Powderham Castle

The Met Office in Exeter invited Andy to speak, so we decided to join him and have a(nother) long weekend. Leaving Beer, we drove the short distance to Exeter waving goodbye to Andy at the Met Office before making our way to Powderham Castle with a quick detour past Tesco for lunch supplies.

Powderham Castle began as a medieval castle in 1391 with the typical long hall layout with six towers. Over the years it has been added to, damaged, restored and renovated depending on who even owned it at the time! I'd hoped that we'd be able to spend most of the 6 hours we had before we were required to pick up Andy.

The girls chose to visit the Walled Garden Play Area and Pet Corner first. No surprise there! After a short walk we entered via a large wooden door. Formerly the Kitchen Garden, this south facing slope is now home to a myriad of pet animals, a large playground and a greenhouse. Both Katy and Ella were looking forward to patting the animals. There were several ponies, a donkey, a few goats, numerous duck/geese/chickens, pigs, tortoises, guinea pigs, rats, mice, chipmunks and even stick insects! Unfortunately, with the sun blazing most of the animals were seeking refuge inside their houses therefore were both hard to see and impossible to touch. The disappointment was short lived though once the girls saw the playground. Courtenay Fort, a mini castle with rope ladders, suspension bridge and a 4.2m central turret was fun to explore. The flying fox was better - short but fast!

Next on the agenda was to visit the gift shop so Ella could spend some of her pocket money. She purchased 2 little animals - a seahorse for Katy and a cat for herself. By this stage it was lunch. I was hoping to find a large shady spot, but access to the grounds were restricted so we had to resort to sitting in the shade of the castle on a slither of grass. As we ate lunch we discussed our options for the next activity. Both girls decided for the Deer Park Safari.  

We climbed aboard the tractor trailer ride for a 40min tour around the estate hoping we'd catch a glimpse of a few of the 600 Fallow deer. While waiting for the ride to begin, Katy turns to me and asks Will they (the deer) have red noses? I was taken slightly aback Do you mean like Rudolph? Katy nods enthusiastically! I say I don't think so but we can have a look as we go around. Needless to say we didn't see Rudolph or his cousins but we were treated to seeing numerous deer with their fawns happily grazing.

The last thing on the list of activities at Powderham Castle was a guided tour of the inside.  I was pretty hesitant about going on this by myself with 2 children whose attention span wasn't going to last the 60min duration. However with still several hours left to fill before meeting up with Andy, I thought we could give it a go - worst case was we'd have to somehow excuse ourselves if the need arose. The next tour departed in enough time for us to cool down with some delicious ice cream.

On the front steps the guide calls up participants for the 3pm tour. Ella and Katy both sprint across the courtyard. Well, good start I think. I mention to the guide my concerns about suitability and he turns directly to the girls and asks them whether they'd like to find all the secret doors. Hook, line and sinker. As it happened no one else turned up for the tour, so we were treated to our own personalized tour!

The tour lasted about 50 minutes and the guide was fantastic. He instantly engaged with the girls and had them eagerly listening to his stories about the castle's history. The girls' ability to spot secret doors improved as the tour progressed and by the end they knew to look for the tell tale sign - fake books!

By this stage we'd exhausted the attractions of Powderham Castle as well as ourselves. Luckily our time was up and we headed off to pick up Andy before driving back to Oxford once again!