It wasn't going to last . . .

. . . was it! After a few days of sun and blue skies, we were back today with real November weather - grey, damp and dismal. So I am returning to castles and, as I was in Penrith, I thought I would show you Penrith Castle. For those who don't know it, it is in the park in the centre of Penrith, opposite the Railway Station.

There isn't a lot of it left, but it has quite an interesting history.

Built on the site of a Roman Fort, as most castles round here were, it still has the enormous ditch that was dug by the Romans. Richard III (before he was Richard III) lived here for periods between 1471 and 1483. It was he who made the castle into a residence and probably had this part built to make living apartments. At the time he was Sheriff of Cumberland and his job was to keep the Scots out of England and keep feuding local families under control - an easy peasy task I would have thought!

Unfortunately he was not very successful at the former, as he obviously didn't notice a family of Mcdonalds had already set up business across the road. Or perhaps he ignored this intrusion, as it was well known that he was partial to a Big Mac every now and again!

Thank you everyone for the wonderful response to my light on the water blip from yesterday. I liked it and was so pleased that so many of you seemed to like it too.