By now the temperature had risen to about 20c and as the sun was shining brightly, although very pleasant, it was a little on the warm side to sit outside with Meg & Gracie, so I took them into the café were they enjoyed a nice snooze for 45 minutes whilst I enjoyed a very pleasant brunch before the journey home.