posted 12-20-1999 05:09 PM           

There is no more appreciative companion than a dog to take to a castle (small children complain too much and don't respect
your urge to poke around and linger over details). Of course, it has to be a castle where the dog can be let off the leash -- not
one of those National Trust places where you are confined behind ropes with a hawk-eyed harridan making sure you don't
touch anything. There might be heart-stopping moments when the dog leaps up on a wall with a 300-foot precipice on the
other side (as at Beeston). And it might be hard to drag it away from the local inhabitants (such as the moles at Minster
Lovell). They love dashing around and are especially enthusiastic about investigating the Garderobes (privies), which were
usually little dead-end passages in the walls with a stone toilet seat and a shaft dropping down to the outer ditch or moat.

This descibes my view to a T, however many castles don't hold this view and ban dogs from them. My holiday in Wales with Jan ( http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/jan/jan.html ) was a little spoiled by CADW's blanket ban on dogs at all of their sites. English Heritage is better and allows dogs at many sites (but not Goodrich or Stokesay castles). The highlight of my holiday was the fascinating castle at Carew, a lovely site which is like three different castles in the same place, where I was able to take the dog, she did enjoy the exercise, the smells and the spiral stairs.

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Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them, Psychiatrists charge the rent, art therapists do the interior design and nurses clean out the garderobes!
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/index.html

posted 12-21-1999 07:45 AM           

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'Give me the groves that lofty brave,
The storms, by Castle Gordon'.
Visit my web-site at
www.castlesontheweb.com/members/wurdsmiff/castles.htm

Gordon.

posted 12-21-1999 12:31 PM           

Since I visit castles on weekdays I quite often find bunches of school kids sciving off school, having a cig and, otherwise, hiding from the world. I quite like that, for some, castles are still a place to hide from the rest of the world.