Day 20: Lickleyhead Castle

The castle was originally built in 1530’s by the Leslie clan. Throughout its 500 years of history, it has many owners. Although the Leslie clan stayed here most. In fact, Rose Leslie (Ygritt of Game of Thrones), wife of Kit Harington (Jon Snow) grew up in this castle.

When we walked through many castles during our trip, I always wondered what’s like to live here. Well, now I know a bit about it: it’s really cold at night. Well, it’s only about 40 degrees outside, without proper modern heating system, it’s cold in here. People used to light fire in the fireplace during night, we could only use the small heater, which did a superb job keeping us warm last night. Also, there are very few electric outlets; none in the bathroom. So be warned before you stay in a castle.

Besides the small drawbacks, it has been an absolutely amazing experience!

We have the entire East Wing of the castle (built in Victorian period). Two floors with a kitchen, two bathrooms, two themed bedrooms, a grand dining room, and lovely drawing room and a small nook for reading undisturbed. Considering our last accommodation was a tiny room in a three star hotel, and the fact we are the only guests here, it’s a bit overwhelming the amount of space we have here.

Steve and Evan promptly disgraced the meticulously decorated dining room by eating their frozen pizza in it last night. 😂🙄

This morning, we were able to explore the rest of the castle a bit. The West wing has 4 floors with 6 bedroom suites. There castle grounds also include a rose garden, a tree house, a fire pit and a nice large outdoor chess board. Steve and Evan had a great chess match this afternoon. Apparently it was a fierce battle that Evan won due to a mistake Steve made at the end.

We are celebrating Evan’s 19th birthday today! He had a baked potato for breakfast (again, just like his birthday celebration in Hawaii two years ago). Our fancy dinner at Aberdeen was excellent!Read more