Castle Ward Visit

Victorian sketch of the Yew Tree Walk

Eager to see the National Trust's admirable and worthy Temple Water project, I motored down to Castle Ward on Sunday, 26th March, 2017.

Castle Ward, ancestral seat of the Viscounts Bangor, is located near Strangford, County Down.

I drove to the farmyard, though there no longer seems to be visitor parking there; so, instead, I parked at the relatively new Shore Car Park at Strangford Bay.

Thence I walked towards the Temple Water, a man-made lake on an axis with Audley's Castle.

It's also beside the old walled garden and overlooked by The Temple, a Georgian summer-house on the top of the hill with a splendid, panoramic prospect of the landscape.

The National Trust has ambitious plans for this part of the demesne, viz. to restore the Georgian parkland and the Temple Water itself.

I walked up to the Temple; down and along the lake; and past the Green row of terraced cottages which overlook Audley's Castle.

Victorian sketch of the Temple Water

Eventually I walked back to the Shore car-park.

I took my packed-lunch up to the stable-yard, where I enjoyed the Spring sunshine on a bench.

At the shop, I purchased a "sit mat"; and across the stable-yard I bought a few books in the excellent second-hand bookshop (Ballywalter Park, UAHS, and St Patrick's (anglican) Cathedral, Armagh).

I had made myself fresh egg and onion sandwiches (County Fermanagh egg, red onion, mustard, cream cheese, granary wholemeal bread).

After lunch I made a beeline for the mansion-house, where I took a tour.

My afternoon concluded in Strangford, about a mile from Castle Ward, where I had a stroll round the village.

The Lobster Pot is back in business, across the Square from The Cuan restaurant and guest-house.