Not sure why I've not visited this place, well I had back around 1977 with my parents, its on the doorstep pretty much.
Part of the old Lever Park, owned by Lord Leverhulme, this mini replica of Liverpool Castle was a unfinished project on the estate. Work commenced in only October 1911, but sadly abandoned following the death of Lord Leverhulme.
Sitting on the banks of Lower Rivington Reservoir a little away from the main Rivington gardens, Pike and Barns, I'd just never been back despite regular visits walks up to Rivington Pike.
Having flown over Lever Castle on a number of occasions of late, a gentle nudge by Judderman prompted a jump into car for a gentle spring walk down the leafy paths to the castle.
Sadly since my last distant visit steps to the upper levels have been removed, on the upside with the driveway closed to traffic the site is a cracking place to let the kids off the leash.
The castle does have a few inner rooms and as the kids call them "secret passageways" for a little bit of an explore.
Not so much Urbex but a nice little bimble with the kids, with apologies to the couple with the little boy as my daughters choice of clothing seemed to have caused "issues" as she came stumbling out of a dark passage.
"Where you fancy?" came the text message from Captain Pugwash.
"Anywhere" a short reply in such matters avoids disappointment (please don't say Oldham - me thinks)
"Scotland?" Captain Pugwash was unusually swift in his reply.
"Sounds good, can we land on an Island" I like to push my luck, but if you don't ask....
"Yes!" another rather prompt reply from Pugwash, obviously a closet Balamory fan.
Whats the story in Balamory, wouldn't you like to know?
What's the story in Balamory, where would you like to go?
I'm not sure if the childrens TV program Balamory is watched internationally, it should be.
For those not in the know, Balamory is a childrens program, filmed in and round the town of Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull - you may wish to Google it, or perhaps not ?
The weather itself was not the best for photography to be blunt, very hazy and cloudy, but its not all about photography - but we did get a few crackers on the way.
First off with the Sellafield "golf ball".
Up into Scotland, we have a few shots of Threave Castle, Castle Douglas - only accessible by boat, or in this case by plane.
The flight of just over 2 hours from Manchester took us over the Lake District and out into the Irish Sea flying over the Isle of Arran and Jura.
Upon arrival at Mull we had a spin over Balamory, sorry Tobermory.
Oh dear, Pugwash it seems was a Balamory fan, thru my headphones came Pugwash's cult like chant of the Balamory theme tune, sadly it had the resonance of a strangled cat !!
Time to land and we headed back towards Glenforsa Airfield, a beach side landing strip, known for its tricky approach, its beauty and the fact that its had a great number of famous visitors over the years - If you come from Glenforsa and haven't had your photo taken with Tom Cruise then....
- oh turn the volume down on this one - the engine and background noise is a bit loud.
The owner of the airstrip, David, welcomed us and commented on Pugwash's skillful maneuvers "are you a professional pilot?" which I suspect I will be gently reminded of on a regular basis by Pugwash.
- David had run the airstrip since the 1960s, he had met Genesis, Donald Sutherland and owned the compulsory photograph of Tom Cruise, as is the custom in such parts.
After parking up we made our way to The Glenforsa Hotel, a few metres from the airstrip, as to be expected in a hotel in such close proximity to an airstrip it was festooned with all manor of flying momentos, cue further Tom Cruise photo.
To be honest it may sound like I'm taking the piss, but this place is fabulous with bits of plane and some cracking photographs around the place and the food we had, mere burger and chips, was to die for.
Time for a sharp exit and a few photos from our journey home, the highlights included the spotting of a sub, not something you get to see on a daily basis.
I'm told by someone in the know (allegedly) that this big boy isn't British, so hopefully I won't be up for treason or spying, perhaps Tom Cruise and his new toy ?
Turnberry, Ailsa
Whitehaven Harbour
And so we bimbled back to Manchester in time for tea.
Today's blog post was brought to you by the letter P.
After all this harping on about the Chernobyl trip back to sunny Wales and the ever changing ghost ship, The Duke of Lancaster.
After a long cold winter, spring arrives at the Duke of Lancaster. Well no it didn't, the cold weather continued but the artists arrived at the Duke of Lancaster and battled against the cold and thus phase 2 of the art project was started at long last !
First things first (apart from the shit Hdr) we have some kind of monster robot action going on.
Snub23 and his impressive work titled "Your Time is Up,The Future is Here", its bloody enormous.
Next up we have a cracking weird looking piece, entitled "When Two Worlds Meet, It's a Culture Clash" by Dale Grimshaw.
Every angle the eyes get you on this one.
Slowly encroaching towards old favorite Council of Monkeys is a new and detailed work by DANK aka Dan Kitchener.
"Opening The Can of Worms" is worth looking at for a few moments extra
Don't miss the window top right.
The day we visited work was underway by artist Spacehop on a work entitled Captain Jack, which will pay homage to the original Captain of the Duke of Lancaster, Captain John 'Jack' Irwin.
A few little bits are starting to appear, first off peering from the life boats we have Maurice from DuDug
and then this this cheeky little number
All in all a excellent set of new additions to the ghost ship of Wales, The Duke of Lancaster.
All that remains is another phone call to Captain Pugwash for another spin down to Wales in the plane in the near future, watch this space - although Pugwash can't see the attraction I have to add.
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