Richmond from its Castle

An educational day today. A day off walking to explore Richmond and its environs. And a very good day it was too. We started at the Richmondshire Museum, which was excellent, informative and very well laid out.

We then moved to The Station which is an area of shops and exhibitions and a tea room in a very sympathetic conversion of the old railway station. This was the place, several years ago where we'd had the best ever scone and we were keen to see if the reputation was still deserved. We are delighted to report they have retained their high status and were just as good as we recalled - crisp crunchy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside. A perfect scone - score 50 out of 44.

From The Station it was on to Easby Abbey on the banks of the Swale. An ancient ruin but well preserved and a well told story. Visiting places like these we try to imagine what it must have been like living there and try to appreciate that we are following in the footsteps of people who inhabited these places all those hundreds of years ago.

Finally it was to Richmond Castle which now has a new and very good interpretation centre telling the story of castle and town. As you can see you were able to get up high and appreciate why the castle was built where it was. The castle was built by Alan Rufus, who was a nephew of William the Conquerer, on land given to him by William by way of a thank you for his loyalty during the invasion of Britain.

The day was rounded off by a visit to the Wetherspoon's pub for the evening meal. Say what you like about Wetherspoon's the food is usually good and good value for money too.