Carlisle Castle

Tom hurries to get out of the rain at Carlisle Castle

The second day of our short holiday soon brought the predicted rain. Knowing that it was going to be a wet day, we had planned to do heritage things. Mark and I have been members of English Heritage for over a decade and we visited Carlisle Castle when we were visiting the Lake District for the Queen's golden jubilee ten years ago. It is a rather impressive structure and we wanted to take the Podlings there since we were staying in Carlisle anyway.

As you can see from the photo, it was a rather wet day, but the castle is remarkably intact for its age ( it is over 900 years old), so we were indoors for most of our visit. It is a truly remarkable example of a Norman castle and you get such a wonderful sense of history as you explore it. Exploring the dungeon knowing the terrible conditions the Jacobite prisoners were kept in and their ultimate fate was particularly poignant.

The Podlings had a wonderful time running about and inspecting all the nooks and crannies. We enjoyed the military museum and the Podlings particularly enjoyed the drop-in crown making session they were running on the day of our visit. The only difficulty was keeping their cardboard crowns dry for the rest of the afternoon!

The Podlings making crowns at the drop-in crown making session. They all had a fabulous time doing this. 

King Tom and Queen Lily showing off their completed crowns 

HRH Princess Emma wearing her completed crown 

To give you an idea of the thickness of the walls, Lily and Emma are in a window recess. I wouldn't fancy storming this castle!

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