We packed up this morning as we ate breakfast and headed off at around 9:50 to drive to Leeds Castle – ironically nowhere near Leeds, it’s actually near Maidstone. Our tickets were for 11am entry and after a short wait in a line we made our way through the entrance to be greeted by a beautiful lake surrounded by gardens and waterbirds. There were even black swans that had been brought from Australia by Lady Baillie, it’s previous owner. The one-way system in place at the castle led us through the grounds, eventually looking out over a view of the castle across the lake that functions as its moat. It was busier than we’d anticipated, mainly with families with small children, but it was a large enough space that everyone was very far from each other. We stopped for a coffee at a booth and then followed the path up through the formal walled gardens and along a path towards the Maze.

On the way to the maze we passed a fantastic wooden playground in the shape of a castle and the adventure golf (mini golf) that we’d intended to play. By the time we got there though, it was pretty packed – and also looked quite basic, so we gave that a miss and headed straight for the maze. Unfortunately the maze also had a one-way system set up, so it wasn’t really a puzzle, more of just a hedged walk. Judging from all the blocked paths though, it would have been a very challenging maze when it was open! When we reached the middle though, the path led you down underground into a grotto and tunnel that led to the exit. The shell grotto was built in 1987 and had little pools, pagan symbols and carvings from shells, wood and stone. It was very quirky, if a bit silly all lit up with coloured lights. Once we’d found our way out we walked around to the Birds of Prey centre, where we admired a selection of beautiful owls and hawks, although questioned the level of cruelty of the practise of tethering them to a log.

We had tickets to enter the castle at 1, so after the Birds of Prey centre we grabbed lunch (or a snack of chips for me, as there wasn’t anything other than sandwiches) and then wandered our way back around to the main path with the castle. There was a very strange and tiny ‘dog collar museum’ in one of the buildings by the restaurant so we had a brief peep in there, but it was a bit too much detail about each individual dog collar!

At 1 we made our way across the bridge to the castle, checking out the gorgeous old watermill underneath the bridge, and had our tickets checked by the man on the gate. The one-way system in the castle complex led us around the outside of the little island on which the main building sat, and entered the castle through its cellars on the outside of the walls. We checked out the 13^th century cellars – very cool! – and then headed up the stairs into the main building. Leeds Castle is split across two islands, with the original 13^th century castle sitting on the island in the middle of the lake, and then newer buildings on the island closer to the road. The path led us through the building, explaining the purposes of rooms and their use by people as varied as Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, to the American heiress who’d bought the castle in the 1920s. There was a lot of information about the Fields of Gold tournament between King Francois of France and Henry VIII in 1520, as this year is the 500^th anniversary of the event and it is suspected that the English court stayed at Leeds Castle for a night on the way to Dover to alight for Calais.

I enjoyed the walk around the castle but wasn’t that interested in all the information about Lady Baillie, her three husbands and various children. There were funny gaps in ownership of the castle and it definitely impressed on us the difficulties involved in the inheritance taxes here, as several people had to sell the castle (or its furniture) at various points as they could not afford to keep it. By the time we exited the castle it was about 1:40 so we had exactly enough time to dawdle back to the car while admiring the autumn leaves and views before we had to head off.

It was about an hour’s drive back to London and we had enough time to drop off our stuff (mainly the half case of wine that was weighing us down) before I drove the car back to Bow to drop it off. That all went smoothly and then it was back home to unpack and get all the laundry done! I feel extremely grateful that we were able to have one last holiday before lockdown, as I’d say that’ll be it for 2020!