Off To Find a Castle

Last weekend Daddy had a meeting at a friend's house. We went with him, but we did not really want to be in a meeting. So I found this costume instead (I call it "The Lord's Army" outfit). And if you are wearing something like this, the natural thing to do is to go look for a castle to defend.

So off we went. This picture is over-looking Newcastle, which is about a 30 minute drive from our house in Hexham.

We walked for a bit. We forgot to take a buggy with us (that's what they call strollers here), so Riley Cates was often lagging behind. She thought it was more fun to look at rocks than to walk.

I got way ahead one time, and when I hollered back for Mommy and Riley Cates to catch up, a pheasant flew out of the bushes right beside me and made a super loud noise (if you don't know what they sound like, you should really Google it. We hear that sound all of the time). Apparently I scared the pheasant, and he scared me! 

We finally made some progress and found this really cool and really old cross. Someone said it was from the time of Elizabeth I, but I really have no idea what that means. I just liked the steps.

We walked a bit farther and then we saw it. A castle! Well, what used to be a castle. It's falling apart now, but it was still pretty amazing to look at.

We walked around the back to get a better look, and Riley Cates managed to find a puddle and some rocks.

Then she just gave up and sat down. Poor girl.

We finally got her to the back, and I am glad we did. It was so cool to see!

We peeked in the back (nevermind the sign on the right...).

And then the man who takes care of the land came up behind us and scared us. But then he was kind enough to give us a tour. This wall is only as old as 1821, but most of the rest of the building is over 700 years old! If you look closely in this picture, you can find a "window" that is really a Roman toilet seat! Haha!

These were the dungeons, but they are all locked up now.

And this was called the "haha wall" because it's pretty high up, and the people in the castle could look over the wall and laugh at the people and animals below who couldn't come up!

It was pretty amazing to find this castle! The grounds keeper told us that we could Google Ravensworth Castle and see a picture of what it used to look like back in the day. Since you already googled the pheasant, you might as well go ahead and check out the castle too...