On Tuesday morning we picked up Granny G and headed for a day out at Castleward. Castleward is a 820 acre walled demense, set on the edges of Strangford Lough. The house is a bit of an odd fish as it was built in 2 styles ~ Classical and Gothic. I pulled most of these photos from our last trip to Castleward.
Looking out over Strangford Lough.
This is the Tower House which was built around 1610 by Bernard Ward and marks the beginning of the estate's history.
The Temple was built in 1748 and is neo-classical in design. It was built as a decorative building from which one could appreciate the view; it became the gardener's house in the 19thC.
Classical facade.
My kiddos have seen all the cool historical stuff before and this year were only interested in the adventure playground and the farm.
They started out on the playground, where Carys managed to hit her head (again) and get it to bleed (again). Quite hard to hide a bleeding head from her great grandmother's eagle eye, but thankfully Granny G was too busy reading the Belfast Tele to notice.
Yeah! 11 is not too old to have fun going down the slide!
We had lunch in the coffee shop (locally caught crab for Carys and me .. delish!). We then headed down to the farmyard.
The kids played and fed the pigs and the (goat) kids and had a great time.
Carys found these guys ... John and Edward.
Cuter than the real Jedward!
After we left Castleward, Granny G offered up ice-creams from Annacloy. Once we'd stopped at the Mace, everyone wanted to go next door to Sam and Margaret's to see if there were any race horse foals. None this year, but they did have a gorgeous jumper in the back field. I could see Carys trying to figure out how she could talk Margaret into letting her ride him. Hmm, no chance!
Took Granny G home and then sent everyone out to play for the rest of the day.
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