Langdale Pikes

Today's the day ......................... to visit Wray Castle

In all the time that I have lived in the Lake District, I have never been to Wray Castle.

I suppose in a way it's not that surprising because although it has been owned by the National Trust since 1929, it has only been open to the public for about three years. It's not at all the normal sort of National Trust place either, because it's pretty much just a shell of a building with no furniture in it.

It was built in the 1840s in the then fashionable mock-gothic style as a retirement home for one James Dawson and his wife Margaret. They wanted to fool everyone into thinking that Wray Castle was a bona fide ancient monument and they went to quite incredible lengths to make it the quirky place that it is today.

It really warrants a proper blip of its own - but today the most wonderful thing about the castle was the view of the Langdales from its grounds. Here you see the unmistakable twin buttresses of Pike o'Stickle and Harrison Stickle - with a young lamb enjoying the sunshine in the foreground ................