Lulworth Castle... and Horses!

Had a lovely day out today at Lulworth Castle with the main event being medieval jousting. Even better, we had vouchers which allowed a child free entry with a fee-paying adult, so only paid for Neil & me :D

Its a 17th century castle with its own church and extensive grounds. It was built as a hunting lodge (how can you call something that huge a 'lodge'?!?) & was used to entertain hunting parties for the king & his court. Unfortunately the interior was totally destroyed by a fire in the 1920s so there aren't any furnishings, just empty spaces where the rooms used to be. Climbed up the tower & had spectacular views of the surrounding countryside but guess who hadn't taken her camera up with her?! *duh*

Some of the gravestones in the church grounds were fairly new, which surprised us; didn't realise it was still being used but most of them were so old, all the lettering had eroded.

For me the main attraction was the jousting and it was fab; the jester was hilariously good at his job and really got the crowd going. The 4 horses were gorgeous; my favourite was the grey... oh, and the knights were good too ;o)

After the jousting, the jester, Fiery Jack, entertained us with his 'Fire Show' -- he really was genuinely funny and he ended with juggling 4 fiery torches & a spot of fire-eating! He was a little perturbed at the end as he'd inadvertently singed his beard!

After lunch we went to the animal farm which had quite a few different species of ducks, hens & roosters, and turkeys; sheep & goats; peacocks; rabbits; a couple of shetland ponies and an ex-racing donkey called Shergar, from Ireland no less *L*; a saddleback pig & a couple of miniature Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs -- sooooo adorable, trying to convince Neil they'd make a lovely addition to our family ;o) Couldn't get any good shots of them though.

More jousting...

Hmm... guess the grey was my favourite then ;o)