Today we headed out of York.
Had breakfast, then hit the road for Whitby.
We confused the sat Nav when we made the decision to call in at Castle Howard.
The house was used for both the productions of 'Brideshead Revisited'.
It is the main seat of the Carlisle family. The present Earl & his family only live in the East Wing of the house.
it was completely gutted in 1940. So they had to rebuild a huge amount.
It was the first private home to have a dome. When the fire occurred the dome fell in. You can still see some of the fire damage.
There is a lot of work happening still to restore the house.
My favourite room.
The North Gallery - has bookcases all the way down - three rooms all joined together.
The picture below is part of the ceiling in the chapel. It is decorated by the Arts & Crafts Movement group of PreRaphelites. William Morris & Edward Burne Jones.
Last night they had a Proms concert in the grounds - opera singers, fireworks & a fly over.
It was really busy in the car park by the time we left. Here are some pictures of the gardens. The house on on approx 1000 acres of land.
This is the produce garden.
Not many roses out yet. The walled rose garden is huge.
after leaving Castle Howard we headed for Whitby.
We drove through the North Yorkshire Moors. Just beautiful with the heather glowing purple. I noticed lots of bee hives out in the Heath.
We we're hoping to have a quiet walk on the waterfront but heard in the radio about a Regatta that was happening. We couldn't get close.
We visited the Whitby Abbey ruins instead. They were the inspiration for Bram Stokers 'Dracula'.
A bit sad really that it inspired such horror for him - it is such a beautiful place.
I felt more stirred & inspired by the site.
Here are some pictures.
The acoustics were amazing. I can imagine what it sounded like when the whole community were singing.
When it was first founded it was a double monastery - men & women working together to serve God. It was founded under St Hild.
So there was about 1000 years of history on the site.
There is also a small but excellent museum housing remains from the site. Here are a couple.
This is a strap end of a belt - carved silver. Anglo Saxon period.
After all of this excitement we drove home through regatta & music festival traffic, ate dinner then crashed in our room.
Jet lag is the pits.
Blobbing around tomorrow I think.