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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2878 |
5th September 2019 Hiking - Walking: National Trust – Kingston Lacy Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods Max Speed: Distance Covered: Thursday 5th September – walk ***** National Trust – Kingston Lacy – sunny periods. After a lovely few days looking after the Grandson Arlo we said our goodbyes and headed off towards Weymouth as it is forecast to be windy tomorrow and I am keen to get on the water as I have missed loads of sessions at home! We stuck to the main routes and made good time to Ringwood but we were getting peckish so Mag checked the map for any nearby National Trust sites. She soon found the perfect place just a few miles off the main road the big house and gardens called Kingston Lacy. We arrived and turned into the long impressive drive leading to a huge mansion and parked up in the overflow carpark for lunch outside with the sun coming out. We only had a couple of hours before it closed as we got our NT membership cards scanned, another £32 off the cost of the yearly subscription and we are now down to minus £72:) We will definitely continue it in the future and they do a wonderful job looking after many hundreds of top sites with their more remote carparks offering great free overnight parking:) We go another timed entrance into the big house apparently styled on a Italian palace, to be honest it wasn’t particularly our cup of tea with huge high ceiling rooms full of ornate furniture and dull, dark painting, nowhere near as interesting as Winston Churchills house we visited earlier on this holiday. The kid’s bedrooms in the roof were cool as were the many bells used to call the servants! Sadly, there was no kitchen to see and we left the house to check out the stables now a café past the old laundry room and onto the gardens and estate. Then down through the formal garden to the Egyptian Obeisk, leading to Acer wood, the Japanese, Tea and Cherry Gardens. Then it was by far the best bit as we crossed the road and entered the fantastic Kitchen Garden fully restored to its former beauty:) Stunning flower beds greeted you as you walked through the fancy iron gates followed by vegetable beds and green house full of all sorts from flowers to peppers. Then we discovered the maize maze and being kids at heart we couldn’t resist getting lost amongst the sweetcorn and sun flowers! We managed to find our way out and headed to the old workers buildings including the head gardener’s office and store rooms for all sorts of gardening paraphernalia:) Then it was back through the woods to the house and then the van for a well-deserved cuppa. We had learned of another NT site just down the road, Badbury Rings an impressive Iron Age fort with three rings of defensive banks and ditches where we hoped to spend the night. We drove the three miles to the turn off along beautiful beech tree lined roads and we were not disappointed with the large carpark set a good distance from the road. On one side was a field with a circuit of jumps for horses, sadly we had just missed a couple of horses doing them so parked up in a quiet corner nearest the hill fort which sat above us looking very inviting! It was a short walk up to the three rings of the large hill fort with the centre where the village used to be now a small wood. We walked past the large earth mounds that formed the rings, through the centre returning around the highest ring and back down to the van. It is a popular spot for dog walkers and even spotted joggers and mountain bikers but after tea as it got dark, we pretty well had it to ourselves. Some kids turned up as we put the lights out but they were quiet whatever they were doing and we were joined by another van which spotted the night but a quiet night was had by all! Photo Gallery Here |
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