WELCOME TO BELVOIR CASTLE and GARDENS in GRANTHAM ~ UK 🇬🇧

Come and join me on this wonderful walk around THE BELVOIR CASTLE to discover its GARDENS in GRANTHAM ~ UK 🇬🇧
We will walk the long route around, going through the Rose garden to the Japanese woodlands, along the Stumpery. To find the Root & Moss house. Where we walk over sandy paths and literally climb rocks to see the grotto and we will have some stunning views along the way the higher we get. Don’t miss the statues we pass by and the cute balloons 🎈 at the end… 😊 Sounds interesting? Let’s go… together.

With this post I’m joining in at the Wednesday Walk #challenge. That is hosted by @tattoodjay every week on Wednesday.
‼️Have a look: Here in the Wednesday Walk Community if you want to join in!… the community is run by @tattoodjay
Look at his last #Wednesdaywalk post. It will tell you also the rules of joining in at the Wednesday walk posts 😁 come join us!

Today’s photographic selection will be of 92 PHOTOGRAPHS
Date : 1 JULY 2023
The Photographs in this post are all taken with my iPhone.
I will follow the time stamps on them. So it looks like you are experiencing my adventures on this walk ;) to discover everything what I saw, like the little #details seen through my eyes.

Location of the Belvoir castle and its grounds we find on the following screenshots of Google Maps :

Zooming out we see the location of this castle better in the UK:

More information about the BELVOIR CASTLE you can find here: Wikipedia Belvoir Castle!

Wikipedia states in the above website;

“A castle was first built on the site immediately after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and has since been rebuilt at least three times. The final building is a grade I listed mock castle, dating from the early 19th century.”

Do read up on its interesting history a bit.
You find also more information on their own website here: Belvoir Castle Grantham UK.

Especially the timeline from this estate is interesting. You find it here: History timeline!
The following information.
From 1067 (yes, it goes far far back in time) all the way to today ;

“Modern Era
Today, Belvoir Castle remains the family home of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, while also welcoming visitors from around the world to experience its rich history and stunning architecture.”

Shall we start our walk today at the parking lot, where we meet. I am happy you are joining me 😊

The first thing we see is this accommodation.

The paint work is beautifully done, have a closer look.

Next to the parking area we find little shops and restaurants /bars. We will visit at the end of our walk.

For now we don’t go further…

… and make our way up the hill towards the entrance. We see this horse jumping over the rocks.

At the entrance we pay and start our climb… yes, there is a lot of elevation (going up and down) on the castle grounds we have to concur on our walk today. I reckon it is not easy for somebody that has less mobility as some areas are rather steep.

Just after the entrance we find the welcome sign 🪧

After a long and winding path we reach higher grounds and start walking towards the castle itself. The clouds are threatening today… let’s hope we get some sunshine today.

Another sign with the layout of the grounds:

It states;

“The Duke and Duchess of Rutland warmly welcome you to their gardens. After a surprise discovery of the plans for the landscape by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (1716-1783) in 2008, the gardens were extensively restored. Much of what you see today - the parkland, lakes and views, is faithful to Brown's intentions.

Looking over the large hedge we see some areas of the gardens.

We make our way further to see the castle first. It is just stunning, don’t you think?

A little arch with flowers… I had fun capturing the castle through it. No, I didn’t pose under it hahaha (not my kind of thing to do) let’s highlight the castle instead.

The clouds are getting darker, somehow they do bring out the castle more. I like moody days as you might know by now.

We can get very close by. Let’s take in the interesting Norman #architecture.

Focussing on its towers and windows. Beautiful!

Looking along the castle. We see its walls are very thick. It is well kept in recent years.

Wandering further we see this canon.

Standing next to it we have these scenic views down into the valley. As said, the castle is high up a hill. We see people enjoying a lunch and rest.

I focus a bit more on the architecture. Just look at how precise the windows are placed in the deep arches.

Fascinating views and details. Beautiful.

Turning around again…

Let’s walk further. We see a door that is open. Shall we have a look.

I see so many details around me. These grounds are a photographer’s heaven. So much to see…

We walk towards the open door and just next to it, there is a seating area.

Some pretty cool 😎 seats, just look at this little creature with its hooves.

The entrance… aawww we are too late for the first guided tour inside (that is twice a day). We don’t want to wait for the next one. So we decide we will walk around the castle instead.

Before we leave we look up at the stunning ceiling.

At the wall we find this plaque:

We walk a small little sandy path, it looks like not many people go around the entire castle. This does not stop us and we continue 😊

We see some interesting angles of the castle and its protective walls.

Our views down the valley on this side are as stunning as the other side. We see a tennis court and horse stables in the distance.

We walk and walk… it is very silent here, not many people around this part.

I zoom in on the horse stables and arena.

Some teasing views through the trees and bushes.

A photographer’s dream…

It looks like we can walk all the way around.

We find the manicured gardens.

As we enter we are surrounded by stunning areas like this one.

Just look at the statues around us.

Walking through I just had to turn around… beautiful 😍

Close up of one of the statues.

We wander further and discover this little tower.

Just before we reach the top we find this pond.

With many many water lilies.

So elegant, I like them and no… we didn’t find a frog. So don’t search for it hehe

More beautiful statues, do you see the little creature?

Our view at the castle. Its setting is perfect. The grounds are very very large. One could wander for days and not see it all.

We enter the Rose gardens. The castle in the background.

Some beautiful flowers.

And stunning roses of course.

Framing here the castle.

We walk further and reach the little gazebo.

Close to it this large statue. My favourite one…

So many corners and cute areas.

As we walk further we see this fountain ⛲️

A statue of a man.

Let’s take a step back and take in the view of the entire castle. It has something special.

We decide to leave the area of the castle and start exploring the grounds further afield.

We go towards the Japanese woodland now.

We see a really large pond.

A deer 🦌 out of twigs stands next to it.

As we walk around it our view changes…

More buildings that are part of the grounds. This is the dairy.

We are at the edge of the grounds and want to get higher up and walk towards the Duchess garden… I do have a little map 🗺️ I follow. I show you later.

Our view in front of us is this very large cypress tree.

Looking up… it is magnificent!

We see the Stumpery not much further along the path… it consists out of these tree stumps.

This area we find ourselves alone again. Not many people venture out this far. Everywhere there are some forms of seating areas. To take in the views. A wonderful detail.

We have to go up and climb some large rocks now 🪨 truly… we are climbing and have to use our hands too as it is steep up. (There is another way but that one is far around) We like shortcuts haha

At the top we have to rest on a bench hahaha yep, even I got tired.

Our view down when we reached the top, it doesn’t look like much but believe me it is steep and high. See the little people down there?

Our view from the bench… the sun came out of the clouds and made this climb extra hard.

I zoom out at our view. After a rest we walk further… we have been walking about 1,5 hour here.

We find finally the Root & Moss house. Something I really wanted to check out. It is out 1818 😳

This is the outside:

Inside we find this… even the floor is made out of disks from tree branches / trees.

The walls consist out of roots what is covered with moss.

The ceiling / roof. So beautiful. Fascinating!

Details on the outside of the roof.

Above the entrance… oh I could observe this house for a little while. How cool is that.

More details…

Standing further away.

Shall we walk a little bit further? Yes, I know you are getting tired. It is worth checking out where the grotto is.

After a while we reach it.

Our views inside.

There are iron benches inside. It is really cold so we don’t stay long.

One more look up.

On our walk back we see much much more… to much to show you all. You will have to find out one day for yourself… maybe 😉
Some beautiful flowers greet us.

We leave the castle grounds and see walking towards the parking area this locomotive 🚂

We go to the shops and restaurants as we are hungry and could definitely eat and drink something. We see this tractor.

In the restaurant we sit down… I show you my little map I was following. Believe me the grounds are large and there is so much to see.
Wikipedia tells us Here!

The castle sits in an estate of almost 15,000 acres (61 km2).

In the corner of my eye I spotted something at the end of the restaurant… I walk towards it.

Some cool (hot) air balloons.

After our rest… some food and drinks we say goodbye… and we see this creature around the door.

…and here I say that’s all for today’s post my friends.
Join me next time for more #updates, adventures, #stories and photographs.
Even my own artworks, once in a while, will come by” 🎨
Thank you so much for looking, and reading.

Ecency art by @irisworld

Any questions or comments, let me know. Always happy to help.

Have a great day all!
Grtz Jackie

Unless stated otherwise: All art and photos used in my posts are taken, created and owned by me. If you wish to use any of my photographs, please contact me first. As I have used some commercially myself. We don’t want that you or somebody else gets into trouble ;) So please don’t use them without my consent.

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If you want to see where I traveled to and what I already shared in @worldmappin formerly known as @pinmapple , have a look at my personal map here:
“LITTLEBEE4’s personal map on WORLDMAPPIN”

!worldmappin 52.89468 lat -0.78241 long WELCOME TO BELVOIR CASTLE and GARDENS in GRANTHAM ~ UK 🇬🇧 d3scr