Wray Castle – On the Shores of Lake Windermere

Wray Castle – On the Shores of Lake Windermere

Sarah and I enjoy short-weekend breaks away on our birthdays. And this one in September was for mine. Sarah had chosen a B&B in Keswick. So, what better way to start the weekend with a visit to Wray Castle on the way up? 🙂

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You can arrive at Wray Castle by car. However, the car park is small so arriving by bus or boat is advised. A boat trip sounded like it would add to the adventure!

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We arrived at Ambleside’s Waterhead Pier on a fine Saturday morning.

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The boat trip takes about 15 minutes.

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It’s just a short walk up from the pier. Soon the turrets of the castle come in to view. It is an impressive first sight.

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Wray Castle is a Mock-Gothic castle.

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It is perhaps its location on the Lake Windermere shoreline that marks this place out as something special.

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Wray Castle is actually not a ‘typical’ National Trust house in that it isn’t full of paintings, furniture and antiques with an accompanying owner-family history through the ages. Indeed at times it is clearly rather ‘tired’. That said it is a fascinating building with hints of its ‘grand’ past and plenty of signs of its varied history.

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The house was built in 1840 for Liverpudlian surgeon James Dawson and his wife Margaret (whose family fortune it was that paid for it). They also had nearby Wray Church built. When they died it passed to his nephew Edward Preston Rawnsley. He was the cousin of Hardwicke Rawnsley, the vicar of Wray Church, and one of the founders of the National Trust.

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The house is full of rooms catering for children’s activities. Just as well since this was a place where a 16-year-old Beatrix Potter holidayed one summer.

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The boat was only every hour or so. It meant that once we had finished looking around the house we had time for a short walk along the shoreline.

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We then boarded the boat again for a short hop further along the lake to Brockhole.

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This is the location of the Lake District Visitor Centre.

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There are some fantastic gardens to look around.

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Having enjoyed a cup of tea we made our way back to the pier. It was time to make our way to Keswick where we were staying for the weekend.

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View from our B&B window
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