Furness Abbey

Furness Abbey is a ruined abbey in South Cumbria, just outside Barrow in Furness. In its heyday it used to be the home of the Cistercian monks.

Location
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The abbey can be found on the A590, approximately 30 minutes drive from the M6 and there’s a small car park outside the visitors centre. There’s a regular bus service (6A) which passes within a 10 minute walk of the abbey entrance, and this bus can be caught from the nearest bus stop to the railway station in Barrow. There’s a less frequent service from Dalton in Furness and other towns along the A590.

Opening Times
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Easter to Summer 10am-5pm 5 Days a Week (closed Tuesday and Wednesday).
Summer to Autumn 10am-5pm 7 Days a Week.
Late Autumn 10am-5pm 5 Days a Week (closed Tuesday and Wednesday).
Autumn to Easter 10am-4pm Sat, & Sun.

Admission Costs
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Adult: £3.50
Children: £1.80
Concession: £3.00
English Heritage Members: Free.

The Abbey
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The Abbey was built in 1123. It was given to the Cistercian monks in 1147, and was once the second richest Cistercian abbey in England, after Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire.

It was built entirely from sandstone which was sourced from the local area, and many parts of the abbey are well persevered and stand majestically in place. It’s not hard to imagine how the site would have looked when it was complete.

The monks of the abbey were highly influential in the area, and their influence spread as far as the Isle of Man, which can be found off the coast of Barrow in Furness, in the Irish Sea. One of the Kings of Man is buried within the grounds of the abbey.

The abbey stood proud until Henry VIII took umbrage with the Pope and decided to destroy the Catholic Church and all its followers. The local story tells of how Henry’s soldiers missed the abbey because it is hidden from view in the Vale of Nightshade, but one poor monk rang the bell to sound the all clear far too early, and alerted the soldiers to its presence. The abbey and the monks were destroyed, and the ruins left for future generations to walk around.

Obviously being an abbey, there are no end of ghost stories, ranging from the sightings of mad monks, to white ladies. One of the tracks leading from the abbey is known locally as Lady’s Walk due to the sightings.


The abbey has had a few famous visitors; the most famous for locals is of course William Wordsworth, the Lakeland poet, famous for his Daffodils poem. He referred to the abbey in one of his later poems, The Prelude. The abbey was also visited by the Roosevelt family, where Teddy Roosevelt was seen running around the abbey grounds with his siblings.


You can use the audio guide when wandering around the grounds, which will give details of the various buildings which are still fairly whole (the chapel, the North and South Transept, the Chapter House and Dormitory). It also details where other buildings would have stood and how well developed the drainage and water ways were for the time.

Visitors Centre
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The visitors centre is small, but has a lot of information dotted around. It doubles as the shop, but the selection of items available is very small and expensive.
In the visitors centre you’ll find sconces and pieces of architecture and grave slabs that originally came from the abbey, but have been brought inside to avoid damage.

Facilities and Accessibility
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Wheelchairs users have full access to the visitors centre and to the abbey grounds. However, there are lots of slopes and no pathways around the grounds, so some people may need assistance.

For visually impaired visitors the audio guide is included in the ticket price, and for audio impaired visitors an audio tour with hearing loop is included in the price, and they also have the audio tour scripted if required.

Dogs are allowed in the grounds, although they must be kept on a lead, and obviously any mess must be cleared up.

There is a small selection of snacks, and people are welcome to bring picnics into the abbey grounds. Within a couple of minutes walk, you’ll find the Abbey Tavern which is a local pub that sells beer and meals.

My Thoughts
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Furness Abbey is a lovely abbey to visit, and because is fairly well preserved in parts, it makes it much easier to imagine how the area would have looked back in the 12th Century, and how life might have been for the monks.

The way the abbey is situated you will be driving up and thinking ‘where on earth is it?’ Then suddenly it’s right in front of you, it’s not hard to imagine that the local story about the soldiers missing is first time around could be true. After all, way back then there would have been no clear roads and the abbey would have been completely surrounded by trees.

As it is, once you get close, you might wonder if it’s worth paying the entrance fee, because you can see all of the grounds from the road. But you can’t get a proper feel for the place from the roadside, nor can you find out which bits are which, and what would have been happening in different areas of the abbey.

Although there’s a road running around the outside of the grounds, it’s not a busy road, so the whole area feels very tranquil (until the kids start yelling !!). It’s a great place to have a picnic, because there are plenty of open areas, and having the abbey as a backdrop is beautiful. During the spring, the area is surrounded by daffodils, and they look absolutely wonderful.

Along the side of the abbey there are a few walks that are very popular with dog walkers, and you can see some of the remains of out buildings that the monks once used on these walks.

Straight across the road from the abbey there’s a natural amphitheatre, now I don’t have good memories of this amphitheatre because it used to be part of our school’s cross country run! But this is also a great area to walk your dog, depending on the time of year you might have to have the dog on a lead due to sheep or cows being loose.

If you’re not picnicking or walking dogs, it probably won’t take more than a morning or an afternoon to visit the abbey. In fact it’s more likely to take 2 hours at most (presuming you stop to look closely at things), but it’s well worth a visit.

Dundonald Castle

Dundonald Castle is a ruin in the Ayrshire district of Scotland. It was built for Robert II in 1371 and was home to many Scottish kings over the years.

Directions, Admission and Opening Hours


The easiest way to get to the castle is to drive, following the A78 to Irving and then following the signs to Dundonald. You can also get to the town on public transport, buses stop within a few minutes’ walk of the visitors centre and there are train services to local towns, and from there you can get a bus or a taxi.
Admission: Adult £2.50, Child £1.25 (under 5 free).

The castle and the visitors centre are open 10am to 5pm from 1st April to 31st October.

Accessibility


The visitors centre is completely accessible for those in wheelchairs; however the castle is located at the top of a very steep hill, which may cause difficulties. If you are able to reach the castle access it limited to the ground floor only, as there are only stairs to the upper floor not ramps.


The Visitors Centre



After parking at the visitors centre car park, you enter the visitors centre, you can choose to just look around the centre and view the castle from a distance, or you can look around the centre and then take the short (but steep) walk up the hill and look inside the castle as well.

The Visitors Centre includes 4 models; the models show how the castle would have looked over the years. The first shows how the area was used as a fort in the Dark Ages (approx 500AD), it seems that this fort was burned down in approximately 1000AD and by 1200AD a motte and bailey castle stood on the site. I didn’t know what a motte and bailey castle was, and had to look it up when I got home, it seems that motte is French for raised mound or in this case a hill, and bailey means there is an enclosed courtyard, usually by a fence. This was replaced by a huge castle in 1300 surrounded by stone walls. This castle however was subject to a lot of attacks from the English in the many battles between the Scots and the English. The final castle was a much smaller affair than the 1300AD castle; in fact it was just the gatehouse of the 1300AD castle that formed the basis of the castle build for Robert II. The models are well made and are really good for people who aren’t able to imagine the buildings from the descriptions alone.

Around the walls of the visitors centre there are depictions of shields and information about each. There are also some artefacts which have been unearthed over the years. The centre is not huge and probably only takes 20-30 minutes to look around, presuming you study everything thoroughly, for a lot of people it will take much less time.

Also in the visitors centre you’ll find a small cafe, with about half a dozen tables (perhaps up to 8). They serve hot and cold drinks, and a small selection of sandwiches and home baking.
They also have a small shop which sells books about the castle and other Scottish castles; they also have a small selection of toys, jewellery and other knick knacks.


The Castle


From the visitors centre you can walk up to the castle. On the walk you’ll pass a well, this was unearthed a couple of decades ago, and it was also when they discovered the remains of the 1300AD castle.

The castle inside is quite bare, you enter into a huge hall, and about halfway up the wall there is a platform which you can reach via the stairs. The platform is at about the same level as the timber floor would have been originally. The stairs you use to reach the platform were originally the servant’s stairs. There is a plaque on the platform which gives you all the information about what the hall was used for and how it would have looked originally.

Further along the platform you can take a look at the prison and the prison pit, or you can climb a steel staircase up to the great hall. The Great Hall is where the private rooms would have been, and it was in one of those rooms that Robert II died in 1390.


My Thoughts


It’s not the most beautiful castle I have ever seen but the castle is an impressive sight, and because it’s high up on the hill it can be seen from quite a distance, I can imagine it was quite an imposing sight in 14th Century.

I enjoyed the visitors centre, as did my children. The models certainly helped them imagine how things would have looked when they were built. They were also very interesting in the heraldic shields, which I found surprising because they’d never shown any interest before.

Once you get up to the castle the scale of the work hits you. It always amazes me how these castles were built without modern transportation; using horses to drag those stones up that hill must have been such a struggle. And it makes you wonder about the scale of the earlier castle, which according to the model was about 3 times the size of the current castle, it must have been such an amazing sight in its day.

I found the castle interesting, but then I’m always amazed by the logistics of building these old buildings, and find it quite easy to imagine the life people used to live. My children however, weren’t overly impressed, obviously they haven’t read as much as I have, so they couldn’t imagine how things would have been. And because the rooms are just large bare stone, there was nothing really to spark their imaginations.

We all enjoyed the views from the top of the castle though, and it was hard even for me to imagine how the English ever managed to do any damage, because they would have been seen from miles away.

The selection was of food and cakes that were available in the cafe was small, but the food was delicious, and the staff were more than happy to chat about the castle as you are enjoying your drinks.

Just outside the visitors centre there’s a playground and skateboard park, I believe it is part of the castle facilities, but it’s also used by the locals. The children enjoyed having a play in the playground before we set off home again.

The entrance fee to the castle isn’t expensive, so I’d definitely recommend visiting, unlike somewhere like Culzean Castle it won’t be a full day out, but it certainly takes up a good couple of hours to give it justice.