nanila | Stokesay Castle and church

We ventured out in the much improved weather for another castle visit, this time by car since we judged it a bit too far for small legs, especially small legs that had been on a 10.5 km hike the previous day.

The bright yellow gatehouse catches the eye before Stokesay Castle does, but since you can’t go inside except for one small downstairs room, you have to content yourself with admiring it from several external angles.

The castle isn’t very prepossessing from the outsides, but the inside is fantastic and offers spectacular views over the surrounding countryside through an endlessly varied set of windows.

Although humans have long abandoned the place, both birds and bats make their homes here.

All hail the anvil!

You can see a pair of flying swans in this photo. They’re distinctly less graceful when airborne than on the water.

Reckon there might have been a fire at some point. Yikes.

Elsewhere in this room was an “artistic reconstruction” of what the colours of this chimneypiece must have originally been. Sanity -2 without the colours, sanity -200 (seriously, just let the Great Old One eat you now) with them.

Why is tiny door?

“Look, Keiki, there are no bars on this window!”

The neighbouring St John the Baptist church was a small gem as well. A sturdy Norman tower looks like it can and has weathered all manner of ill winds. We went in as the afternoon light was streaming through the stained glass windows.