Newby Hall and Gardens

We finally arrived at Newby Hall and Gardens after visiting a geocache and the nearby church. The Hall wasn't open for tour immediately so we wound our way through the garden and to the playground, which was quite expansive.

In addition to the usual flowers and trees and such, the gardens also had an old pump house that used horse power (as in actual horses to power it) to pull up water from the well.

Seems like a boring job for a horse, but at least they had a roof

Nearby is a small railway that people can ride around the estate to see the flora and fauna. We didn't do that because we could see the playground from there and the kids were ready to play.

Jacob and Lucy try to brave the dancing waters

The sandbox was not very popular on a cold and cloudy day

The first thing we rode was a boat swing, which could go quite far up in the air if the passengers were ambitious enough.

Jacob wanted more height; Lucy wanted to hang on

Better than ringing a bell at a church?

Jacob and Daddy give it a go

Jacob also did some fancy rope climbing.

Cargo net fun

The view from below

Then we saw a great site--the pirate ship!

Land locked but fun

In the crow's nest

Mommy and Lucy went for a ride in a real boat while Jacob and I explore more of the play area.

Cruising around the island

Bridge across the island

Crossing the wobbly bridge

At this point, Jacob dragged Mommy off to the zip line while Lucy wanted to play on a tire swing. Since the line was far off, I couldn't get any good pictures, but we need more of Lucy anyway.

I think she was enjoying it, maybe not when I took this particular photo

We also spotted a nearby black swan that was huge and kinda scary.

Beautiful but deadly?

"That foot looks yummy!"

Seeing this reminded us of our own hunger, so we went to get a little lunch from the snack area. We packed a sandwich for Jacob and Lucy had some of the side salad and our sandwiches. A sign said that they had fresh baked scones and other treats but we might have visited too early in the day (or in the season) to take advantage.

After eating, we went back to the playground for a visit to the loo and to cross one last bridge.

Jacob starts a perilous journey

"It doesn't feel perilous!"

We finally noticed a warning sign for the playground:

Do we have to watch all the small children?

On the way out we saw a small bit of the hall before returning to the car park to drive home.

Yeah, down that path between the trees, there it is!

I suppose we will have to come back and see the rest of the sights in Newby Hall, like the actual hall. It's not too far from home and there's plenty of spring and summer ahead!