Northumberland is such a big county and seeing as most of my life was spent in the very southern bit of it Alnwick castle was not somewhere that we visited as children. Partly due to it being so far up the a1 and as we had a Norman castle in my home town of prudhoe the draw was less than that of other cool places.

Since then my life has changed and so has Alnwick castle. My wife and I visited when the gardens first opened mainly due to the fact that the price of the castle seemed to be ridiculous. since then it seems that the tourist industry has been going full tilt after the filming of a certain film involving a wizard and a hogwarts;-) oh and also a mr Beckham booking out the whole place for one of his kids parties.

So back to today, after seeing the new offer that the castle has on we couldn't resist getting in there. If you buy a ticket for the day it lasts for 12 months. The only down side is the overall cost, £48 for 2adults for the castle and gardens is a bit like loads to me but to be fair if we get 3 times in the year it's no more than some of the other big attractions.

Having already been out to the gardens before thought it best to get some castle action to start with. After avoiding the massive hole in the road that resulted from the recent rainy season the north east has been faced with, we entered hogwarts.. I mean the castle it was clear that it was the school holidays. It was fun to see so many kids getting all dressed up in armour and having broomstick races.

The structure itself is in fantastic condition considering its age and uses over the past 900 or so years. The level of touristy things they are doing in the grounds is great and keeping many local people employed. From the archery and broomstick races through to the dressing up and comedy stocks, kids and adults alike were busy having fun.

Having only brought a couple of primes with me on this trip the shots you see here are either at 24mm or 400mm not a normal mix but I wanted to test my new sigma 24 and there is always a chance of wildlife so the 400 is in there for things like to Guinie fowl and the swallows.

After the coolness of the castle we wandered the wet children strew expanse of the gardens. With the many water features everywhere u turned there was a child in a swim suit or a soaking wet tshirt. All of the plants were looking in great condition and it was a nice relaxing tootle round weaving round all of the visitors.

We finished the trip with a walk round the tree house that always gives you wobbly legs on the rope based walkways. On the whole it was a great day out and if you can justify the costs for a years pass its worth going for a good wander. We will definitely be up there again soon to dive a bit deeper in to the museum bits!