Leeds Castle, Kent England

We visited Leeds Castle in Maidstone, England.  On this European trip, we visited many castles but I think that Leeds Castle might be my favourite. This Castle does not focus on the history and there is a lot of history in this Castle but it focuses more on the beauty of the castle itself and its grounds and extensive Gardens.  I took copious amounts of photos of everything on this self-guided tour.

It was 30 pounds per person if you purchased it online.  If you just walk in it is 35 pounds per adult.

We lucked out and got a fairly nice day there was intermittent rain but just splatters here and there.

It was so exciting for me to think that King Henry VIII (the fatso) lived in this Castle with his wives but even more interesting to me is Henry's first wife - Queen Katherine of Aragon.  She was married to him for over 20 years and loved the ingrate until the end, even after he divorced her and dismissed her from the court.  

In one area of the castle, you can witness the original stone stair slabs that are very well-worn over time.  It is fascinating to me to think of how many characters have used these stairs throughout the millennium and I have learned about many of them in my history classes and historical novels.   

The castle is large and was built in 1119, which is bloody old.

Throughout time the castle has been modified depending on what King or Queen was living there at the time and what they needed for defence, depending if it was earlier in the millenia or later in the millennia.  

Even the downspouts are beautifully ancient and decorative below.

There is an inner courtyard the Castle is built around.

The floors are stunning and so old and in such good shape.

This is a newel post at the top of a stairwell.  This carving of a man was about 4 feet tall.

Some rooms were extremely lavish.

A wealthy Oil heiress, Lady Baillie bought the castle in 1926 for over 100,000 pounds and had it remodelled to her specifications at a cost of another hundred thousand pounds. She was allowed to do whatever she wanted to the castle which flabbergasted me that there was no sense of historical integrity keeping in England at the time.  She put in a pool which is like blasphemy to a historian.  Who knows maybe the castle would be in ruins if not for Lady Baillie?  She put the castle in trust at her death and the world is free to visit Leeds thanks to her.

I took over one hundred photos of the Castle and grounds and I did not want to bore you so I only included a few of inside the Castle.  You can tell where Lady Baillie modernized the Castle and when she left it alone, both are beautiful.  These are the Lady and her two daughters to the right.

There is a video right when you enter the Castle and it focuses on the Queens of Leeds Castle, not Henry which was very refreshing.

The old original beams of the Castle were quite ornate.

The iron grates throughout the castle were gorgeous and I was coveting one badly for my backyard.

We visited all the gardens and they were all worth walking around and seeing a late October English garden.  We achieved 13,000 steps that day at Leeds Castle.

There were interesting little pieces of information embedded into the walkway around the ground.

We had some fun and frustration at the maze.  Personally, I had never been in a traditional English maze.  The thick green hedge was taller than I was so you can't see over it you can't cheat your way into the center or out again.  I was getting a little sweaty and frustrated at about the 15-minute mark because we could not find our way into the center and we could not find her way out either.  Eventually, we found our way out and I was quite thankful.  I would love to know what is the longest time that someone has been stuck in that maze?

It turned out that you could access the middle for the losers (us) who could not find their way in and you had to go down through the tunnel and come up in the middle and that was a very cool cave-like tunnel which I do not know if Lady Baillie put that in or if it was Henry?  In the later stages of Henry's life, he would have died of a heart attack in that maze.

There is a tiny Royal Dog Collar Museum on the property and it is worthwhile seeing what royalty put on their poor dogs.

I could have gone again and again to the Castle to visit that day.  When you purchase your entry it is good for a whole entire year.