Things to do in East Midlands

Ladybower Reservoir in the Upper Derwent Valley of the Peak District is the largest of the three great Derwent Valley reservoirs and one of the most dramatically situated bodies of water in the Peak District, a Y-shaped reservoir beneath the dark gritstone moorland of the eastern Peak whose combination of the dam architecture, the reservoir landscape and the extraordinary history of the submerged villages of Derwent and Ashopton drowned when the reservoir was filled in 1945 creates one of the most historically and scenically interesting reservoir destinations in England. The Dambusters connection is Ladybower's most celebrated historical association. The Barnes Wallis bouncing bomb was tested on the reservoir in 1943 and the bombing crews of 617 Squadron practised their low-level dam-busting approach over the Derwent Valley reservoirs. The annual Dambusters Memorial flypast by Lancaster bombers over the Derwent dam commemorates this connection each year and draws large crowds of aviation enthusiasts. The drowned villages of Derwent and Ashopton create the most poignant dimension of the reservoir story, the communities evacuated when the reservoir was filled and the church steeple of Derwent visible above the waterline in drought years when the water level drops sufficiently. The reservoir shoreline walking and cycling provide excellent access to the surrounding Dark Peak moorland.

Chatsworth House in the Peak District of Derbyshire is one of the greatest country houses in England, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Devonshire for over four centuries and a house of such extraordinary quality in its architecture, collections and landscape setting that it is frequently described as the Palace of the Peak. The house stands in the valley of the Derwent River in Derbyshire below the eastern edge of the Peak District National Park and its combination of baroque and later classical facades, the magnificent park landscaped by Capability Brown, and the extraordinary collections of art assembled across five centuries of ducal patronage creates an experience of country house visiting that is without equal in the north of England. The current house was largely rebuilt in the baroque style for the first Duke of Devonshire between 1686 and 1707, producing the south and east fronts that define the character of the house seen from the park. The north wing was added by William Kent in the 1750s and the entire house was extended and remodelled in the early nineteenth century by the sixth Duke under the direction of the architect Jeffry Wyatville, who added the north wing and gave the house the extra length that today makes it one of the most extensive country houses in Britain. The interior collections assembled by successive Dukes of Devonshire are of museum quality. The house contains magnificent paintings by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Veronese and Reynolds; an exceptional collection of drawings including works by Raphael and Holbein; and a library of outstanding importance. The decorative arts, furniture, silver and porcelain collections are of comparable quality and the state rooms in which they are displayed represent some of the finest baroque and neoclassical interiors in England. The garden at Chatsworth, combining the formal cascade with the Emperor Fountain, the great rock garden and the working kitchen garden, is one of the most famous in England, and the surrounding parkland with its farmland, woodland and the views to the Peak District moors provide an outstanding setting.

The Peak District was designated England's first national park in 1951 and remains one of the most visited in the world, a landscape of extraordinary variety covering approximately 1,438 square kilometres of the southern Pennines that combines the gritstone moorlands and edges of the Dark Peak to the north with the limestone dales and white rock of the White Peak to the south in a contrast of landscape characters that provides an almost unlimited range of walking, cycling and outdoor recreation within easy reach of several large English cities. The Dark Peak, named for the dark gritstone that underlies the high moorland, is a landscape of severe and dramatic character. The great moorland plateaux of Kinder Scout, Bleaklow and Black Hill, reaching over 600 metres and covered in blanket peat and cotton grass, provide the most challenging and most atmospheric walking in the park, their vast, trackless expanses a contrast to the more developed landscapes of the surrounding towns. The gritstone edges, including Stanage, Froggatt and Curbar, are among the finest rock climbing venues in Britain and provide excellent ridge walking with views over the moorland to the east and the Derwent valley to the west. The White Peak to the south and centre of the park is a landscape of a quite different character, its limestone dales, ancient meadows and stone-walled farmland creating a pastoral and intimate scenery that is accessible and gentle by comparison with the moorland above. Dovedale, Lathkill Dale and the Manifold Valley are among the finest limestone dales in Britain, their clear streams, wooded slopes and exposed white limestone creating a landscape of delicate beauty that draws walkers and cyclists in great numbers. The market towns of Bakewell, Buxton and Matlock Bath provide visitor services and historical interest, and the great country houses of Chatsworth, Haddon Hall and Hardwick Hall are all within or on the edge of the park.

Caisteal Maol is a ruined castle located near the harbour of the village of Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye. It is also known as Castle Moil. Caisteal Maol is believed to originate from the 10th Century. The present building dates from around the 14th or 15th century and was abandoned by the MacKinnons in the mid 17th Century. The castle is now nearly completely ruined. In 1949 and 1989 parts of the ruins broke away in storms. The remaining ruins have been secured to prevent further deterioration Legends It is believed that one of the early MacKinnon chiefs married a Norwegian princess around 900 and established the original castle. Tradition records that this couple levied a toll on boats passing through the channel between Skye and the mainland, by stretching a chain across the strait as a stop barrier.

Beeston Castle is located in Beeston, Cheshire, England. The castle is positioned on a rocky crag above the Cheshire Plain with views to the Pennines in the east to the Welsh mountains in the west. Beeston was defended by its natural position on a crag, and by massive walls with towers and strong gate houses. There was a small inner courtyard with fortified wall on top of the hill with cliffs on three sides and a defensive ditch cut into the rock on the fourth side. The outer bailey was built further down the hill with a large gatehouse protected by a moat. The walls of the outer bailey contain a number of D-shaped towers which allowed defenders to fire across the walls as well as forwards. The castle is now owned by English Heritage and is open to visitors. It has a small museum and visitor centre. It is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Beeston Castle was built in the 1220s by Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester, on his return from the Fifth Crusade. (Ranulph de Blondeville also built Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire.) Henry III enlarged Beeston Castle during his wars with Wales. In 1254 Henry gave Beeston to his son Prince Edward. By the 16th century, the castle was declining in importance to the English Crown, and in 1602 it was sold to Sir Hugh Beeston. During the English Civil War, Beeston was seized in 1643 by parliamentary forces. During 1643 Captain Thomas Sandford and eight soldiers of the royal army of Ireland crept into Beeston at night and surprised the castle governor, Captain Thomas Steele, who surrendered the castle. (Steele was later tried and shot for failing to hold the castle). The Royalists holding the castle were subsequently besieged by parliamentary forces in late 1644, and surrendered a year later. The castle was partially demolished in 1646, to prevent its further use as a stronghold. During the 18th century the castle was used as a quarry and the gatehouse in the outer bailey was demolished. In 1840, the castle was purchased by John Tollemache, 1st Baron Tollemache. Legends It is rumoured that Richard II hid treasure at Beeston in 1399, before leaving for Ireland to suppress a rebellion. On his return, Richard was deposed by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, who later became Henry IV. The treasure is said to have remained undiscovered despite many searches.

Zouch is a small historic village straddling the boundary between Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire on the banks of the River Soar, a settlement of quiet charm and considerable age that sits within the pastoral heart of the East Midlands countryside. The village is small enough to have escaped the suburban development that has absorbed many similar communities across this part of England and retains a character shaped by its long agricultural and river-crossing history. The River Soar at Zouch provides the defining feature of the village's setting and history. The river crossing here was significant as part of the historic route network connecting the Midlands towns of Loughborough, Nottingham and Leicester, and the ford and later bridge at Zouch served generations of travellers, traders and livestock drovers moving goods and animals between these settlements across the flat river meadows of the Soar valley. The current Zouch Bridge, a modest structure crossing the river near the village pub, is the latest in a succession of crossings that have occupied this point for many centuries. The countryside surrounding Zouch is characteristic of the Soar valley floodplain: flat, well-watered meadows that supported extensive cattle grazing in the historic farming economy of the Midlands. The river itself, now also used as part of the Grand Union Canal network, passes through a landscape of willows, water meadows and the occasional boatyard that gives this section of the Soar a pleasant navigational character. Narrowboats and leisure craft pass through the village during the warmer months, adding a gentle animation to the riverside. The village pub beside the river provides the social centre of the community and a comfortable stopping point for walkers, cyclists and boaters exploring the Soar valley, which offers pleasant low-level walking through some of the quieter and less-visited landscapes of central England. The network of public footpaths across the surrounding meadows and the towpath of the navigation provide several hours of easy walking in a setting that has been shaped over centuries by the rural economy of the English Midlands.

Peveril Castle occupies one of the most dramatically positioned sites of any castle in England, perched on a limestone crag high above the village of Castleton in the Peak District with steep drops on three sides making it almost impregnable without the benefit of modern artillery. The combination of natural defensive strength, historic interest and sweeping views across the Hope Valley makes it one of the most rewarding castle visits in the north of England, accessible via a steep but short footpath from the village below. The castle was built shortly after the Norman Conquest by William Peveril, a knight who was among the followers of William the Conqueror and received extensive lands in the Peak District as a reward for his service. The Peveril family gave the castle its name and held it until its estates were forfeited to the crown following a succession of complications in the twelfth century. Henry II subsequently invested in the site, adding the square stone keep that remains the most prominent feature of the ruins today in 1176, providing the castle with a proper royal tower after earlier construction that had relied largely on the natural defensive properties of the crag itself. Sir Walter Scott set his 1823 novel Peveril of the Peak here, further cementing the castle's romantic reputation and drawing Victorian tourists to what was already a remarkable piece of landscape history. The novel is now largely forgotten but the castle's setting remains as atmospheric as any fictional treatment could wish. The keep, though roofless, retains most of its walls to full height, and the entrance passage and interior arrangement of rooms can still be traced clearly. The curtain wall following the edge of the crag encloses a large inner ward, and on the north side the natural limestone cliff forms the defensive wall without any additional construction being required. The gatehouse and various domestic buildings have been reduced to lower wall remnants but contribute to a sense of the full medieval complex. Below the castle, Castleton village offers a remarkable concentration of Peak District attractions: the show caves including Blue John Cavern, Speedwell Cavern, Peak Cavern and Treak Cliff Cavern are all accessible from the village and between them represent some of the finest cave systems open to the public in England.

Southwell in Nottinghamshire is a town of considerable distinction centred on one of the finest and most unusual Norman minster churches in England, a building whose architectural quality and the fame of its carved naturalistic foliage in the chapter house have made it a destination of pilgrimage for admirers of medieval architecture since the Victorian period. The town itself, with its surviving Georgian and earlier buildings, its connection with the writer Byron and the remarkable Southwell Workhouse, provides a concentration of cultural interest unusual in a Nottinghamshire market town. Southwell Minster, the cathedral church of the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham, is a Norman and Early English building of exceptional quality whose west front with its two tall round-arched towers is among the finest Norman church facades in England. The interior contains excellent work of several medieval periods, but the chapter house, built in the late thirteenth century, is the building's supreme achievement, its walls decorated with carved foliage of almost overwhelming naturalistic quality and variety. The leaves, flowers and plants carved from the local Mansfield stone in the arch mouldings and capitals of the chapter house represent a unique moment in English medieval sculpture, their realistic observation of specific plant species giving them an almost botanical character. The Southwell Workhouse, managed by the National Trust, is the most complete surviving example of a pre-Victorian workhouse in Britain, the building whose design influenced the design of workhouses across England under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. The building and its interpretation provide a compelling and sometimes disturbing account of attitudes to poverty in nineteenth-century England.

Monsal Head in the Peak District is one of the most celebrated viewpoints in the national park, a clifftop viewpoint above the deep limestone gorge of the River Wye near Bakewell from which the Victorian railway viaduct — now carrying the Monsal Trail walking and cycling route — spans the dale in a composition of industrial heritage and natural limestone gorge scenery. The viaduct was condemned by John Ruskin when built in 1863 but has long since become a celebrated element of the landscape. The Monsal Dale viaduct carries the Monsal Trail, an 8.5-mile route following the former Midland Railway line through the limestone dales of the White Peak, across the gorge at a height providing views along the dale in both directions. The trail passes through several tunnels, now lit and open to cyclists, providing a complete heritage railway experience through the best section of White Peak limestone scenery. The River Wye below the viaduct provides excellent trout fishing and the combination of the water, the limestone cliffs, the hanging woodland and the viaduct above creates a landscape of considerable variety in a short section of the dale.

Solomon's Temple stands as a distinctive folly crowning the summit of Grin Low, a prominent hill overlooking Buxton in Derbyshire's Peak District. This castellated stone tower, built in 1896, serves as both a landmark and viewpoint, visible for miles around and offering panoramic vistas across the surrounding moorland and valleys. The structure was erected to provide work for local unemployed men during a period of economic hardship, a common practice in Victorian England where philanthropic building projects served dual purposes of creating impressive monuments while providing much-needed employment. The tower replaced an earlier structure on the same site, maintaining a tradition of human presence on this strategically positioned hilltop. The name "Solomon's Temple" reflects the Victorian fascination with biblical and exotic nomenclature, though the building bears no architectural resemblance to the ancient Temple of Jerusalem. Instead, it takes the form of a robust circular tower with crenellations, built from local gritstone that weathers to a warm grey-brown patina. The tower stands approximately twenty feet high and features an internal spiral staircase that visitors can climb to reach the rooftop platform, where the true reward of the ascent reveals itself in sweeping views across Buxton, the White Peak limestone plateau, and on clear days toward Kinder Scout and the Dark Peak moorlands to the north. Grin Low itself has a history extending far beyond the Victorian folly that now crowns it. The hill is the site of a Bronze Age round barrow, one of many prehistoric burial mounds scattered across the Peak District uplands. Archaeological investigations have revealed human activity here dating back thousands of years, when this elevated position would have held both practical and spiritual significance for ancient communities. The juxtaposition of Victorian whimsy with Bronze Age solemnity creates an intriguing layering of history, where different eras have recognized the same spot as worthy of commemoration and construction. The walk to Solomon's Temple from Buxton town centre takes approximately twenty to thirty minutes, following well-maintained paths through Grin Low Woods. The woodland approach provides a pleasant contrast to the open summit, with the path winding upward through mixed deciduous trees before emerging onto the grassy hilltop. The woods themselves are managed as a community woodland, with interpretation boards explaining the local ecology and history. During spring and early summer, the forest floor comes alive with wildflowers, while autumn transforms the canopy into shades of gold and russet. The final approach to the tower crosses open grassland where the wind often picks up, reminding visitors of the exposed nature of this hilltop location. From the tower's summit platform, the view encompasses a remarkable sweep of Peak District geography. Immediately below lies Buxton with its distinctive Crescent and historic spa architecture, while beyond, the landscape unfolds in characteristic limestone country patterns of dry stone walls, white scars of quarries, and green pastures. The Goyt Valley stretches away to the west, while eastward the land rises toward the higher gritstone edges. On particularly clear days, visitors report seeing as far as the Cheshire Plain to the west and the major peaks of the Dark Peak moorlands to the north and east. The elevation here is approximately 440 metres above sea level, sufficient to provide genuine altitude perspective without requiring mountaineering skills to achieve. The tower itself requires a certain degree of physical capability to fully appreciate, as the internal staircase is narrow, steep, and unlit. The steps spiral upward in near darkness, adding an element of adventure to the ascent, though visitors with mobility challenges or concerns about confined spaces may prefer to enjoy the hilltop location without attempting the tower's interior. The structure is freely accessible and unlocked during daylight hours, maintained by local volunteers who recognize its value as both a historical monument and community asset. Weather conditions can change rapidly at this elevation, and the exposed summit becomes genuinely bracing when wind sweeps across the open moorland, making appropriate clothing advisable even in summer months. The best times to visit Solomon's Temple are spring through autumn, when daylight hours are longer and paths are driest, though winter visits offer their own stark beauty with potential for snow-dusted landscapes and crystalline visibility. Early morning visits reward with sunrise views and relative solitude, while late afternoon light brings warmth to the stonework and dramatic shadows across the valleys below. The site experiences moderate visitor numbers, popular with local dog walkers, families from Buxton seeking an accessible outdoor destination, and Peak District walkers incorporating it into longer routes. Car parking is available at Grin Low car park off the A5004 Buxton to Whaley Bridge road, from where the walk to the temple takes about fifteen minutes, or visitors can walk from Buxton town centre for a longer but equally pleasant approach. Grin Low Woods and Solomon's Temple are managed by High Peak Borough Council, with support from volunteer groups who conduct regular maintenance and conservation work. The woodland has been designated as a Local Nature Reserve, recognizing its importance for wildlife including various bird species, small mammals, and diverse plant communities. The combination of ancient woodland, open hilltop, and historic structures creates varied habitats within a relatively compact area. An interesting detail often overlooked is that the woodland paths form part of longer recreational routes including sections of the Limestone Way, a long-distance footpath traversing the White Peak from Castleton to Rocester.

Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire is one of the most famous forests in the world, its name inseparable from the legend of Robin Hood and the tradition of the outlaw who robbed the rich to give to the poor that has generated stories, ballads, plays and films continuously from the medieval period to the present day. The forest once covered a vast area of central Nottinghamshire and its oaks supplied timber for shipbuilding and charcoal for the ironworking industries of the region across many centuries, but the current area designated as country park and nature reserve represents only a fraction of the medieval forest and concentrates around the ancient oak trees that are the most significant surviving feature. The ancient oaks of Sherwood Forest are among the oldest and most ecologically important veteran trees in Britain. The Major Oak, the most celebrated individual tree in the forest, is estimated to be between 800 and 1000 years old and has a girth of approximately ten metres, its enormous crown supported by a system of cables and props that have maintained its structural integrity for over a century of conservation management. The tree is traditionally associated with Robin Hood as the hollow in which he and his merry men sheltered, a legend that the tree's age makes chronologically plausible even if historically unverifiable. The veteran oak population of the forest, including hundreds of ancient trees of great age, supports a community of invertebrates, fungi, mosses and birds associated with ancient wood pasture that is of international conservation importance. The saproxylic beetles and other deadwood invertebrates living in the decaying heartwood of these ancient trees include species found in very few other locations in Britain and represent one of the most significant concentrations of ancient woodland biodiversity in England. The visitor centre at the Sherwood Forest Country Park provides interpretation of the Robin Hood legend and the ecology of the forest.

Padley Gorge in the Peak District is one of the finest examples of ancient oak woodland in the English uplands, a stream gorge on the Burbage Brook above Grindleford in the Derbyshire Derwent Valley that supports a remarkable temperate rainforest habitat of sessile oak, rowan, holly and birch whose ground layer of mosses, ferns and woodland plants thrives in the sheltered, humid conditions of the gorge. The combination of the ancient woodland, the stream cascades and the millstone grit boulders creating the gorge character makes Padley one of the most beautiful short woodland walks in the Peak District. The woodland is of considerable ecological importance as one of the few remaining fragments of the upland oak woodland that would have covered large areas of the Peak District gritstone country before woodland clearance for agriculture and fuel began in the prehistoric and medieval periods. The sessile oaks, many of them several centuries old, grow from the gritstone boulders in the contorted forms characteristic of ancient upland woodland, their mossy trunks and lichen-covered branches creating the layered texture of a genuinely ancient wood. The gorge is famous in Peak District birding circles for its pied flycatcher population, one of the most reliable nesting sites for this attractive summer visitor in the entire region. The flycatchers arrive from West Africa in late April and the males' white forehead patches and musical calls are characteristic of Padley Gorge throughout May and June. Wood warbler and redstart are also regular breeding species in the gorge, providing some of the finest songbird watching in the Peak District. The walk from Grindleford station through the gorge to Longshaw Estate above connects with the National Trust's extensive moorland and woodland at Longshaw for a rewarding circular walk.

Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is one of the most extraordinary houses in England, a building so ahead of its time and so boldly conceived that it has never quite stopped astonishing visitors in the four centuries since its construction. Built between 1590 and 1597 for Elizabeth Shrewsbury, better known as Bess of Hardwick, the hall was a deliberate statement of power and cultural ambition from one of the most remarkable women of the Elizabethan age. Bess was born into relatively modest gentry in 1527 and through four strategic marriages accumulated a fortune that placed her second only to Queen Elizabeth I in wealth among the women of England. By the time she commissioned Hardwick Hall she was in her sixties and at the very peak of her influence, and the building she created reflects that confidence completely. Her initials ES, for Elizabeth Shrewsbury, are worked into the roofline in elaborate stone lettering so large they can be read from a considerable distance, an unmistakable declaration of ownership and ambition. The hall is most celebrated architecturally for its extraordinary expanse of windows, which led to the contemporary rhyme "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall." At a time when glass was enormously expensive, the facades of Hardwick Hall are filled with it from ground to roof in a way that was genuinely unprecedented in English architecture. The windows flood the interiors with natural light and create a visual drama on the facade that looks almost modern in its transparency. Robert Smythson, who may have contributed to the design alongside Bess herself, created a building that pushed the technical boundaries of Elizabethan construction. The interiors are equally remarkable. Hardwick preserves one of the finest collections of Elizabethan textiles in existence, including tapestries, embroideries and needlework that Bess spent decades accumulating. Many pieces were worked by hand by Bess and her companions, including the captive Mary Queen of Scots, who spent years under Bess's guardianship at nearby Chatsworth. The Great High Chamber and the Long Gallery are among the grandest surviving Elizabethan rooms in England, their original furnishings still largely in place. The estate surrounding the hall includes a walled garden, an orchard and a deer park, as well as the ruins of the earlier Old Hardwick Hall that Bess had inhabited before commissioning this grander replacement. The contrast between the ruins of the old hall and the magnificence of the new one says everything about the ambition that drove this remarkable woman. Hardwick Old Hall is managed separately by English Heritage and stands close enough to view clearly from the gardens. Hardwick Hall is now in the care of the National Trust and is open to visitors throughout the year. The combination of exceptional architecture, extraordinary textiles, strong historical narrative and beautiful Derbyshire countryside makes it one of the most rewarding historic house visits in the country.

Hathersage in the Hope Valley on the edge of the Dark Peak is one of the most scenically and historically interesting villages in the Peak District, a settlement beneath the great gritstone escarpment of Stanage Edge whose combination of the magnificent walking immediately accessible on the surrounding gritstone moorland and edges, the Charlotte Brontë associations from her visits to the village in 1845 that contributed to the Jane Eyre character of Morton, and the grave of Little John, the legendary companion of Robin Hood, in the churchyard creates a destination of unusual literary and legendary depth. The walking from Hathersage is among the finest available from any Peak District village, Stanage Edge immediately above the village providing over a thousand rock climbing routes on the gritstone and the ridge walk along the edge providing views across the Hope Valley and Sheffield to the east and the Dark Peak moorland to the west. The Burbage and Millstone edges visible from the village provide further superb gritstone walking in a landscape that has attracted climbers and walkers from Sheffield since the late Victorian period. The Charlotte Brontë connection, established during her visit to her school friend Ellen Nussey in Hathersage in July 1845, placed the village in the landscape imagination of one of the greatest Victorian novelists. The house where she stayed, Moorseats, the local family names including Eyre that appear in her novel, and the name Morton for the village version of Hathersage all appear as direct borrowings in Jane Eyre, published in 1847.

Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire is one of the most unusual and visually striking medieval castles in England: a great tower built entirely in brick at a time when stone was the conventional material for prestigious construction, its deep red colour and soaring height making it visible for miles across the flat Lincolnshire Fens and providing an instantly distinctive landmark in a county of remarkable flatness. Built by Ralph Lord Cromwell, Treasurer of England to King Henry VI, between 1430 and 1450, the castle represents both an architectural experiment and a very deliberate statement of personal wealth and political status. The choice of brick for a building of this ambition was innovative for England in the mid-fifteenth century, though brick had been established as a prestigious building material in the Netherlands and North Germany for generations and had been used in a few earlier English buildings. Cromwell had access to wealth, political connections and presumably knowledge of continental building practice that allowed him to deploy brick on this scale and with this sophistication. The quality of the brickwork is exceptional: the walls are up to three metres thick at the base and the construction has survived remarkably well despite the castle's eventful later history. The interior of the tower, which rises to six storeys and originally had a seventh, preserves exceptional examples of late Gothic decorative stonework in the four great hall fireplaces that dominate successive floor levels. Each fireplace is set within an elaborate stone surround carved with the arms and heraldic devices of the Cromwell family, providing both functional heating for the rooms and permanent heraldic self-advertisement. The quality of this carving, in considerable contrast to the utilitarian brick of the walls, demonstrates the mixed materials approach typical of ambitious late medieval building. The castle was rescued from potential destruction in the early twentieth century by Lord Curzon, former Viceroy of India, who purchased it and had the tower restored. He also tracked down and repurchased the carved stone fireplaces that had been purchased and were about to be shipped to America by a dealer who recognised their value. The castle is now managed by the National Trust and the adjacent collegiate church adds further medieval interest to the site.