Around Hotel & Brimham Rocks

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Nothing special planned today but as they say it turned out nice after all!



Spent a leisurely morning reading & enjoying the sunshine on our little patio watching the sheep in the fields with the squirrels and birds flitting past.



The gardeners and maintenance staff were going about their duties but always smiling and taking time to speak to guests.



Most of the hotel guests were out & about so it was a good opportunity to take a few snaps of the beautiful rooms and surroundings of this historic property.



The drawing room is a lovely place to sit and relax, not that we've found much time yet to do that!



Many of the original features have been retained and I was amused to see a Victorian air vent in one of the ladies loos along with taps from the 1920's.



The old stable block made good use of the steps for mounting your horse by adding flower troughs.



When we had had enough sheep watching we set off through Harrogate and found a garden centre where we had a light lunch and a browse around the retail areas.



Next stop was Brimham Rocks - A place that existed before dinosaurs walked the Formed 320 million years ago when the British landmass was south of the equator.



It was quite a spectacular walk passing rock formations that had been eroded by wind, rain & ice over the years. The little map showed the names given to these formations which included Surprise View, Blacksmiths Anvil, Smartie Tube, Flower Pot, Lovers Leap and Dancing Bear to name a few.



I made it to the Visitor Centre at the top of the hill so was able to get our National Trust passport stamped ( We have a NT Passport which has coloured postage stamps of different aspects of the NT & each place we visit we get the visitor centre to rubber stamp with the name of the property and the date). Always enjoyable to flick through the passport and remember the lovely places we have visited.



An easier walk back down to meet David and then back to the hotel but not before passing through a small village with an unusual name "Bedlam". I imaged someone asking where do you live "Oh it's Bedlam" the reply.

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