Kirtlington Castle

We found this structure in the pleasant village of Kirtlington. We came here on this lovely sunny, spring day on an interesting bus ride. There's an hourly service from the stop opposite our front door.

There isn't really a castle in Kirtlington. The Wikipedia article just linked has a photo very like mine that is of the Manor House. "The manor house is recorded to have had a date-stone of 1563, but this has now been lost. The house is L-shaped, has a polygonal stair-turret on the south side and a corbelled chimney-stack in the west side. So what I mistook for a turret is really a polygonal stair-turret. Very handsome in the sun!

Kirtlington has several other points of interest, including a fine church (earlier than twelfth century) and a Grade I listed 18th-century Palladian country house. But in addition we found two good-looking pubs: the Oxfotd Arms on one side of the road, and on the other, a little way north, the Dashwood (a historic grade II listed coaching house). The Dashwood is home to the "Hellfire Smoker" (follow the link). The Head Chef has always been interested in the traditional Texan barbecue style of cooking after tasting the best beef ribs of his life many years ago. Since then he had been looking for a way of incorporating authentic barbecue cooking into the Dashwood menu, but in the end there was only one option - we imported the Hellfire, a real American BBQ smoker. The Dashwood writes

"
We source the best quality ingredients and don’t fuss with them too much. We then follow the old school Texan way of cooking with wood and time.

The process begins with the best local meats, seasoned with our secret spice blend for 1-2 days and then smoked with wood for many, many hours (sometimes a day) until the perfect harmony of tenderness, smoke, flavour and time emerges.
"

Sounds excellent for carnivores, and the bus means that one can drink as well!!

Happy Days!