The tour started at 10.15am so it meant a 4am start for me and leaving the house at 5am. The traffic was light so I even had time to stop at a motorway service station for breakfast at about 8am. It was just as well because, as often happens, when I plan my busy weekends away, I forgot to schedule any meal times!

I arrived at Castle Howard at about 9.30am and their drive there is amazing as along the road there are a couple of arches that you go through – one of them looks as though it’s part of a walled fortification except they’ve only built about 500 feet of wall! I stopped near the castle to take this photo of a memorial to the Third Earl (he was the person who built most of the house):

Surprisingly the tour price included admission to the house too. They limited it to 20 on the tour and we had to wear hardhats as technically the mausoleum is considered dangerous – it needs £15 million to be repaired! Our guide was the deputy curator of Castle Howard and she was very knowledgeable.

First of all we went into the Temple Of The Four Winds which was basically a summer house that is a fair walk from the main house:

The back view:

The ceiling inside the temple:

Inside the temple, this large-size deckchair and cup was set up ready for a tour for children
(that's the size cup I need!):

Next we looked inside the mausoleum. It’s very sparse and gives little indication that it’s at all religious. Finally we went down into the crypt area. There are spaces for 63 to be interned here but currently there’s only about 12 or 13, the latest was from last year.

The mausoleum was built straight but it was very windy at this point as I was walking up a hill!

The floor of the upper part of the mausoleum:

The ceiling:

One of the few decorations inside:

The view of the house from the outside of the mausoleum:

One of the tombs inside the crypt:

This (tarmaced) bridge leaves from one field to another:

The tour finished at about 12.40pm and then I wandered around the house. First of all there was a good exhibition about women at Castle Howard (both servants and family) in the stable block. The house is very ornate and unusually for British stately homes they allow you to take photos inside.

This is buried inside the grounds:

The entrance hall:

The balcony of the entrance hall:

A long stretch of rooms:

Photos of the front of the house
(It's difficult to get all the house in the photo!):

The west wing:

The view from the house:

I left Castle Howard at 2pm and drove to my hotel just outside Wakefield. That was a nice surprise as I thought I’d just booked a normal Days Inn motel place but it was a Days Hotel and was very nice. As I’d booked it early it was a good price too. (While I was booking in, the people in front of me had paid £15 more than I had!)

I had a quick (much needed!) cup of tea and left again at 4pm to drive to Whitby on the east coast of Yorkshire. As there were roadworks on the most direct route, my SatNav directed me north and then south east through some of the Yorkshire Moors which was interesting.

I passed this hilltop on my drive:

A close-up:

I got to Whitby by 6pm and had a drive around the town. It’s mainly a fishing town and I expected it to be like Brixham but it was quite a bit larger.

Views of Whitby:

Whitby Abbey:

At 8pm I went on the Hunt For Dracula Walk. It’s similar to a ghost walk but, of course, Dracula is fictional. Unfortunately out of all the walks I’ve been on, I have to say that this was my least favourite. The guide knew his stuff but (a) he spoke much too quietly for the large group and (b) he kept on making silly jokes when he could have been telling us more. Bram Stoker started writing and was inspired by Whitby so several places and myths from the town are incorporated in the book. We started outside and ended inside the hotel where he wrote the book. I learnt a few things so it wasn’t a total waste but I certainly wouldn’t recommend that tour, at least not with that guide.

The tour lasted about an hour and a half (£4) so I drove back to Wakefield afterwards and got back to my hotel at about 11.30pm. I got to bed at about midnight after a 20 hour day, having driven for 9 of those hours!

Sunday 16th August 2009
I didn’t set my alarm so I woke up very late for me (8.30am). I left at 10am and drove to Eden Camp just north of York. It’s an ex Prisoner Of War Camp for Italian prisoners and all of the 30-ish huts are set up with different aspects of the Second World War. It was very detailed and had an emphasis on how non-military people lived during the war so was fascinating. It was surprisingly busy too so a few times I skipped a hut and went back later if there was a queue to get in or some particularly obnoxious children in there. I’m a really fast reader but it still took me about 2.5 hours to go around everything and for £5 I thought it was great value!

I then drove for about an hour to go to Scarborough on the east coast of Yorkshire. After I’d had found some where to have a cup of tea and a sandwich, I had a wander around the south bay. It was packed! Although there were only a few people in the sea, the beach was busy and there were loads of people on the promenade. All the businesses were open which was such a contrast to when I visited Margate a couple of weeks ago. There seemed to be loads of northerners in Scarborough so I’m not sure if more people from the north are holidaying in the UK and the southerners are going abroad or if there were just more people here today because it’s a weekend as I visited Margate mid-week.

Scarborough:

Scarborough Castle:

As I had a bit of time, I drove further south down the east coast to Filey (small town but picturesque) and then Bridlington (nice, quiet seaside resort) before heading west to York. I arrived in the city at about 7pm and easily found somewhere to park so I had a quick wander around the city. There’s loads of little lanes of shops, old buildings and churches so it’s somewhere I’d like to visit again.

York Castle:

Yes I climbed up the steps and this is the view:

This building was originally built as a womans prison:

Views of the river in York:

I went on the Ghost Walk of York from 8pm until 9.30pm which was very good. It was a larger group than last night but the guide was much better as he could clearly be heard and cut the jokes to a minimum. We went to about 5 or 6 different sites in the city and the final stories he told us in a very dark, small courtyard which was quite atmospheric!

Our guide:

I then drove home and got in at about 1.30am after a really enjoyable weekend away! The pattern this summer for me seems to be going away for a weekend, attending a Ghost walk in the town and then driving home! It’s all great fun!

(And the celebrity Twitter account I run had 127 new followers this weekend – now up to over 9,000!)

Roll on my next trip!

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