Walking to Belvoir Castle

So what was I thinking? It was a lovely Sunday afternoon. Belvoir (pronounced beaver) Castle, home to the Duke and Duchess of Rutland is five miles across the valley from Harlaxton. There is a walking trail that follows the Grantham canal almost all the way to the Castle. Wouldn't it be great to get out the house and get some exercise and see the home of the Belvoir Hunt and the Duke of Rutland's Hounds? Well the first part of the walk was grand. As you can see from the pictures. The flowing water created idyllic scenes of young swans (just turning white) swimming along, sheep and cattle grazing, plentiful wild black raspeberries everywhere, and even the odd pheasant or two scaring me to death by suddenly flying out of the brush six inches away from me!

The canal itself was interesting in that there were still locks every now and again several of which were still working. As you can see in my photo, they have had a blue-green algae problem in some parts of the canal and were working to clean it up so people could return to fishing in it again.

So, what's the problem with this little bit of exercise? It turns out that the Castle was indeed 5 miles away...AS THE CROW FLIES! By the time I saw the view in the picture above, I had gone nearly 7 miles...and it was still another mile and a half uphill to the entrance to the Castle car park! I was a bit footsore and debated the entire last mile and a half about calling a taxi to take me home. But what I saw was worth it. The views of the exterior of the castle and gardens are all I have as they didn't allow photography inside.

I did get there in time for a 12:30 art tour however. Belvoir is home to a beautiful art collection that includes the famous full-length portrait of Henry VIII attributed to Holbein. There were painting by Stubbs and many other lessor known but skilled Dutch painters. To see several of the smaller pieces, we were taken beyond the velvet ropes in a few rooms. One room, a chinese guest room, in particular made one stop breathing. The wall paper was hand-painted and brought in rolls from China in the 1790s. It was designed with a water scene that had many birds and insects all over it. If the workmen happened to rip the paper, they woudl just cut out a bird or butterfly and paste it over the tear to cover it up. You had to look carefully but you could see where this had happened quite frequently it seemed. The other thing to note about the room in addition to the lovelty furniture and art was that the ceiling was 18 feet high!

We were taken through the dining room which had a large repousse wine tub (for chilling wines as needed. It is the largest of its kind in Europe and decorated with peacocks, the heraldic symbol of Belvoir. There was also a long gallery that was featured in the film the Young Victoria as her dressing room, and a chapel in the basement. It was a lovely house in which the Duke and Duchess still live with their five children and four dogs.

The final picture is of the stables and horse exercise yard. Horses could be exercised in that round building in the center of the court yard. As you can also see from the view beyond, the Earls who first built a castle here 1000 years ago appropriately chose the name Belvoir, or "beautiful view."

I was so energized by my walk and tour around the castle, I did in fact walk home. Taking my time of course and soaking in all the beauty here.