Wine, food and travel with Clare : Chirk Castle

On our way to North Wales we visited Chirk Castle, a Nstional Trust property between Oswestry and Wrexham. It was quite a surprise to see these stunning gates and even more of a surprise that we kept driving uphill ... the castle, originally built as a border fortress, certainly had prime position.

It was quite a steep walk from the car park, although there was a courtesy bus if needed. The path took us behind the castle and led us past the round towers, in fact we walked along Offa's Dyke for a short distance. The round towers and gateway were quite impressive, the original castle was built in the late 13th century.

In 1595 Sir Thomas Middleton bought the castle, he planned to turn it into a grand home. He made his fortune in the sugar and becoming wealthy gave him an invitation to the Elizabethan court.

The castle has been owned by the Middleton family for over 400 years, there are many of their portraits hanging on the walls. The staircase was extremely grand, as were the ceilings in the grand staterooms.

The inner courtyard is very formal with the buildings being symmetrical, the top row of windows in the first photo is the long gallery, one room stretching the length of the building.

It is possible to climb the tower behind the clock and see its mechanics but this visit I stayed on the lower ground.

This carving surprised me as the words are split across the lines .... did the stonemason misjudge the lettering size or was this the only stone available so the words had to fit?

'This new building and the tower was built all in one year by Thomas Middleton Knight 1636'

The gardens were beautiful, often formal but with interest. The view across the border into England was stunning and highlighted how low the English land is.

The small thatched summer house was so pretty, with the blossom out it made a chocolate box picture, one for a jigsaw maybe.