My kids love Peppa Pig and in one episode the family go to visit Windy Castle, which is a fort like castle on a hill. Well, we have a Windy Castle just a bus ride away and today we treated the kids to a visit. Unlike Peppa Pig our Windy Castle does not have a telescope on the top, although it would be really good if it did as you can see for miles. Also, unlike Peppa Pig and her family, we do not have a car so we had to walk up to the top of the hill. This turned out to be real fun, even though it was tiring, we saw lots of things along the way. Thinking alongside The Gruffalo theme, we found a home for fox, a home for mouse and a home for a snake. We also had to walk through the deep dark woods. The girls looked for footprint trails along the way, it was all very exciting.
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| The Gruffalo said ‘No Gruffalo should ever set foot in the deep dark wood! |
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| Star said this could be a home for fox |
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| A Rabbit hole, or maybe a home for a big bad mouse? |
It is a lovely walk up the hill, although it’s very steep in parts. When I used to visit as a child we used to find the steepest parts to climb up, often scrambling to find tree roots to pull ourselves up on. At the top of one very steep hill there was a frog pond but sadly it’s not there any longer and the steepest hills are fenced off because they are dangerous.
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| up up up the hill! |
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| Stop, and pose! Are we nearly there yet?
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| Up up up some more! |
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| Is it a sign? Are we nearly there yet? |
At the top of the hill, after all our walking we are greeted with lots of green, an amazing view and, of course, Windy Castle.
This is Beacon Hill, one of the hills at the Lickey Hills Nature Park. The fort (windy castle) was built to house a Toposcope which shows the distance of notable places that can be viewed from the area. You really can see for miles up here.
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| At last, the top of the hill and windy castle |
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| Can you see me mummy, I’m the Queen of the castle |
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| This place was built to hold the toposcope which can be just seen in bottom right photo |
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| Lots of fun |
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| Hello Birmingham, some views from the toposcope |
After all our hard work climbing up the hill we just had to have a picnic while watching people flying their kites.
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| Perfect time for a picnic |
In 1904 JRR Tolkein moved to Birmingham and the Lickey Hills became a favourite haunt of his. They are believed to be the inspiration for his shires where the hobbits lived. Maybe it’s time to introduce my children to The Hobbit and next time we visit we can go looking for Bilbo Baggins.
Joining in with #Countrykids at Coombe Mill
What a great place, love that castle #CountryKids
Lucky you having a Castle to visit in such a beautiful setting, what a climb though – but definitely worth it! You could easily while away a day exploring, and as your group photo shows, such a nice play for a picnic. Thanks for coming over and sharing your lovely family day out.
wow that was some adventure and a great walk to the castle. they must have been tired after all that fun x
What a brilliant castle. It looks like a fabulous day out. I love the photo of the children posing on the big seat, it's gorgeous x
That is a great version of Peppa's windy castle. My wee man likes things likes when you relate things to stories…we keep going on bear hunts!
I love how outings like this so often follow a story – we often battle baddies, go hunting for dragons, rescue princesses! The windy castle looks fantastic – and the photos are gorgeous. A great day out!