driving – Travels with my Wife

Lowther Castle 29.9.20

Having had a day of trains and road passes when I planned this today was intended to be no great drive. All will become clear.

Not that far from where we are staying is Lowther Castle – and from the angle above it may not be immediately obvious that it is a ruined castle. It was finished in 1685 but was closed by the owner in 1935, the contents were sold in 1947 and the roof removed in 1957. Hugh Lowther, the 5th Earl of Lonsdale, had no children and lived a fairly extravagant life selling off other properties to fund it.

The 6th Earl inherited on the death of Hugh in 1944 and this led to the forced sale mentioned of the contents. The next inheritor was faced with £25M in death duties which led to the removal of the roof and a concentration on the farming aspects of the Estate. In recent years a decision has been taken to rewild much of the estate.

Inside Lowther Castle 29.9.20The house opened to public visits following some restoration in 2011 – at a cost of £9m on conversation. That work continues and it is a fascinating site with much of interest in the gardens.

Rose Garden 29.9.20

There are various summerhouses, a Japanese Garden and a rose garden which has a huge number of roses – September is not a good time for seeing this but the area covered is hard to believe.

The Lost Castle 29.9.20

Deep in the Castle Grounds there is the largest wooden playground in the Country in the form of The Lost Castle which was added in 2016. it is a hand built playground and the timber was sourced from within 11 miles – and whilst not intended for adults it is an amazing walk.

Lunch today is at the Punchbowl Inn. And here is where my careful plans fell apart. It seems that there are two Punchbowl Inns. The famous one (and the one where we are booked for lunch is at Crosthwaite near Kendal. There is also one in Askham which is actually close to Lowther Hall. So when doing final checks I realise that we have to go something like 42 miles each way – much of it motorway. I was very grateful when my wife kindly offered to do some driving today.

Wednesday 1 March 2017

A new month and time for a holiday. The driving is shared out today – I take the first chunk down to Leigh Delamere services for a quick stop. Then Jackie takes the wheel and we take the old route over the First Severn crossing (now the M48 but of course the original M4) and we continue into the Wye valley through Tintern; this section is all a bit twisty. Then we take the turning for Whitebrook and it gets much narrower. Progress is slower and the sat nav is convinced we have gone past our destination but we do find it and park.

We are at the Whitebrook Inn. It is almost in the middle of nowhere – a pretty, wooded valley. We agree that the starters are good but the main courses are a little bland – we both have the local lamb and it seems to lack taste.

Here is the duck confit and liver partfait starter from Jackie Whitbread’s photos:

Post lunch it is my turn to drive onto our final destination of Penpergwm near Abergavenny. The first bit is quite narrow as I continue west on the back roads from our lunch break – but some lovely views of the local countryside, as we descend from the hills on the west side of the Wye Valley we can see in the distance the Black Hills.

Our little holiday home is small – but should meet our needs for the next week. We are in Penpergwm which is a couple of miles east of Abergavenny and which is in Monmouthshire. For a long time Parliamentary Acts referred to “Wales and Monmouth” as if it was not part of Wales or England – it is now very definitely in Wales with bi-lingual signs and even though the population is not heavily Welsh speaking. It is not an area we have visited previously and there are a good number of decent restaurants to be visited this week which is the prime attraction.

And it is not utterly remote either. As if we were at home Tesco turn up with a delivery so that we have the basics on hand. It saves having to take the large car if we have the groceries delivered when we arrive. Another benefit from the internet I suppose! The owner lives in the main house adjacent – we are in an extension and the chickens are in the enclosure next to us. There is space to sit outside but we are unlikely to use that this week. The cottage has two bedrooms but we use the other one to put our cases out of the way. It has been a longish day!

Tag: driving

Cumbria 29.9.20

Heading to Penpergwm