A day out at Ripley Castle

We had a fun day out in Ripley, a small village near Harrogate in North Yorkshire. It is a beautiful little village with some very quaint shops and a castle (or stately home) which belongs to the Ingliby family. The castle was the main reason we were drawn to visit Ripley today.

Ripley Castle main entrance gate (only used for special occasions)

The village of Ripley was built up around the castle by the Ingliby family. Before 1825 the village consisted of poorly maintained thatched roofed cottages but in 1825 Sir William Amcotts Ingilby visited a French village and decided that he wanted a French style village around his castle. He demolished the old village and re-created Ripley village as it exists now.

Terrace cottages

Hotel de Ville AKA Town Hall

The village school

The back of the village Church and graveyard

The front of the village Church

The castle gates from the church yard

There is even a farming museum, although this is not open during the winter months, so we could only see the artefacts which decorated the place.

An old farmers plough

We went on a tour of the Castle, learning about it's history and the Ingliby family both past and present. To read a bit more about the history of this place you can look at their website: Ripley Castle

The courtyard from inside the castle walls

The house or castle, this is the wing where weddings are now held

The deer park and pond

View from the house over the pond

As we were wandering the castle grounds we saw our first beautiful signs of spring...

...SNOWDROPS

SNOWDROPS

We meandered through the castle gardens, although they were a bit sparse but we found this beautiful star shaped flower bed. The star is on the Ingliby family's coat of arms.

The castle gardens

There was also a Hot House where they grew tropical plants.

The path to the Hot Houses

There was even a resident robin in the Hot Houses...

The friendly robin red breast

...and Ents residing in the castle gardens.

Ents

It was a really nice day out, seeing how the other side live!

How awesome would it be to have a view like this from the back of your house!?