In July 2011 I went with my friend "Gimmer" who is a frequent commenter here to Lowther Castle. Gimmer's business produces specialised stone and wood sealing products and Lowther were starting a huge project to make their asset into a major visitor attraction and were seeking advice relevant to Gimmer's expertise. The place was a building site in its early stages.
The histories of the Lowther family and the now roofless castle are more interesting than many of these aristocratic venues and can be studied on various websites.
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| Work in progress - 2011 |
Yesterday, six years later I made a return visit to Lowther with daughter Jill and two of her friends and respective offspring, and granddaughter Katie along with her great friend Lily. Lily has come through traumatic medical treatment including NHS sponsored treatment in the USA and is now a delightful, impish little girl full of character - her and Katie are inseparable.
The transformation at Lowther has been massive. The roofless castle has been restored and made safe and the surrounding areas landscaped, and there is a good informative museum with interesting family artefacts. There is also a café whic we did not visit. A ten minute walk on good paths through attractive landscape brings you to a newly constructed monster wooden castle in the woods with slides, several different levels and all kinds of nooks and crannies and walkways etc. for the children. Develpment is on-goung, and that encourages future visits to observe and benefit from progress. All in all this was an excellent day out.
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| Lily and Barney |
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| Lily and Katie |
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| Another of my entries for Photographer of the Year |
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| Baby Sailor - he was a star |
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Katie and Barney
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I've often driven past Lowther Castle but never stopped to explore. I wondered what it had to offer - I feel a dedicated visit coming on, it looks interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe had great fun! The kids loved it and Dad has his eye on several features: zip-wires, cargo nets, slides and the like. Had to keep
ReplyDeletea close eye on him!
John J - for someone young at heart like you I am sure you would enjoy exploring the wooden castle and going down the slides etc. I look forward to a full report.
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Miss R - Thank-you daughter. I'm planning a secret trip on my own.
Looks like an excellent day out Conrad - and the photographs look good to me. In a previous comment I said Lynne uses an old TZ model but in fact it is a Lumix before the 'TZ' was added, or at least I can find no reference to it. I notice though that Lumix TZ model prices now range from reasonable to very expensive.
ReplyDeleteWe expect too much from the small compacts I think and I can't see me paying more than £300 for one if I ever change the Sony RX 100.
afoot - The TZ photos are ok until I look at something better. Fellow blogger Beating the Bounds
ReplyDeletehttps://beatingthebounds.wordpress.com/author/beatingthebounds/
takes terrific photos, especially macro with his Panasonic FZ200, but that is a bridge camera, therefore heavier and more bulky. But, I am currently in a familiar place hovering, dithering, and undecided. I think I will go and look at one in the shop and see what happens?
Hi,
ReplyDeleteIn general...
Just wish to say....
- nice blog
- good luck with knee op
- the camera i've been using the last year is a Panasonic Lumix FZ72. Best thing about it is its zoom factor for fell photog and it does .raw but i just use the auto as more convenient.
Anyway the purpose of my comment is mainly to say good luck with knee op and to say you'll be up them fells again making pain-free good strides.
Hi Muriel
ReplyDeleteI have copiedyour comment to my latest post . (Knee op 1) along with my reply, otherwise it would be lost to others reading the blog in real time.