Castle Drogo

OODs Christmas Walk

Climbing scaffolding, exploring a castle and a pre-Christmas Walk.

07/12/2013: A 4 mile walk around the grounds and a tour of Castle Drogo

Today was our last OODs walk before the Christmas break so the committe had organised something a little different; a tour of a Castle followed by a light Christmas walk. (Christmas jumpers were encouraged).

We headed to Dartmoor to the newest Castle in England, Castle Drogo.

The tour of Castle Drogo was a little different to the a normal tour of a National Trust building. This is because the Castle was not built with the damp of Dartmoor in mind, so they are now in the process of properly waterproofing the structure. This involves taking off the outer layer of brick, cleaning it, placing better water proofing and insulation underneath, and then replacing the brick. We got to go up the scaffolding to see the progress of what they were doing, and got to wear super sexy high vis vests and safety helmets to do so. It meant that while the Castle was in a big white tent which spoiled some of the views out the windows, we were able to see the Castle under construction. We also did the internal tour of the Castle and learnt about the history of the family that lived there.

After lunch we did a quick 4 mile circular walk of the grounds before heading back to Exeter. We had a great time for our last walk before Christmas. Louise and I taught everyone Pukeko in a Ponga Tree (the NZ version of the 12 Days of Christmas), we had leaf fights and sing offs of Christmas songs.

I couldn’t have come up with a better Saturday.