Leeds Castle, Kent in May

its only 15 minutes down the road from me but I've only been there once and that was in the dark at a open air concert.
I'm sure its worth a look, its just that you tend not to visit the places on your own doorstep.

 

Hi Pete

The entrance fee - £17.50 - always put me off a bit but I've recently discovered that if you shell out once, you can keep your ticket and visit the castle as many times as you like for one year without having to fork out again. Like you, I'm nearby, so it's a nice place to visit on a sunny day.

 

£17.50,
Per person or to park the car?

Ridiculous, I guess that what makes it a "tourist" spot.

Could you afford an ice cream??:D

 

Per person, I'm afraid :D - but since I've now got free admission to the castle and grounds for a whole year it's not such a bad deal. There is quite a lot to see - there's even a big aviary (not to mention a dog-collar museum ) and it's a nice place to sit and have a drink or a picnic.

 

So you cant actually buy a day ticket, everyone has to buy an annual subscription???????????????????????????????????

 

Hmmm well not cheap, admittedly, but it's £10.50 for a day ticket to Sissinghurst now if you're not an NT member. And if you can manage to squeeze yourself into the white garden on a busy day, you're doing very, very well.

 

Well I did go to Sissinghurst once and If I had to choose I think I'd pick Leeds Castle.

I just cant help thinking that these places are overpriced.
But I guess that keeps out the rif raf.

MMMMMmmm, strange its not the sort of place I've been much.:D

 

Depends how big the gardens are I guess and how much you get to see inside the castle. I know Arundel Castle in West Sussex is £16 per person, for full entry, but for that you get to see all the public and state rooms and the guest bedrooms (His Grace still lives there, so I guess he needs some privacy!) and you can wander around at your leisure, both inside the castle and all round the gardens. The latter aren't huge, but do include the Collector Earl's Garden.

That's for a one off trip, so Leeds Castle sounds rather good value for money. Must add to list of places. But yes, pricey, bit like everything else :(

 

:rotfl:

 

Hi Aaron - you beat me to it, the rotfl was for Pete's 'riff-raff'! Yes, you must visit Leeds as I suspect it's your kind of place. There are little streams and ponds everywhere and so it is a paradise for waterbirds. There's a nesting pair of black swans at the moment (tried to get a shot but ended up with a black blotch!) and any number of geese, moorhens and ducks. The grounds are huge. The 'Culpeper Garden' is lovely - a formal garden with little box hedges. It's still a little early for lots of colour, but if you go into Woo's thread 'What's Looking Good In May', you'll see that a few things were finally beginning to stir.

We got an unexpected bonus today - a birds of prey display. We saw the some kites flying around the area a few weeks back and wondered what was going on. Apparently they have had to be carefully trained not to treat the wildlife as an 'all you can eat' buffet!

 

Just imagine though,..... you arrive in England,..... your on holiday from abroad and you go to Leeds Castle.
It cost £17.50 Per person to get in,........... Oh but you can come back when ever you like in the next 12 months, ....Oh I 'm sure the tourist are queing up for that one.:lollol:

Stinks of "Rip off Britain".:o

 

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Kites and storks against a rather leaden sky at Leeds Castle

 

I don't know, it seems to be the same in a lot of historic sites, not just here but also in Europe. For example, entry to Neuschwanstein Schloss in Bavaria (the one that Disney based the Disney castle on and probably one of the most recognised images of Germany) costs 9 Euros....and that's for the castle only - a tour of 9/10 rooms...(as that's all that was built!) and there are no gardens or grounds to walk around as it's built on top of a cliff!

 

Yep OK I'm overdoing, its a case of tourists are fair game I guess.

But that dont help the locals.

Are they perhaps herons Clare?