We spent a day of our holiday on the island of Anglesey, starting at the north east corner with Beaumaris Castle. You could be forgiven for thinking that Beaumaris Castle is now a ruin, but in reality it was never actually finished.
It was commissioned by Edward I of England in the late 13th Century, along with Conwy Castle, Caernarfon and Harlech, and was supposed to be the biggest and grandest of them all. However, the money ran out, and construction basically stopped in the 1320s. The towers were never as tall as planned, but what remains today is still a large castle with multiple fortified walls. Nowadays, as with Conwy, it’s in the care of Cadw. Despite being built by an English king in Wales, ‘Beaumaris’ is derived from the French ‘beaux marais’, or ‘fair marsh’.
Visitors can climb up onto the walls, and up some of the towers, to get a view across the Menai Strait and towards mainland Wales. There’s also a video history of the castle, and the chapel has been restored with new stained glass windows. The outer walls are enclosed by a proper water-filled moat, and whilst it was never completed, it’s still a formidable castle. It’s worth a 1-2 hour visit.
Accessibility
As you would expect from something built over 800 years ago, accessibility isn’t the best. Access to the walls and towers is by staircases only, but there’s flat access to many other parts of the castle, albeit mostly on grass or gravel surfaces.
The castle is in the centre of the town of Beaumaris, which doesn’t have a railway station (and indeed never has) but is served by regular bus services. There’s an official castle car park just to the north, but we parked in a pay and display car park at a nearby leisure centre, that was a similar distance walk away. The leisure centre car park has two medium-speed (7 kW AC) electric car chargers on the PodPoint network.
Nearby
We didn’t spend much time in the town of Beaumaris, but it looked quite nice for a bit of pottering around. There’s a pier, and a large sightseeing Ferris wheel was there when we visited.
We’re back from our 2025 summer holiday in North Wales. Actually, we’ve been back a week now but it’s taken me a little time to sort the photos. I’ll be writing about the places we visited over the next couple of weeks, and today I’m starting with Conwy.
Situated on the North Wales coast, at the mouth of the Conwy Estuary, Conwy is a small town with a big castle. It retains its walls, which still run around almost all of the town and have only been breached in one location. Indeed, many stretches of wall are available to walk along.
Our rented cottage was just outside the walls, but was within walking distance.
A short history of Conwy
The town of Conwy was built by the English as a fortified town in the 13th Century. However, they weren’t the first people to occupy the site; in the 12th Century, some monks had founded an abbey there, known as Aberconwy Abbey. When the English, led by King Edward I, came along, they forced to monks to build a new abbey further up the Conwy Valley to the south. The castle was built first, followed by the town, and all use the same hard local stone. It’s probably due to the hardness of the stone, that the castle and walls have survived so long.
In the 14th Century, Welsh forces managed to seize the castle and the town, and held it for 3-4 months before negotiating a surrender. Inside the town, Aberconwy House was built around this time and remains the oldest surviving building within the town. It’s owned by the National Trust is open four days a week (Wednesday to Saturday) as a second-hand bookshop.
Whilst accessible by sea, it wasn’t until the 19th Century that road and rail access to Conwy became viable, and with it its rise as a tourist destination. In the late 20th Century, the whole town and castle became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Conwy bridges and tubes
The first bridge to be built across the Conwy Estuary was the Conwy Suspension Bridge, which will be 200 years old next year. It was designed by Thomas Telford, who was responsible for the first roads along the North Wales coast. The bridge still stands, albeit only open to foot traffic nowadays, and is managed by the National Trust. It’s open as a permissive footpath, so you don’t need to pay to cross it.
Telford’s suspension bridge is the world’s oldest surviving ‘modern’ suspension bridge. It could be seen as a dry run for another bridge that Telford designed, the Menai Bridge, further along the North Wales coast and spanning the Menai Strait between the British mainland and Anglesey.
Later on in the 19th Century, Robert Stephenson designed the Conwy Railway Bridge, which was built alongside Telford’s suspension bridge. This brought the North Wales Main Line railway to Conwy, on its way to Holyhead on Anglesey. This bridge is a tubular bridge – a pair of big metal girders, which were erected off site and lifted into place. Each hollow girder carries one of the two railway tracks. Stephenson also designed a tubular bridge to cross the Menai Strait, resulting in the Britannia Bridge. However, the Britannia Bridge was badly damaged in a fire in 1970, and was rebuilt to have two decks, with the railway below and the A55 North Wales Expressway up top.
By the 1950s, Telford’s suspension bridge was becoming a bottleneck, and so a third bridge was opened in 1958, the Pont Conwy (Conwy Bridge). I believe that it was at this point that a gap in Conwy’s walls was made to fit the wider road through. This is a much more plain, low-lying bridge that sits alongside Telford’s suspension bridge, to the north, with Stephenson’s tubular bridge to the south.
Whilst the Pont Conwy relieved one bottleneck, Conwy itself remained a pinch point for traffic heading to the port of Holyhead, where ferries go onwards to Ireland. The streets, and the gateways in the town’s walls are only wide enough for one lane of traffic, and to this day there’s a one-way system around the town. So, in the 1990s, the A55 North Wales Expressway was diverted into a tunnel, which runs under the Conwy Estuary. This was built using a (at the time) pioneering method of immersed tubes, buried in the riverbed. Nowadays, the A55 is all dual carriageway from Chester in England, through to Holyhead, apart from the Britannia Bridge. In fact, the road through Conwy and Colwyn Bay is a ‘secret motorway’, with motorway restrictions but standard green signs for a primary ‘A’ road.
Conwy Castle
The castle and town walls are managed by Cadw, the Welsh counterpart to English Heritage. Whilst the walls are free to walk on, you’ll need to pay to enter the castle. There’s a shop and visitor centre next to the town’s main car park, and this leads to a bridge across the B5106 Llanwrst Road and into the castle. Originally, there would have been a set of steps and a drawbridge, but a mini roundabout sits where the steps were.
Since it was constructed in the 13th Century, it’s fallen into ruin and then been repaired several times, but it was taken out of military use in the 17th Century following the English Civil War, and later stripped of all of its iron and lead. It’s now a ruin, although a reasonably well-preserved one, and visitors can climb most of the towers and walk along the walls. The last major investment in 2012 saw the construction of the new visitor centre, new information boards and several sculptures installed.
As it’s a ruin, there’s not masses to see there, although I feel that Cadw have done a better job of presenting the castle than their English counterparts did at Warkworth Castle. You could probably spend 1-2 hours here, depending on how interested you are and how many steps you’re willing to climb.
Other things to see in Conwy
On the waterfront, there’s the Smallest House in Great Britain, as recognised by Guinness World Records. Our nine-year-old went in on their own – we didn’t, as you have to pay. There are various boat tours on offer, mainly up and down the Conwy Estuary.
As you’d expect from a town that has a reputation for tourism, there are plenty of small shops to look around. Opposite the castle is The Knight Shop, which as well as selling various imitation swords and armour, has a fantastic range of mead. Including sparking mead, which I’ve never previously come across. We bought a bottle to try later.
Accessibility
Conwy has a railway station, although it’s a request stop with short platforms and not all trains that pass through are scheduled to stop. That being said, it’s a relatively easy walk from the nearby Llandudno Junction station, which has more regular services.
There’s a small car park inside the town walls, but there’s a larger one off Llanwrst Road which is linked to the town by a foot tunnel under the railway. I’m not aware of any public electric car chargers in or around the town, but there’s a Tesco and a Lidl at Llandudno Junction that we used for charging. There are regular bus services, and an open-top tourist bus regularly runs between Conwy and Llandudno.
For the castle, it’s possible to enter the castle without needing to climb any steps, but once inside you won’t be able to go into any of the towers without using stairs. Cadw and English Heritage members get into the castle for free, and there are discounts for Blue Light card holders, and members of the armed forces. Foster families with a Max Card can also get a discount, but people with disabilities will need to show proof of receipt of DLA or similar.
I managed to span the list of things we did whilst on holiday in Northumberland to eight blog posts, representing the seven days that we were on holiday. Because it was a short holiday, there were lots of places that we could have visited, but didn’t have the time. Here are some of them.
Alnwick Castle
Whilst we did visit The Alnwick Garden, which is adjacent and shares a car park, we didn’t go into the more famous castle next door. It dates from the 11th Century, following the Norman Conquest, although it was extensively re-modelled in the 18th and 19th Centuries. It’s often been used as a filming location, with the first series of Blackadder set there. More recently, it was used in last year’s Dungeons and Dragons film, and featured in the first two films about that wizard boy whose enemy cannot be named.
Howick Hall
Not far from Seahouses is Howick Hall, the ancestral home of the Earls Grey. The hall itself is open to visitors, as are its gardens and arboretum, and of course there’s a café where presumably there’s an expectation that you’ll drink Earl Grey Tea. Whilst the Earls Grey have owned the site since the 14th Century, the current house is less than 100 years old, having been substantially rebuilt following a fire.
Craster
Craster is another pretty fishing village like Seahouses. Whilst Seahouses claims to be where kippers where invented, Craster Kippers are more well-known. Craster is also known for its lobsters and crabs.
Dunstanburgh Castle
Had we visited Craster, we could have also called in at Dunstanburgh Castle. It’s a ruin – moreso than Warkworth Castle – and it’s just over a mile’s walk from Craster where the nearest car park is. We saw it from a distance as it’s on the coast, but the long walk from the car park and the fact that it’s a ruin put us off.
Beadnell
One of the main roads into Seahouses from the A1 passes the village of Beadnell, and so we drove past it multiple times without actually going into the village itself. It’s also a harbour, and looked quite pretty in some paintings that we saw.
Grace Darling Museum
Up the coast in the village of Bamburgh, and just a short walk from Bamburgh Castle, is the RNLI’s Grace Darling Museum. Grace Darling lived on the Farne Islands and was a daughter of one of the lighthouse keepers. She came to fame in 1838, when she was 22 years old, by risking her life to rescue the stranded survivors of a shipwreck – of the 62 people on board, all but three were rescued. Whilst she died a few years later aged 26, she managed to go down in history as a local heroine. The museum opened in 1938 to mark 100 years since her dramatic rescue.
Whilst the museum was very close to where we were staying, we’d pencilled it in for a day of bad weather. As it was, we were really lucky with the weather and so didn’t need an indoor backup plan.
Northumberland Zoo
Our summer holidays normally result in a zoo or aquarium visit, but we didn’t find the time this year. Had we stayed for longer, then we may have gone to Northumberland Zoo. It’s less than 10 years old, and tends to have smaller animals; the largest are medium-sized cats like servals, lynx and snow leopards.
I’ve no doubt that we’ll have another holiday in Northumberland at some point in the future, and we may well visit some of these places that we didn’t manage to fit in.
This is the sixth blog post about what we did on our 2024 holiday to Northumberland. Previously, I wrote about The Farne Islands, and today is about our visit to Lindisfarne.
Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is an island just off the Northumberland coast, further north (and separate from) the Farne Islands, which we visited earlier in the week. Unlike the Farne Islands, Lindisfarne is inhabited all year round, and connected to the mainland by a causeway.
Lindisfarne Castle
From a distance, the standout feature is Lindisfarne Castle, on the eastern tip of the island. Now in the custody of the National Trust, this ancient castle was converted into a holiday home in the early twentieth century. The interior is laid out as it would have been around 100 years ago, and each room is full of objects of interest. There’s plenty of information on offer about the history of the building, as well as its owner and architect. You can head up to the top for great views back across the island and up the coast.
The National Trust is also responsible for Gertrude Jekyll’s Garden, which overlooks the castle. It’s an interesting example of a garden that’s designed to both look pretty, and withstand the exposed coastal conditions. The plants have been specially chosen for the hardiness and their ability to survive sandy soil and strong winds.
The village
There’s a small village on the island, which is home to a few pubs, shops, cafés and a post office, should you wish to get a special postmark on your postcards home. There’s also St Aidan’s Winery, best known as the producers of Lindisfarne Mead, which is produced on the island. We may have bought a few things there to take home.
Lindisfarne is also a very religious place, and you can go to the ruins of Lindisfarne Priory, which is now looked after by English Heritage. We didn’t go; having been to the castle, had lunch and done a bit of shopping, time was slipping away and we needed to get back across the causeway.
The causeway
The causeway disappears under the sea at high tide, so it’s worth checking the safe crossing times. Thankfully, these allowed for a decent day out when we visited, but we needed to have left by 3:30pm, otherwise it would be after 10pm until we could leave the island again by road. You’ll probably find that the shops, cafés, pubs and attractions vary their opening times to match the tide times, which means that if everything is about to close, you probably need to get back to your car and get away. There are warning sides all over the island about the dangers of getting stranded, and yet it’s still approximately a monthly occurrence.
Whilst raising the causeway, or building a bridge, has long been discussed, it’s opposed by residents. I suppose being able to drive onto an island that it regularly cut off from the mainland has its charms. Although personally, I think the French had the right idea with Mont St Michel, where you park on the mainland and travel across on a shuttle bus.
Accessibility
As well as the causeway, the island is reachable by boat from Seahouses. There’s also a bus service from the mainland. The main car park on the island charges £10 for all-day parking. The village is mostly on flat ground and shouldn’t present too many issues for people with mobility issues.
However, if you do have mobility issues, maybe give the castle a miss. It’s up a steep hill with uneven cobblestones, narrow doorways and lots of steps. Entry to the castle is free for National Trust members, or £11 for adult non-members.
One of the things that Northumberland is known for is its castles. We’d already been to Bamburgh Castle, and passed near to Alnwick Castle. Warkworth Castle is further south, and to the east of Alnwick and near Alnmouth. It’s an English Heritage property.
Unlike Bamburgh, Warkworth Castle hasn’t been extensively restored. Whilst the outer walls remain, most of the interior buildings have gone. The keep is still there but it’s not furnished inside – just a series of empty rooms. Although each room had a metal plaque labelling it, there was a real lack of information about what each room was used for. I’m sure Warkworth Castle had an interesting history, but I didn’t feel like I learned much whilst there.
Thankfully, there was a medieval falconry display by Raphael Historic Falconry taking place when we visited. Whilst I’ve seen plenty of falconry displays over the years, it was good to learn about how birds were used to hunt during the medieval period. They’re back again next week; if you are going to visit Warkworth Castle, maybe do so when there’s an event on, as otherwise you may struggle to fill even half a day there.
Accessibility
Wheelchair access is possible to ground floor, but not to the keep or any other indoor areas. Alnmouth is the nearest railway station, and from there you can catch a couple of bus services – there’s a 15% discount if you arrive by public transport. A car park is available on site. English Heritage members get in free.
This is the second blog post about what we did on our 2024 holiday to Northumberland. Yesterday was about Seahouses, and today we’re going just a couple of miles up the coast to Bamburgh Castle.
Bamburgh Castle sits on a raised bit of rock by the sea, and there has been evidence of a castle on the site since around AD 547. The current castle is based on one built by the Normans in the 12th century, but much of the interior dates from the 19th century when it was used as a hospital. It then became a private residence for Lord William Armstrong, and it remains in the Armstrong family to this day.
As such, inside it is furnished as a stately home, although you can still go into the castle’s keep, and see some armour and weapons. Its long history means that plenty of archaeological digs have taken place, and some of the artefacts are on display. There’s also a separate museum focussing on Lord Armstrong’s inventions, in particular around aviation, although we didn’t go into it. There’s plenty of interactive things, which helps to keep it interesting for kids.
At present, there’s an exhibition about the Netflix series The Last Kingdom, for which the castle both serves as inspiration for the story, and a filming location. This is in the King’s Hall.
Being such an ancient building, access to the upper floors is only via stairs. However, the downstairs area should be accessible to wheelchairs, and there’s a video to watch for those unable to access the rest of the castle. A discount is available to Max Card holders.
If you arrive by car, then you’ll need to pay £5 to park. However, your parking ticket is transferrable to other car parks in the village, including one by the beach. The same infrequent bus services (418 and X18) that call at Seahouses also serves the village of Bamburgh.
I’m away on holiday at the moment, so this week’s posts are about previous un-blogged holidays from 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Yesterday was our 2019 holiday to the Dordogne in France, and today, it’s our 2021 holiday to Kent and East Sussex.
In 2021, with some remaining Covid restrictions making travel a little difficult, we decided to have a domestic holiday and remain in England. We decided to stay on the south coast, at Parkdean’s Camber Sands resort in East Sussex. This wasn’t our first stay at a Parkdean resort – Sci-Fi Weekender is at Parkdean’s Vauxhall Holiday Park in Great Yarmouth – although it was the first time that my parents had stayed at such a place. My parents found it rather different to the Eurocamp sites that they’re used to in France – the static caravans are more tightly packed in and usually don’t have decking outside. But it was fine as a base to explore the area.
Here’s where we visited:
Hever Castle
On the way down, we called in at Hever Castle, which is probably best known as being the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I. The castle itself isn’t that big, and we actually didn’t have time to go in to it properly, but there’s plenty to see and do in the grounds. There’s some really nice gardens, and regular jousting events at weekends, which are fun to watch. Our eight-year-old (who was five at the time) particularly liked the water maze, and there are several playgrounds too, so it’s a great place to take kids.
Unlike the other castles mentioned here later, this isn’t run by the National Trust. However, it’s possible to get discounted entry with Tesco Clubcard vouchers, Gardener’s World two-for-one cards, or membership of the RHS or Historic Houses.
The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway
Along the Kent coast is 13 ½ mile miniature railway – the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. All the locomotives are ⅓ of the size of regular mainline trains, and it runs from Hythe in the east to Dungeness in the west. We travelled the whole line. At Dungeness, there’s a small café and a visitor centre, and you should have time for a stroll around the village of Dungeness between trains. It’s quiet scenic apart from the massive nuclear power station.
Howletts Wild Animal Park
We used more of our Tesco Clubcard vouchers at Howletts Wild Animal Park. It’s a zoo, but doesn’t call itself one; the focus is on breeding endangered animals and allowing them large habitats to live in. Consequently it’s quite a large site, with several big cat species, elephants and gorillas. It’s one of two animal sanctuaries in Kent run by the Aspinall Foundation, whose founder, John Aspinall, had some odd ideas about animal husbandry which has seen at least two keepers die over the years. Because the focus is on animal welfare rather than visitor experience, don’t be surprised if not every animal is available to see. We saw just about everything apart from the pallas cats.
Rye
The nearest town to Camber Sands is Rye, which is situated on a natural hill and has a castle at the top. It’s a pretty little town, with narrow cobblestone streets and a harbour. There’s plenty of tourist-orientated shops, and the castle is open as a museum, with good views from the top.
Bodiam Castle
My mum sold this to us as a ‘proper castle’. It has a real moat, and bridge to cross it, to enter the keep. On the inside it’s mostly open to the elements, but when we went there were plenty of activities for kids. This is a National Trust property.
Scotney Castle
We had a two castle day that day, and followed up our visit to Bodiam Castle with a trip to Scotney Castle in the afternoon. You may recognise it as a filming location for the Sandman series that was on Netflix a couple of years ago. It’s also a National Trust property – between our National Trust membership and Tesco Clubcard vouchers, we had a good value holiday.
The old part of the castle is mostly ruins, but there’s also a newer castle which we didn’t go into. There’s also plenty of grounds and a playground for the kids.
Hastings
Our run of nice weather petered out and so we had a wet day in the town of Hastings. Here, we visited the aquarium, the Fishermen’s Museum and the Shipwreck Museum in the Rock-a-Nore, and had a wander around the harbour and lifeboat station.
On the way home
Outside of Kent and East Sussex, we stopped over in Slough and spent an afternoon in Windsor, following by a day at Legoland Windsor, before heading home. Our eight-year-old is desperate for a return visit to Legoland.
I’m away on holiday at the moment, so this week’s posts are about previous un-blogged holidays from 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Today, it’s our 2019 holiday to the Dordogne in France.
For our 2019 summer holiday in France, we went quite a bit further south, to the Dordogne region (named after the river that runs through it). As well as the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo, we stopped off at a hotel in Poitiers and so it took the equivalent of three full days of driving to reach our campsite near Bergerac. We took our own car, but we had to abandon it after (what I presume) was a failed wheel bearing saw me skid off the road into a ditch, so the second half of the holiday was in an a hire car.
As this holiday was five years ago, in June 2019, my memories are not the best, which is why there’s not a lot of detail here. It’s thanks to checkins on Swarm and my own photos that I can recall what we did.
Here’s where we visited:
Beynac-et-Cazenac
Benyac overlooks the Dordogne river where it cuts through a deep gorge, and the village is built into the side of the steep valley. It’s a pretty little place with narrow, twisting streets and craft shops.
Château de Castelnaud
Castelnaud is quite a good castle. It sits high up, in a commanding position over the surrounding valleys, and the courtyard is full of catapults, trebuchets and over siege engines that might have been used during the various wars that it has experienced over the centuries. I remember that we treated our (then) three-year-old to a wooden sword and shield from the gift shop.
Gouffre de Proumeyssac
Known as the ‘crystal cathedral’, Gouffre de Proumeyssac is a huge underground cave full of stalagmites and stalactites. Clever use of lighting makes it a fascinating experience. Whilst nowadays there’s a wheelchair-accessible main entrance, you can also opt to be lowered into the cave in a basket, as the original explorers would have done at the beginning of the last century.
Le Bournat
Le Bournat is an open-air living museum – a bit like Beamish or the Black Country Living Museum. The aim is to recreate how people lived in the Dordogne region in the past, with farms and small industry to look at. Whilst I would argue that it’s not as realistic as its British counterparts, it’s very pretty and makes for a nice day out. Like many of the places we went to in 2019, I seem to remember visiting when I was much younger and it seems to have expanded significantly since then.
Eymet
Eymet (pronounced ‘ay-may’) is an example of a Bastide, or fortified town. This means that there are walls around the town centre, and buildings such as the church are fortified. There’s also quite a large British diaspora here, with British ex-pats making up around a quarter of the population. Like many small French towns, its communal wash house has been preserved.
Château des Milandes
Our second château of the holiday was the Château des Milandes. It was home to the American singer Josephine Baker, and so it has a number of her more famous (and infamous) outfits and tells her story. There are some nice gardens outside, along with an aviary which is home to a number of birds of prey. If you time your visit right, then you can watch a bird of prey show. I visited here with my parents when I was younger and had the interesting experience of having a harris hawk land on my head, which my dad took a photo of.
Aquarium du Perigord Noir
We usually end up at an aquarium whilst on holiday, as it’s a way to spend a wet day, and so we went to the Aquarium du Perigord Noir. Besides the many fish – mostly freshwater, as it’s a long way inland – they are a breeding centre for caimans, and have some coypu (also known as Nutria or Chilean beavers).
On the way back, we stopped off at a hotel in Le Mans, and also at Warwick Castle once back in England.
For my 40th birthday last weekend, we had a couple of days in Dudley. Which might seem like an odd choice for a short break, but it meant that we could visit Dudley Zoo and Castle, and the Black Country Living Museum (which I’ll blog about separately soon).
This was my third visit to Dudley Zoo; all three of us visited in 2019 on the way down to Portsmouth to go on holiday, and I had been as a child (probably 1992 as I seem to remember it being the 29th February). It’s a medium-sized zoo; it doesn’t have any really big animals like elephants and rhinos, but is home to some quite big animals like sealions, lions, tigers and giraffes. You’ll need a full day to see everything, but unlike Chester Zoo you will be able to see everything in one day.
Dudley Castle
Before the zoo, there was the castle. There’s been a castle on this site since Norman times, as it’s a strategic lookout position. The current castle is a ruin – it was damaged quite a bit during the English Civil War in the 17th century and suffered a fire in the 18th century. You can go up the keep, which is the oldest bit of the castle, and there’s a newer indoor part which is home to nocturnal animals, as well as offering a history of the castle.
The ruined castle offered a focal point for what was originally known as Dudley Zoological Gardens, and several animals including the penguins and sealions now live in what was the castle’s moat.
Tectons
When the zoo opened in the 1930s, a number of concrete buildings were built by the Tecton architectural group, with all but one surviving. They’re now all Grade II or II* listed, although a number are no longer fit for their original purpose. They were all restored recently and still look quite futuristic, almost 90 years after they were built. These include the main entrance gates, which I gather are now only used on really busy summer weekends. Entry is now via what was originally known as the Station Café, which is now a gift shop. Incidentally, there’s no longer a railway station nearby, but there will soon be a stop on the West Midlands Metro once the Dudley extension opens – hopefully later this year.
Dudley Zoo highlights
The highlight for us was the Lorikeet Lookout; provided that you go in between 11am and 3pm, you can buy a pot of nectar to feed the lorikeets. They’ll happily sit on your hand/arm/shoulder whilst doing this. We also got to see a female tiger playing around in the water, and a weaver bird making its nest. As usual, I’ve uploaded a full set of photos to Flickr.
They also have red pandas; we saw one but it was high up in the trees and so I couldn’t get a photo. We also didn’t see the otters this time.
Accessibility
Like most zoos, Dudley Zoo is open every day (except Christmas Day). As mentioned, it’s on a hill, which is great if you’re building a castle, but not so great if you’re in a wheelchair. Whilst there is a marked out route with gentler slopes, some powered wheelchairs may struggle. If your wheelchair folds, you can use the land train to get between the bottom and top levels of the site.
This is the first of at least two posts about what Christine and I got up to last week whilst we were in Dublin – the focus of this one being about the attractions we visited, in no particular order.
Guinness Storehouse
Allegedly the most-visited attraction in Ireland, the Guinness Storehouse tells the history of Guinness, which is probably the most well-known brand of stout in the world. Although Guinness is still brewed in Dublin, on a huge site just outside the city centre, the Storehouse is across the road and not part of the main brewery site. Consequently everything inside is simulated or are static models, rather than actual, in-use brewing equipment like you would see on a tour of a microbrewery.
It’s one of Dublin’s more expensive attractions, however we spent a few hours here so it was somewhat worth it. Except that neither me or Christine particularly like Guinness – Christine hates beer altogether, and although I like stout and porter from time to time, I’ve never enjoyed Guinness in the past. And, sadly, our visit was to be the same – despite being shown how to pour my own pint, I still didn’t like it. The restaurants inside are very good though, with an above average food selection and many menu items using Guinness as an ingredient. For beer-haters, there is some interesting displays about Guinness’ advertising and how beer is made.
The Old Jameson Distillery
If Guinness is Ireland’s best known beer, then Jameson is its best known whiskey. Like the Guinness Storehouse, the Old Jameson Distillery is no longer an active distillery. Production was moved to the southern Irish city of Cork in the 1970s, although here some of the displays were active. It’s a guided tour, taking about an hour, with eight volunteers being picked for a whiskey test at the end. You should definitely volunteer if asked, as you get to try shots of Jameson’s whiskey, Jack Daniels’ bourbon, and a blended Scotch whiskey, to compare the three styles. Christine was chosen – I didn’t volunteer because I don’t like neat whiskey, but enjoyed a Jameson and ginger beer drink at the end, and a really nice Irish coffee in the bar. Again, a pricier attraction but we enjoyed this more than Guinness.
Dublin Zoo
Christine and I love visiting zoos so we spent most of last Monday at Dublin Zoo, as many other attractions in the city are closed on Mondays. It’s quite a big zoo, and whilst it has fewer animals than some others it does have some big enclosures. It was quite quiet when we went but it was a weekday and not especially nice weather, so at other times it will probably be busier. We were also wisely advised to take a packed lunch, as the food offerings there are not great. It’s home to two species of tiger (both very endangered), red pandas (my favourite animal), otters, lions, various apes, penguins and many others. The entry price is in line with other zoos over here in Britain.
Natural History Museum
After you’ve visited the zoo, have a look at the ‘dead zoo’ – yes, it’s really known as that. Though significantly smaller than its London namesake, and less interactive, the Natural History Museum has an extensive collection of stuffed animals. The ground floor is set aside for species native to or resident in Ireland, with everything else upstairs. The two balcony floors are currently out of bounds due to a lack of fire exits but most of the exhibits are viewable. Some of the specimens are very old, and were stuffed at a time when people were less familiar with exotic animals, so there are some slightly dodgy examples of taxidermy on show. Entry is free, although it is shut on Sunday mornings and all day Monday. Set aside a little over an hour for a visit.
Temple Bar
The Temple Bar is a district of Dublin which is home to many pubs and restaurants – the above pub gets its name from the area, rather than the other way around. It’s nice for a stroll through but livens up on an evening.
General Post Office
I’ve already briefly mentioned this one, but it’s worth a look. As well as being the main post office for the city, there is a small museum inside, which tells the history of Ireland’s postal service. In particular, there is quite a bit about its role in the Easter Rising of 1916, which set in motion various events over the next decade which ultimately led to Ireland’s independence from the United Kingdom. It’s only €2 to get in, and kept us occupied for up to an hour. You can also post letters and postcards into the oldest postbox in the country, and any mail collected from it will get a unique cancellation stamp.
Dublin Castle
We decided not to do the guided tour of Dublin Castle, which costs money, but there were plenty of bits to walk around for free. Follow the signs to the tearooms, and you will go past several boards with information about the history of the castle, and its wider role in Irish history. You can also cross a bridge into Dubh Linn Gardens, at the back of the castle, which are nice to walk around.
Kilmainham Gaol
Another historical attraction worth visiting is Kilmainham Gaol. Though it’s been many years since prisoners were interned there, it forms an important part of the history of the nation. The population exploded during a crime wave brought on by the potato famine – as the potato crop failed for several years running, those without food had to steal to survive, and many were caught. But in the early twentieth century many of those involved in campaigning for Irish independence, and those that opposed the Irish Free State in the Irish Civil War, were imprisoned and executed here. There’s both a small museum, and a guided tour of the main jail.
The jail isn’t in the centre of Dublin and is a good 20 minute walk from the Guinness Storehouse, itself away from the city centre. If you’re not up for a long walk, you may wish to catch the bus out here. It’s worth the long trip though.
