Old Wardour Castle

Next medieval place up on the list is Old Wardour Castle. This castle was originally built in the late 1300 hundreds. It is a shape (hexagonal) which is unique to Britain. It was built that way because aparently (according to the wiki), that was in style on the continent at the time. Piece of advice for any driving to this castle; take it slow on the approach. The brochure warns of 'a narrow carriageway for the approach', lemme tell you this; They shit you not. In our beautifully underpowered (and apparently un-anti-lock braked) Nissan Note just about had a real bad day coming around a corner. Also, be prepared to back up to the 'passing places' because you will have to use them. And as always, left side of the road is the correct side, except for here where there is no side, just the road. But it is a fun little jaunt of a ride. I recommend going from Stonhenge on over to it, its only about 30-45 minutes (probably less, but we got lost as usual). Ok, the pictures: Snap, almost forgot, this is also where Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was filmed. so pretty cool there.

Ahhh, the Nissan Note. Workhorse of the, uh, maybe not. Go figure; I go to the UK just get a Nissan. Still could be worse, although the girls in town were laughing at the two stunningly handsome men driving the fairy car, At least we were listening to um Lady GaGa? Brit radio needs some help.


On approach to the castle, you can see the top of it in the middle of the pic, the wall surronding it would have originally gone the whole way around and all the grass between the castle and the wall would have been cobblestone and/or gardens.

Good side shot of the castle. As you can see the whole top is off it. This apparently happend during the English Civil War when the Parlimentarians had taken control of the castle. Then the Royalists attempted to reclaim it and a tunnel filled with explosives went off prematurely. So a whole big chunk fell off, like maybe 35-40% of the castle.

Those lines are the foundation of where the rest of the castle would have been had it not been destroyed. This picture is from the third floor of the castle.

I just thought this was a cool picture. I am standing in a room taking a picture through the arch, through another room and up the stairs to the windows. Not too shabby, as always, pictures taken with T-Mobile G1, using SnapPhoto. I think I am going to try Photo Zoom soon as well.

The back of the castle. Taken from the little house behind it, which is on the lake. This is the most destroyed part, can't remember which direction this is taken from, but from the sunlight I would assume facing Southeast.

This is the grotto which was built after the parts of the castle fell off. It obviously, has fallen into disuse, pretty cool though, specially for a grotto, beats the only other grotto I have ever seen (except for the one at the Playboy Mansion that is). I had another picture of what the castle would have looked like, but blogger ate it. So I will update that one later.

---UPDATE---
Here is what the castle would have looked like: