Category: Howardian Hills
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Slingsby — A Street Village
Retirement was meant to cure the Monday morning blues. It has not. That grim feeling still turns up right on schedule, uninvited and entirely unbothered by my pension. So the mind wanders back to the weekend, when we cycled south into the Howardian Hills, fifteen miles of Corallian limestone squeezed between the Vale of York…
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The Mock Medievalism of Carrmire Gate
Carrmire Gate is enormous, and this is merely the East Turret, which tells you everything about scale at Castle Howard and nothing about sense. Nicholas Hawksmoor designed this limestone monster in 1725 as the very first thing a visitor sees on the approach to the house. It was the last part of the whole entrance…
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Kirkham Priory
The ruins of Kirkham Priory are idyllically situated beside the River Derwent, just before it enters a gorge through Corallian limestone. The priory was founded in the 12th-century by Sir Walter l’ Espec, supposedly after the death of his only son after a fall from his horse. L’ Espec was prominent in Norman England, controlling…
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Castle Howard Gatehouse
Set on the Jurassic limestone of the Howardian Hills, the Castle Howard estate dominates the landscape. A spectacular example of 18th-century opulence. Approach from the south is through the Gatehouse with is pyramid roof, was built in 1719 by Sir John Vanbrugh, who designed Castle Howard itself. Maybe. There is some doubt whether Vanbrugh actually…