Bartimaeus

Last weekend we had a short walk near Chirk castle. We viewed grounds through a fence and briefly looked around. We thought it might be good to return for a longer viewing at a later date. Now, on our way back, we had travelled well beyond Chirk, when I remembered, that we hadn't stopped, and had left Wales behind. 

There was some rain forecast and we made two forays to the shop in St Martins, picking our way over a muddy gateway. On one we got caught in some hailstones on the way, but managed to avoid the heavy rain. Shane kept an eye on the forecast, though it did keep changing. He plotted a route to visit the castle by tandem.

We had a brief stop at a cafe but it was too close to breakfast to sample the impressive array of baking on display. The route did involve some hilly terrain, so we might well be needing sustenance soon.

We explored the gardens first. Following down the lawns to a haha, originally built to keep out deer, but now keeping out cattle. We made our way round to the woods to see if the bluebells were more advanced than last week.

Over the grounds they were organised for the Easter holidays with lots of games and an Easter trail for children. Noughts and crosses grids had black and white tiles with badger themed prints rather than X and O.

We didn't try the Easter hunt ourselves, but couldn't fail to spot the Easter centrepiece in the courtyard, where we had gone to find the cafe. 

 I clocked a well filled plate on the way in and decided that would do nicely. It was the special: fish finger bap, mushy peas, salads and wedges. Shane went for the soup and cheese scone. I expected him to want a bigger plateful, but he had rightly judged that he could get away with nabbing a few wedges and dipping into my pot of mushy peas. 

With most people arriving by car, the ticket office was beside the car park, so we had not yet found a place to pay to get into the castle. We noticed others had a sticker on. The cafe staff might have thought I had come back for cake, but actually it was just that we were directed there to pay entry, rather than made to trek to the car park.

Inside rooms were decorated in different eras. Medieval armour in some spaces, but sumptuous decor from the 18th century in others. A dining room was set out with gold topped sets of glasses. Harpsichord music played in the saloon, much grander in style than the the wild western image.

Some rooms had been quite recently vacated and were unfurnished. Part of the castle is still inhabited. From the fittings they were used as bedrooms and one bay window gave an excellent view of the garden. 

A large hall room had information about the civil war era and a side room made up as bed chamber.  Other spaces had a table set out with replica foods from around that era, or earlier - leg of ham, pheasants, bread, a crust plate and leather tankards.

An area was known at the magistrates court but there are no records about trial, though we did see into guard rooms and dungeons so it was used for punishment and detention of enemies, if not a legal court.

As we went to leave we saw a metal ring in the ground.near the huge doors. There was no explanation written and we discussed it with another couple. It was not in the right place to be connected with the doors. I speculated about tying a horse as you went in, perhaps so some servant could then take it to the stable - it reminded me of the hooks for tying a dog outside a shop. His curiosity piqued, the other visitor went back in to ask staff. We went out and were asked by the woman at the van outside if we wanted ice cream before she shut up shop. It was not hot enough to tempt us but we had a little chat with her anyway. The other couple returned and also refused the ice cream offer since they had already had some.  They had got an answer to the ring on the ground. The family emblem was a wolf and the owner at some time had kept two wolves and had one chained at the entrance. 

On the way out of the grounds we passed the huge gates and there were the wolves resplendent on the top of the wrought iron gates.