Of Lenses and Moose: Chillingham Castle

I haven't blogged any of my first trip north yet, so I thought I'd get a prelim in quick before I go again. We travel up on Saturday, and go puffin hunting on Sunday. All the auks now have chicks, and there is even a pic of a puffling on the Farnes blog now. I'm hoping that I'll be lucky enough to spot one on one of my 2 remaining visits this year.

So this is Chillingham Castle. I'm not planning on visiting it again this year with Mol or Ma so thought I'd blog it now. It has been owned by the Grey family since they stormed it in 1246. Current owner is Sir Humphrey Wakefield - still the same family though he comes from a side branch I think. But according to the little guide we bought he married his 4th cousin who is the daughter of a Grey. Kim at the Seahouses' pub told us he's completely mad.

Sir H inherited something of a dilapidated barracks, and has been renovating for over 30 years. Although it looks rather tatty in many room, there were before and after photos which showed just how much work has gone into it.

We started with a lunch in the tearooms, which were once the old hall with minstrels' gallery, and it immediately felt like a family-run business in serious need of some new drapes and table cloths. There was an old room under the "cloistered" area in the courtyard which they'd made into an ancient dungeon (though that was actually elsewhere - we viewed it through the hole in the floor that people were lowered into it through. We wondered how they got away with this for health & safety - pitch dark, uneven floors.....