Lowther Castle and Gardens.

The transformation of Lowther Castle over the past few years has been nothing short of amazing. The roof and all the interior structure of the original building were removed in 1957 to protect the rest of the estate from a £25 million death duty bill. The gardens were then used to house a large chicken farm and the remaining gardens and castle ruin were left to run wild and decay for decades.

Work on renovating the Castle started in 1999 with help from various Trusts and Development Funds and is still ongoing today. When I was there over the weekend, they were building a wooden children's adventure play area in the shape of a castle and I notices some of the paths were being extended out of the current enclosed gardens and into Lowther Park itself. Also a lot of work has been done directly in front of the Castle and the whole area is looking tidy and ready for planting.

I like this place so much so that I decided to buy a season ticket, it was only the price of four entrance fees so I should recoup that in no time at all. I'm looking forward to the summer months when the meadows are full of poppies and other wild flowers. The display of daffodils must have been fabulous this year. Most of the yellow variety were on the wane but there were thousand upon thousand of white ones still in full bloom.

I was fortunate enough to spot three herons as well on my visit. My only fear is that the noise from the children's playground may scare them off as the heronry is in that vicinity. All in all I spend a good four hours there, just wandering around with my camera. To make things a bit more interesting I used my 70-300 zoom lens for most photos, I think I just used my normal lens for the exterior shot of the Castle plus a couple of wide angled shots I took up at the Patte D'oi, which used to house a fountain and is the highest spot in the gardens.

A call in the cafe for a coffee before starting and then for a cold drink when I'd finished added up to a day well spent. Thank you for all the effort and hard work you have put in Lowther Castle.
























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