Sizergh Castle Lake District

Wednesday 7th June

This morning we repeated yesterday's shopping trip around Southport, but the less said about that the better !

The Marine Lake carpark turned out to be a great place to overnight watching the sunset over the lake.

We shared it with about seven other motorhomes.

It was quite busy on the water in the evening, lots of kayaks, SUP's, sailing dingeys all enjoying the warm evening summer sun.

Then it was onto Sizergh Castle on the southern edge of the lake district national park.

It's a National Trust property in a beautiful valley and countryside surrounding.

The house is interesting without being spectacular. 

Many of the rooms are dark and gloomy with a lot of carved wood panelling making it all rather oppressive. 

The house was built by the Strictland family and what an odd looking bunch they were judging by the paintings.

To say large noses are a family trait is a bit of an understatement.

The gardens are impressive, most of all the rock garden which is quite amazing with meandering gravel paths set amongst large limestone bolders and rocks. 

There's a good variety of planting and a colourful display from the Japanese maples.

The nearby pub, The Strictland Arms allow motorhomes to stay on the carpark overnight, so we took the opportunity to have a meal there for our tea.

Todays weather followed a familiar theme, cool and cloudy in the morning but by lunchtime, clear blue skies and warm sunshine.

Tomorrow I think we'll be heading for Lake Coniston.

Some views of Sizergh Castle and Gardens.

 

 

To the Lakes and beyond, starting at Southport

Tuesday 6th June 2023

We set off today for the lakes and decided to go via Southport Botanic Gardens, so that was out first call of the day.

It's got plenty to offer, but probably more of a nice park, rather than what you think of as a botanical garden.

Most interesting was the Victorian Fernery which was quite impressive with a large variety of ferns, tree ferns and semi tropical plants.

There is also a stumpery garden, but not so impressive after recently visiting Biddulph Grange Garden and there very well made stumpery.

The stumpery

The plant prices in the garden center were very reasonable, but we didn't buy any.

Next stop was our parkup for the night, at the nearby Marine Lake.

Marine Lake parking for the night

The smallest pub in Britian, I don't think so

It's a excellent place for the night for the princely sum of 4.50 for 24 hours.

Next to us what claims to be the smallest pub in Britain, I doubt that but it seems quite popular with the locals.

This afternoon we headed for Lord Street shopping, particularly M&S, and Boots to buy all the stuff Sue forgot to bring !

After purchasing all required merchandise we sat on a bench for five minutes.

Only when we got back to Ed the motorhome did Sue ask where her carrier bag was, like I'd know.

Yep, you guessed it, it was left on the bench.

So tomorrow, we have the pleasure of re-purchasing all the stuff we bought today.

After that I needed alcohol.

Lord Street

Followed by an evening walk around the Marine Lake. The pier is closed for some reason.

And of course, Southport being Southport, we never got to see the sea.

It was much too far out.

The Pier closed sadly

Blackpool Tower in the distance, but no sea

Walking through the gardens though, it did bring back happy memories of when Lauren was just a baby, about two months old I think, just beginning to smile and chuckle.

Probably her first visit to the seaside, we sat on the grass with a picnic in the sunshine, much like today.

It's really suprising how dried and brown the grass is here, it looks like they've had no rain for weeks. In fact it looks more like a long hot summer in August rather than at the very start of summer.

It's a lovely sunny evening and I'm hoping for a nice sunset later.

Edit, sorry if the photos are a bit grainey, I reduced them in size too much