Severndroog Castle

I spent another morning hacking and chopping away at my garden jungle in the heat this morning. until my arms and hands could take no more, those pyracantha spikes are rather vicious too!

This afternoon I went to Oxleas Wood in Shooters Hill. I was hoping to get a photo of Severndroog Castle surrounded by blooming bluebells. I remember visiting a couple of years ago and the ground was covered in them, but they were extremely sparse today as you can see in this shot. Very disappointing (I think I've got more bluebells than this in my garden!)

Here's a bit about the castle, it's such a shame it's unused and boarded up...

Severndroog Castle is a folly situated in Oxleas Wood, on Shooter's Hill in south-east London in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It was designed by architect Richard Jupp in 1784.
It was built to commemorate Commodore Sir William James who, in April 1755, attacked and destroyed the island fortress of Suvarnadurg of the Maratha warriors (then rendered in English: Severndroog) on the western coast of India, between Mumbai and Goa. James died in 1783 and the castle was built as a memorial to him by his widow, Lady James of Eltham.
A Grade II* listed building,[1] the Gothic-style castle is 63 feet (19 m) high and triangular in section, with a hexagonal turret at each corner. From its elevated position, it offers views across London, with features in seven different counties visible on a clear day.
The Green Chain Walk long distance path leads through Eltham Common and Castle Wood and past this castle from Shooter's Hill towards Eltham.
In 1988, the local council could no longer afford the building's upkeep and it was boarded up. In 2002, a community group, the Severndroog Castle Building Preservation Trust, was established. In 2004, it featured in the BBC TV series Restoration (presented by Griff Rhys Jones, Ptolemy Dean and Marianne Suhr, producer-director Paul Coueslant) - with the aim of gaining support for a programme of work to restore the building and open it to the public.