Arundel Castle

Arundel is easily reached by rail, and so last week as part of the galleries and gardens bonanza based in Emsworth, we spent day 2 in Arundel, firstly looking at the rather imposing castle and then wandering round the Arundel Gallery Trail, celebrating 30 years of existence this year. It seems that Arundel has a population of 4000, and a sizeable number of artists and people interested in art judging by the numbers of people walking round the town when we visited last Tuesday.
I'm going to start with a few photos taken in the town, and around the castle grounds, and save the trail for the next post.

 The main street is dominated by castle on the hill, in a good way. The photo above shows the bridge over the river Arun, and below here's a view of the river.

 A striking thing about Arundel is the number of delightful antique shops there are, lots of very tasteful things for the garden and shabby chic furniture for inside the house. After a false start, we walked downhill to the castle entrance, and then when we go inside the gate, there's this great view of the castle:

 The grounds are varied and interesting with a well developed wild meadow

 with a rustic thatched summerhouse amidst it, called a 'thatched roundhouse in wild flower garden' in the handout

 this was an example of a well balanced perennial border

 a fab Canna flower

There's also a stumpery, rose garden, white garden, ancient cork oak tree, organic kitchen garden, cut flower garden, glasshouses and the Collectors Earl's Garden. The latter is an 'exciting new garden based on early 17th Century classical designs'. It's tribute to Thomas Howard 14th Earl of Arundel (1585-1646) known as the 'Collector Earl'. It features Oberon's Palace seen below

with a unique floating crown seen below

at the opposite end of the garden to Oberon's Palace is an Italianate upper terrace with stunning weathered oak Pagodas either side of the rill.

Further up the rill, there's a grotto with carved creatures on the outside, it's really well done. I didn't take photos of the huge terracotta pots, but they are beautifully planted.

Arundel Castle grounds are well worth a visit, we only had time for them, and a quick trip inside the chapel where the memento mori is quite a shocking sight.