Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens.

Taking advantage of our National Trust membership we got as gift we headed off to somewhere I've wanted to see for such a long time, Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens. I've seen pictures of the gardens and they reminded me of the book The Secret Garden, I was not to be disappointed. 

They currently house an exhibition on The Wildman of Belsay, normally these historical titbits go over the heads of our children who are more interested in the activities, but the thought that there could be a Wildman and Women running around the gardens had their interest piqued.
At every twig snap or shout they were looking out for the them.

The gardens were indeed magical, maybe because I love gardening but don't have my own I find total peace admiring blooms such as these. My instagram account ins normally full of flowers and I like it that way. 

Maisie and Lucas loved the gardens too, it's wonderful to show them historical places and yet not have to worry they'll touch the wrong thing or be too noisy. With it being a Bank Holiday the National Trust normally have trials and competitions to do, here we had to look for small wooden treasure chests with a clue in and all the clues formed the answer you had to give to win a gold chocolate coin. The boxes were hidden all through the gardens, and castle.

Didn't I say it was like the Secret Garden, this door led to the path to The Castle.

Belsay Castle is an imposing and grand building, with much of it still intact we actually walked all the way up to the rooftop. There was a reenactment characters wandering the Castle grounds and the children had to give their puzzle clue to one of them and they both got the hugest chocolate coin I ever saw. 

I think the chocolate helped power them round the rest of the gardens, it's an easy pathway but quite a walk when you go all the way around. Lucas especially loved looking for the little clue boxes and filling in his sheet, although he needed help understanding the puzzle.

We had a fantastic day out at Belsay, Maisie and Lucas loved be free to run around, jump and be free; walking back through the Quarry Garden in the sunshine was my personal favourite part too.

This was the quarry where the stone was taken to build the Hall, the owner Sir Charles wanted to keep the space exotic and filled it with rare varieties of plants and trees.

Lucas having a rest while showing the full height of the quarry walls, he certainly was tired out but loved spotting more blooming flowers for Mummy.