Tattershall Castle

The last day of our holiday took us back to familiar territory, winding our way home via Tattershall Castle and Belton House.

The fifteenth century brick Great Tower of Tattershall was ruinous and on the verge of being bought and shipped to America, when Lord Curzon of Kedleston stepped in and restored it in the early 1900s. Thanks to him there's now a complete castle to explore - the curtain wall has long disappeared, and some of the add-on buildings are ruins, but enter the main building and you're transported back to the castle's heyday.

You can race up the spiral staircase and take in the views which stretch for miles in every direction - or at least you can if you're feeling fitter than I was; walking five miles the previous day had left my legs too weak for such things.

I settled for just a couple of  the floors. Each floor is basically one large room, and entry numbers were limited so, making sure we didn't encounter anyone on the stairs, there was plenty of space inside. lower floors, as always, are for the general household, and the higher you climb the more private the apartments are.

Tapestries on the walls, the huge chandelier, and the ornate fireplace give an idea of how this room, where petitions would have been received, would have looked.

For the more affluent and important there was a private chamber in which to wait till the lord was ready to see them. Anyone else waited in the corridor outside, where the ceiling is decorated with coats of arms.

Tourists have been visiting Tattershall for a long time - and leaving their marks behind. The National Trust probably wouldn't encourage it today.

After the atrocious weather of May, the sky was starting to clear on this Bank Holiday Saturday with the uninterrupted blue reflected in the still waters of the moat.

Today it's a great place to explore, with a helpful guide to tell you about the castle's history and various information boards to show how life was back in medieval times - or if history doesn't fascinate that much, just sit by the moat with a picnic.

Off I go again - Lincolnshire but not by the sea

 I'm determined at the moment to make the most of this time between the lifting of Covid restrictions and any future Third Wave of the virus, so almost immediately after my return from the Yorkshire Dales I set about planning my next trip. Again, I was looking for somewhere not too far, and preferably somewhere new.

Doddington Hall

Now Lincolnshire as such isn't a new place for me. I lost count long ago of the innumerable times I visited the coast there as a child. Growing up in the East Midlands in the 1960s it was the place for holidays. My parents owned a caravan on one of the many sites near Skegness, and from Easter to October we'd be there any sunny weekend (or so it seemed).

Gunby Hall

The rest of Lincolnshire though was just somewhere to be driven through. Tattershall Castle was an iconic marker on the route, and Gunby a place I remembered for its huge traffic roundabout, but we stopped at neither. 

Bolingbroke Castle

Since then I've been back and mixed amusement arcades with stopovers at Tattershall Castle or Belton Hall  This time I wanted to go back and see what else I'd missed - so no slot machines or ice cream, and only a distant glimpse of the sea, but countryside, walking, and a spot or two of history in the Lincolnshire Wolds. 

We found a place to stay through AirBnB again - a perfect cottage for two in a village north of Louth - and laid our plans, with booked entry to gardens at Doddington Hall, Gunby Hall and Belton, and tickets to the castle at Tattershall. We were lucky with the weather - going away in the few days between torrential downpours and the Bank Holiday heatwave, and I've come home convinced there is more to be discovered - certainly more country paths to be walked - and resolved to re-visit

Tattershall Castle

Belton Hall

First stop - Doddington Hall gardens

Tuesday - Gunby Hall gardens

                 Bolingbroke Castle

Wednesday - 5 1/2 mile walk near Binbrook

Sunsets and seamarshes

Thursday - going home - Tattershall Castle

                                         Belton House gardens

Weekend away - part 2

Well, we were supposed to be heading for Norfolk - and actually had a B&B booked not far from Holt but from Belton we decided to head to Tattershall Castle, which we've passed on previous occasions and found closed. This time, we checked the National Trust handbook properly to be sure it would be open!















It's so complete because it was restored about a hundred years ago by Lord Curzon who bought it to avoid bits of it being sold off and taken to the US.

 Because it's structurally sound, you can go right up to the roof where there's wonderful views of all the countryside around - and the weather too!

And once you've got to Tattershall, the nearest seaside point is Skegness, so we headed there just as the sun was setting and all Skeggy's lights were coming on.

 There is a beach, half a pier and, somewhere in the distance, the sea....

but slot-machines, amusements and flashing lights are what Skeg is really about

Eventually though it was time to follow the sign on the donut stall and head for Norfolk!