It was another beautiful day last week so we decided after a morning of being sat at our laptops doing work to pack a little picnic and find somewhere for a walk to enjoy the weather. I googled ‘walks in Bristol’ and Blaise Castle & Estate was one of the top hits. I’ve heard of it but never actually been myself, so thought what better time to go on an adventure and see it for myself.
We carried on through the park and out the other side, where we followed the path down to the Blaise Castle House Museum. Unfortunately this wasn’t open as we went on a Monday – you can find out current opening times here. We are definitely going to head back one day when it is open so we can take a look inside, however as it was so sunny we didn’t mind staying out in the sunshine! The museum itself is such an amazing building, so we still had a look at the outside!
We followed the path down past the house and then up through some trees, where we wandered around for a while before realising we didn’t really have any idea where the castle actually was! I had a quick look on maps again which luckily showed the paths in the estate and worked out where we needed to go. We headed up some steps in the woodland for a bit before it opened out into a clearing in the trees. And there, in the middle of the meadow was Blaise Castle!
Obviously, it was a really cool building to see – but I was expecting it to be a bit bigger? As castles go, it seemed pretty small! I think maybe this is due to the Blaise Castle House Museum being so much bigger than the actual castle. Even so, it’s still beautiful to see. This part of the walk would’ve been the perfect place to have our picnic as the grass is lush and in direct sunlight, but we weren’t really hungry just yet. We carried on through the other side of the clearing and headed down a path where we found the most incredible view point.
This really blew me away. Here you could see for miles, and thousands of trees lined a huge valley. It was crazy to think we’d only driven a few miles out of the city centre! This is one of the many things I love about Bristol as a city – it’s so easy to escape the ‘city life’ and find peaceful countryside without having to look very far. We walked from this viewpoint down the path to the next one, which also happened to have a bench. The perfect spot to eat our picnic.
After we’d eaten, we carried on down the path which led us to an old mill next to a river. We walked along the river for a bit picking wildflowers – there were so many growing along the sides of the path!
After getting myself a decent enough looking bunch together, we decided it was time to head back to the car. We had completely lost our sense of direction, so used maps again to work out which way we had to head back. We’d had a really nice few hours at Blaise Castle, yet there was still so much for us to explore. I definitely want to go back and see the rest of the grounds, there was just so much. I especially wanted to go and sit on the rocks which overlook the valley that we could see across from the viewpoint, as they looked like they’d also have amazing views. So with all that in mind, I’m sure that we will go back again!
Charlotte Rick x
