Richmond and Kiplin Hall in North Yorkshire

Being a pleasant and warm day, we decided to make a trip to Richmond in North Yorkshire. This market town on the River Swale, the fastest flowing river in England, has a lot of history. Its castle is one of the finest examples of Norman military architecture and the gas works installed in 1821 made Richmond the first town of its size to enjoy public street lighting. More recently it has become know for being the constituency of Rishi Sunak, the last Prime Minister, who resides close by.

We parked by the river where the water cascades over the rocks and there is a beach of cobbles.

It was fairly busy and, for the first time this year, people were exposing their pale limbs to the sun as if they had been living underground for the winter.  

We then went on the Kiplin Hall, a four hundred year old stately home on a 90 acre site which was formerly a hunting lodge. Since our last visit, the entrance had changed and there was now had a new café and courtyard which cleverly blended in to the rest of the property.

We had enjoyed the walled garden on our last visit which was in high summer but, apart from the spring bulbs, there was very little to see at this time of year. 

The Hall overlooks a large lake with a path and woodland so we began to walk around it. We passed a bird hide where binoculars had been thoughtfully provided and saw people fishing before reaching the folly.

The Folly had previously been empty but the interior had now been make into an ecological education centre with illustrations of wildflowers, animals and insects to be found here including some containers which you had to sniff to see if you could recognise the scent of various animals! There was also a whiteboard and pens to draw or write on. Mainly children had drawn the birds, ducks and swans they had observed with creatively spelt labels. A couple approached us and advised us not to go much further as the lake had overflown and wasn't passable without waterproof boots. We returned to the Hall which, although containing many interesting artefacts and illustrations of how the gentry and servants lived in bygone days, we couldn't leave the dog. We returned to the café, had tea and a cheese and apple chutney sandwich  before setting off for home.