Lulworth Castle

 October 22^nd, 2023

I flew back to England from Munich on October 20^th.  I had booked a train from Heathrow down to Weymouth, where my aunt lives.  In some slight confusion, I ended up yo-yoing between Terminal 2 & 3 a few times.  At first, I headed to the trains, got my prebooked ticket from a machine and was then told by a helpful staffer that I had to catch a bus and had to return to Terminal 2.  That seemed odd as I had booked my ticket on Trainline.com and there was no mention of a bus.  I walked there but was told that the bus terminal was back from where I came.  I went there only to be referred yet again back to Terminal 2.  Baffled, I asked a woman wearing a Heathrow uniform and she told me that I had to go about 100 meters back and go between some glass cladding…that seemed odd but sure enough, there were 4-5 bus lanes and I finally figured out the stop for my bus that would take me to Woking where I would get on a train.  I’m sure glad I wasn’t in a rush; in fact, I was early and wondered if I could get on a train that was 2 hours earlier than my scheduled train.  As I arrived at Woking station, my ticket wouldn’t open the automatic turnstiles, but a railway station worker nearby called me over, let me through and told me I had better hurry as the train was leaving in 3 minutes!  I caught that train and there was no problem with the train’s ticket inspector, which was great.  Auntie Shirley picked me up in Weymouth and her son and daughter arrived a few hours later with their families.  It was the start of half term for schools, so their kids had the week off as did Gemma and Sid (my cousins).

 

On Sunday we headed to Lulworth Castle, a 17^th century hunting lodge built in the spirit of a fortified castle, but it was never used for that purpose, mainly as a family home in later years.  It was a lovely sunny day with some puffy, white cumulus clouds moving through the blue sky.  Being close to Hallowe’en, we were first greeted by a pumpkin mascot at the entrance followed by lots of decorations throughout the grounds and inside the castle.

Penelope claimed that she was Boris Johnson!

Cousins Amelie and Annabelle:

Pippa imitating the statue above her:

We started with a wander around the inside of the castle.  Unfortunately, a fire in 1929 gutted the place and it wasn’t partially restored until the 1970s, but they didn’t rebuild the upper floors which made the rooms on the main floor seem cavernous as they stretched up to the roof.  The kids had a mission to find fake skulls with diamond eyes in various rooms in the castle and had to mark their findings in a little booklet to earn a prize (a candy of their choosing).

In the basement:

YIKES!!!

A deadly disco:

An important booklet on display:

If you know me, Rowntree's Fruit Gums from England are one of my favorite candies...here's an old school box of them.

The view from one of the towers:

Looking towards the ocean:

Afterwards we had lunch before heading over to a wooded area where the kids were looking for wooden pumpkin facades with emoji faces which they drew in their pamphlets in order to obtain another candy treat. 

Annabel, a troll in the forest: 

Sid walking with Rico amongst skeletons.

The scary ghost Nala!

There was a zombie house that a few of us wanted to check out.  We were led into the small structure by an older gentleman dressed up as a British soldier.  The premise was that some scientist’s experiment had gone wrong and although it was short, it was pretty fun.  I was impressed with my cousin’s youngest, 7 year old Rose, who braved the action and didn’t seem to get scared.

Being hounded by zombies:

We ended up spending 3-4 hours at Lulworth Castle and the Hallowe’en twist to the place really added to the experience.  It was a lovely Sunday afternoon with the family.