One month ago, I went to Ashby de la Zouch and paid a visit to the castle. Ashby de la Zouch is a small town in the midlands in England, and it was an important market town for over 200 years. The town is named after a family named Le Zouch, and they owned a manor named Ashby in the 13th and 14th centuries. In the late 14th century, the manor was transformed into a castle. The castle is ruins today, but you can climb the tower and go into the cellars and see the remains of the garden layout.
Ashby de la Zouch became a popular romantic ruin in the mid-1800s when the book Ivanhoe was published by author Walter Scott. The fictional book has a scene at the castle.
The castle gardens and parks were designed by George Hastings in the early 1500s. The rooms were also decorated to a high standard for entertaining guests, and the rooms could overlook the beautiful gardens.
The layouts of the gardens directly beside the castle can still be seen as the earth around them has been moved to create the garden area. They would have contained ornamental fish ponds, coloured gravel, and would have been laid out in different styles popular with continential Europe at the time.
The parks beyond would have had deer and would have been available for hunting.
Unfortunately, the castle was destroyed in the 1640s, along with many other castles at the time. Many of the walls that remain show damage. The tower was also blown up so that it could not be used.
The tower can still be climbed.
I climbed the tower, and there's a stone bench to sit in quite near the bottom.
I saw some old carvings with the coat of arms, and I admired the views from the top.
There's more views over the gardens.
On the way down, I had a better look at the grafitti carved into the stonework from past visitors. I saw several from the 1800s, and I cannot remember now, but I think the oldest grafitti that I saw was from 1875.
After climbing the tower, I walked back to the Great Hall toward the kitchen. I caught a glimpse of several arched doors.
The next stop was the kitchen, and the ovens and fireplaces could be seen. These would have been used to create meals for hundreds of people a day. There is a small hatch (still visible) where food would be passed from the kitchen to the Great Hall.
One of the other rooms visited held a fireplace with beautiful carved stonework design. This room was used for entertainment.
The floors and an arched vaulted ceiling can be seen.
Carved stonework and sculptures were dotted around the castle.
I was lucky with the weather as it was sunny with clouds on the day that I visited.
Finally, the last bit of the tour came, and that was to see the underground tunnels. The tunnel entrance started just outside of the tower.
This tunnel went under the stonework and out the other end, which was the kitchen. It opened up into a larger cellar at the kitchen end. The week previously was quite wet and rainy, so there was a puddle of water here. The drains come off the fields into this tunnel, but it was not that muddy.
I took a few last photographs of the castle on my way out.
The next stop was Ashby de la Zouch town. Unfortunately, all of the shops were shut, but I decided to head to The Vine Bar and Restaurant for Sunday lunch. I did struggle a bit to find something on the menu that I would eat, so I settled for the vegetarian option. This was tasty, but it was also a little bit too salty. The bloke had roast beef with all of the Sunday roast trimmings.
Dessert was lovely, however. I had banana bread pudding. The bloke had a selection of ice creams. Overall, the meal was alright but I did expect a little more. Service let the experience down even further as we ended up waiting far too long, and our entire sitting was for over two and a half hours, so I really could not recommend it.
However, if you are in the area, give Zamani's Italian restaurant a try. I was based in Ashby de la Zouch for two weeks and made a visit to Zamani's two times. Both times were lovely, and I tried different types of food on the menu.
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