Tag: Wentworth Castle

The Rotunda

We walked across the deer park to the Rotunda at Wentworth Castle this morning before heading up beyond the house to Stainborough Castle, built as a folly by Thomas Wentworth in 1731.

The bird highlight of the morning was before we set off, as we were packing the car. A woodcock flew up the road, flying about 8 feet above the centre road, as it would along a woodland ride. A few doors up it diverted between the houses, still at the same height, heading towards Coxley Woods. I’m guessing that it might have been hunkered down somewhere in the lower end of the woods but had been disturbed.

Archer Hill

As we walked across the deer park at Wentworth Castle, two fallow bucks looked up then decided we were harmless and went on grazing as we passed them. The does and fawns were more wary. One made a show by ‘stotting’: prancing off stiff-legged, alternately putting the two front legs, then the two back legs down. This behaviour is thought to be a signal to predators that the deer is so fit, with its fancy footwork, that it won’t be worth the trouble of attempting to catch it.

Archer Hill Gate (all three arches of it: I’ve framed it with the tree to show only one of them) stands half way up the slope between Wentworth Castle, a Georgian mansion, and the ruins of Stainborough Castle.

Palladian Bridge

Palladian bridge
Palladian Bridge, Wentworth Castle
fallow deer
Palladian bridge

A fallow stag bellows to bring his group of hinds together and soon sees off a young buck that is hanging around at the edge of the herd.

The red deer hinds have gathered in the lower corner of the park and some wander out of the wood as we approach. A group of 10 or 15 mallards have gathered under the oaks, probably browsing for acorns. Squirrels are busy, but they seem to be going for sweet chestnuts. Sadly, Sudden Oak Death has infected some trees up by Stainborough Castle and that area is currently being cleared prior to replanting.

We’re told that the resident red deer stag is called Bertie. If he’s the one with the hinds, he’s lost his antlers. He’s the one in the background in my photograph, on the far right.

red deer
View of High Hoyland from Hilary's cafe, Cawthorne.
View looking towards High Hoyland from Hilary’s cafe, Cawthorne.

Wentworth Castle

Meadow vetchling, heath bedstraw and cocksfoot grass in the Deer Park at Wentworth Castle, artichoke, a grass-head, a multi-stemmed cypress trunk and a dead hedge in the gardens around the house.

Taken using the macro lens on my Olympus OM10-D E-10 MarkII DSLR except for the cypress, taken on my iPhone 11, as I couldn’t get the angle that I was after with the macro.