Dublin and York Exploration

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Friday, 14 September 2007 - Drive north from York to Whitby Beach stopping at Castle Howard and Homestead Cottage along the way.

After two days of meetings in York, Cal, intrigued by castles, ventured north driving to Whitby Beach and back.

Driving on the wrong side of the street was a challenge and thanks to a Garmin auto mapping software, I was able to find the right way through the roundabouts.

uk2007 — First stop was Castle Howard an English country house (yes, house). A private residence, it has been the home of the Carlisle branch of the Howard family for more than 300 years.

uk2007 — A stone statue of a wild boar, which is a replica of the 'Il Porcellino' (Italian for 'piglet') statue. The original statue is a bronze fountain in Florence, Italy, created by Pietro Tacca in the early 17th century. Tacca's bronze statue is a copy of a Hellenistic marble sculpture from ancient Greece.

uk2007 — The house is surrounded by a large estate which, at the time of the 7th Earl of Carlisle (~1828), covered over 13,000 acres and included the villages of Welburn, Bulmer, Slingsby, Terrington and Coneysthorpe. The estate was served by its own railway station, Castle Howard station, from 1845 to the 1950s.

uk2007 — Lots of walking. Castle Howard has extensive and diverse gardens. There is a large formal garden immediately behind the house.

uk2007 — There is a lake on either side of the house.

uk2007 — The Mausoleum was built between 1726 and 1729, commissioned by Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to commemorate his family's history.

uk2007 — Temple of the Four Winds design was inspired by the Villa La Rotonda, and it was intended as a space for reading and writing, with a cellar below for servants to prepare food. It was constructed between 1724 and 1726.

uk2007 — Two lead statues of sibyls (oracles of ancient Greece) flank the entrance to the temple.

uk2007 — A large part of the house was destroyed by a fire in 1940. The dome, the central hall, the dining room and the staterooms on the east side were entirely destroyed. In 1952, Castle Howard was opened to the public by its then-owner, Lord Howard of Henderskelfe, a younger son of Geoffrey Howard.

uk2007 — Several peacocks romed the gardens.

uk2007 — Part of the extensive gardens closer to the house (castle).

uk2007 — A stop to take in the beautiful countryside on the drive north.

uk2007 — Cal stopped to photograph some sheep and happened to catch a steam locomotive of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR). The locomotive was built in 1925.

uk2007 — Walking and driving around the village of Goathland trying to get good sheep pictures.

uk2007 — Quintessential old English village. Loved the sheep.

uk2007 — Maybe getting a little too close to this ram. Not sure he knows that Cal has been dining on great lamb dishes since arriving.

uk2007 — Old cemetery headstones.

uk2007 — The Larpool Viaduct as Cal approached Whitby. The viaduct was built between 1882 and 1884 to carry the Scarborough & Whitby Railway over the River Esk. It is a 13-arch brick structure, 915 feet long and 120 feet high. The railway line closed in 1965, and the viaduct is now part of a path for walkers and cyclists.

uk2007 — The ruins of Whitby Abbey, standing on a hill over the town of Whitby.

uk2007 — The abbey was founded around 657 by King Oswy of Northumbria and was an important religious center in the Anglo-Saxon world. The ruins seen today are primarily from the 13th-century Benedictine abbey, which was built after the Norman Conquest.

uk2007 — Whitby Abbey is well-known for its connection to Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, as the abbey's ruins inspired parts of the story.

uk2007 — In December 1914, Whitby Abbey was shelled by German battleships aiming for the Coastguard Station on the end of the headland. The abbey buildings sustained considerable damage during the ten-minute attack.

uk2007 — Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula featured Count Dracula as a creature resembling a large dog which came ashore at the headland and ran up the 199 steps to the graveyard of St Mary's Church in the shadow of the Whitby Abbey ruins.

uk2007 — The monastery was destroyed by Henry VIII in 1540 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

uk2007 — Cal spent several hours exploring the ruins.

uk2007 — The abbey was bought by Sir Richard Cholmley. It remained in the Cholmley family and their descendants, the Strickland family. The Strickland family passed it to the UK government in 1920

uk2007 — Traveling on to Whitby and walking about the town Cal spotted a European herring gull near the harbor.

uk2007 — The sun setting over the town of Whitby.

uk2007 — The sea and sunset like a painting.

From here Cal turned around and headed back to the hotel in York - and a great lamb meal.

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