May 28, 2011

0 Alnwick Castle

Alnwick Castle, (pronounce "Ann-ick") is the home of the Duke of Northumberland and his family, the Percys.  The current castle's earliest existing sections emerged in the early 1300s, although a fortified building had existed on this site for over 200 years already. Some of you may recognize the castle from its most recent incarnation, as Hogwarts, Harry Potter's school.  Although not a fan myself, I found the many small Harrys that ran around the grounds on the day of our visit quite entertaining.  While I do have the guide book for the castle, it mostly describes the amazing furnishings and art collected by the Percys over their 1000 years in England (the family was "founded" by a member of William the Conqueror's Norman Conquest).  I couldn't take pictures inside the castle, but its grounds are no less amazing.  Keep in mind, this is a house- the second largest inhabited castle in England after Windsor Castle. 





State coach from 1825.  Originally a royal coach, it now displays the Percy livery.  Wait, your family doesn't have a livery??






Some of the grounds.  Not even the garden, which we'll get to.


This was on the wall... Cause they've got the original digital picture frame.  Live action "picture window".



The fountains at the entrance to the gardens. The little John Deere big wheels appear to live here.

Hmmm.... not bad.  (This is the hedge to the left of the fountain above.  There's a similar one to the right.)

Some close-ups of some of the beautiful flowers in the garden.










The doves (?) live in the gardens.  I followed them for a bit, as I've never seen living shuttlecocks



Kind of put those waddling geese from Aristocats to shame, don't they??

In case you didn't notice in the earlier images, the castle roofline is dotted with these stone figures.  They are medieval and all different.  This one I found particularly interesting.

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