Herstmonceux Castle: East Sussex, England

Number  23 - Herstmonceux Castle

Gosh, what a lot there was to see at Herstmonceux. We went in October 2012 and absolutely loved it. The journey there was a bit of a palava, it should have taken about 20 minutes but literally took about 2 hours as the road was closed and we were sent on lots of diversions. Anyway, we got there and parked up. 

It's impressive, especially the moat, me and Chloe do love a good moat. 

The castle also has massive grounds, about 600 acres of land in total and you could really while away the hours relaxing and wandering about. 

We didn't go into the main castle as it's a functional study centre, but seeing it from the outside is still very impressive. I think you can get tours of the inside but we decided not to bother.

There were some really fun woodland trails where you walk through bushes and trees covering little hollow caves. One was called the Magical walk which I particularly loved as i'm a big Harry Potter fan.

There were lots of quirky things to see and do, including a rather groovy bed made of grass.

In one of the clearings there was a circle of different sized tree trunks. They all had runes carved into them. I think the owners call it 'Woodhenge'. There were instructions about what to do to find your rune, I think you had to stand in the circle, spin round and then point at one. Whichever was closest, was your rune and it said something about you. Mine looked like the letter 'r', but I can't remember what that meant.

 

There was a huge sun dial. We were busy looking at it when a man asked us if we could tell the time with it, and Chloe just reeled off the exact time. So talented! Though, am not sure she could replicate. 

There was a lovely herb garden with some African ornaments that I really liked. All the herbs had wooden spoons with carvings on them, they described what the herb was and how to look after it. I might try to hand make something like this for Chloe for Christmas, I think she'd love it.

Cost: £6 (a real bargain for the size of the grounds)

Hints and tips: there is a tea room but when we visited there wasn't much choice. It may have been that in October they don't have many visitors. There is a planetarium on site which I'd imagine would be very interesting and lots of activities for children. Worth paying it a visit if you have the time.