Knaresborough at long last. And yes there was a lot of rain.

 I packed every one of my three cameras, the working and the neurotic. First we walked Monza in the rain at the old grave yard...just so that he had a walk just in case it was not possible later......
Then set off through a torrent of water to Knareborough. It rained all the way there and it rained even more as we tried to park by the castle. Eventually we had to park away a bit and get wet to take these pictures.

 Knaresborough at last. We started with this plan on Sunday and succeeded after a fashion on Thursday lunch time. So what have we here!? well it is a very magnificent ruin of a castle built by a Norman baron in 1100 high above the river Nidd commanding magnificent views , with all you see is what you own type place. 1170 Huge De Moreville  and crew helped murder Thomas A Beckett and took refuge there..... He owned it at the time I think.....
Everyone has had a part to play here...King John, Edward 1 , Edward 11, John of Gaunt, 1372 taking it as part of his Duchy of Lancaster. The civil war.....Now this castle was taken by Parliamentarian troops 1644 and mostly destroyed 1648 . Well it is a very impressive ruin now anyway. .

 There is a small part of it still standing and this houses a museum and there is a charge to go inside. Lee will not pay charges to see where he lives and was born. So that is that as far as going inside goes....So we wandered around the beautiful site and gardens high over the fabulous views.

 It was still raining. It does not look too wet. believe me it was...I was wearing flip flops.I embarrassingly squelshed and sloshed my way around with other tourists in proper water proofs. It did not do much good as they were wetter than me in the end....

 A small amusement of the day was the ravens that live on the ruins. One talks....she says "hello!". At first I thought it was a puppet...but no...they are real. I looked it all up on Google...apparently one of them swears and steals mobile phones too......

 The view is both iconic and fabulous. so here I am. I took loads of photos to day with my very expensive digi camera. When I got home to put them onto my laptop it ate them....lost the lot. So here are the photos taken on a digi camera bought for a fiver in a junk shop......

 Knaresborough castle built for medieval kings. As we did not go inside I did not get to see the kings bedroom and vaulted cellar complete with underground passage to the "sally port"

 As with most castles this one served the community and the whole area. As a refuge in times of danger and a centre for government and law. Even after the castle was dismantled the kings tower was kept intact and used as a prison.

 Hidden with in the outer wards are two Sally ports. Lee finds this hilariously funny...and yes there were photos taken...but then also eaten by my bits of modern technology.....any way a Sally port is a kind of secret passage arrangement used for secret entrance and exit to the castle. These tunnels are greatly fascinating to me and I have found that they were nearly eight feet tall and six feet wide through solid rock! These would have been large enough for a small party of men to leave the castle undetected and hassle besiegers during the civil war...or just basically hassle anyone they liked under the cover of darkness.....

 The Eastern Sally port is open still and is part of a guided tour in the summer months.

 There were loads more pictures too....so why did I not use my mobile phone as I usually do? well I wanted a better quality of photo! really regretting that one now. ...So we trogged around in the rain which does not look too bad does it? well it was. And it was freezing too......

 After the castle we headed back to the cobbled old part of town...past some really interesting pubs and cafes and bought sandwiches and ice cream for lunch. I would like to tell you that we sat in the market square and ate them ...but the benches were soaked like us by this stage....

So we headed to the charity shops...yes Knareborough does have them...I managed to buy a small Bratz babz doll and a book about Elizabeth 1 and Yorkshire show for 50p each......on the way around we found all the  wall paintings

 These are just around and I kept spotting some I had not seen before,,,,,,

then quickly back to The Fonz car and Monza dog. On the way back we stopped at  supermarket and bought some more food for dinner. we did not want to go out in the rain again once home.

I wanted to go past Allerton Mauleverer on the way back....Another day it will have to be as I would like to be able to see what I am looking at without the wall of water descending from the skies.

 here are the dark photos. these really represent the day.......