Old Castleton and Clock Mills

 I got out of the Festival crowds the other day when a friend took me out to see a local castle I'd never visited before.

Old Castleton is perched on a promontory overlooking the water meadows of the River Wye, which meanders like mad across the valley there, and it's got three baileys!   I had great fun scrambling up and down the banks and the motte.  We also had to climb a couple of gates that had been put across the lane, possibly to stop sheep from the field just above from getting into the farmyard.

 Here's the motte, which is actually lower than the banks surrounding it, because of the lay of the land.

While looking at the map, I realised that we were also very close to Clock Mills.  This is a private house, and it was once owned by Rafael Sabatini, the author of swashbuckling adventures early in the last century.  Some of them were made into films starring Errol Flynn, and Sabatini invited Errol Flynn to stay at the house for a few weeks in the 1930s, for a bit of peace and quiet.  So we did a little detour so I could see the house, just from the gateway.