Bothal Castle

I have seen this castle a lot while out cycling (before making the leg burning climb up Bothal Bank), but didn't know much about it, or had a good look.

Parking in the village and walking down past the church, you can get as far as the courtyard and the arch. We didn't sneak through the arch as it's a private residence and there was people setting up for wedding photography, so we just took a few quick snaps from the outside.

So we headed back to the road to try and get some photos of it from afar with it's old walls. Just round the corner we spotted a gate into a field which gave fab views of the castle, so we sneaked in there.

What3Words for the gate are: ///standards.automatic.until, but it was very visible from the road.

From here you can get some great snaps of the full castle.

Bothal Castle is a grade I listed building, with its origins beginning around 1095. At that point the castle was a hall house and many years later in 1343, the hall was transformed into the castle it is today by Sir Robert Bertram. It was restored in the 19th century, and is the private residence of the Cavendish-Bentinck family and it is not accessible to the public.