Nottingham

View from Castle Rock

One of my favourite movies from the 90's is Robin Hood Prince of Thieves with another great Bryan
Adams sound track. The scenes set in the castle, a particularly medieval one was where the Sheriff of Nottingham threatens to cut out his cousin's heart out with a spoon if he fails to capture Robin again, made us strain to see turrets as we crossed the midlands.

We drove past the impressive vista towards Belvoir Castle, this was rebuilt four times due to war and fire, the current home of the Duke was built in the early 1800s. As we entered Nottingham we found the brown tourist site signs to follow to the castle but were disappointed to find no medieval turrets built by the conquering Normans because this too had been destroyed in the Civil War. All that is left is the castle walls and the outside gate house. The 17th C ducal mansion on the site has been turned into a museum with an excellent interactive display of the history of the area. On the bottom floor is an area of Robinhood dress ups and games for the kids.

The view off Castle Rock is impressive, anyone marching to attack from the south would have been seen days before arriving. The story of Edward II's betrayal by his Queen Isabelle and his son's revenge after capturing her and her lover by sneaking into Nottingham Castle through the caves and secret passages is intriguing. Tours are taken through these rocky tunnels.

The gardens around the castle are beautiful and were the perfect spot for a picnic on the fine summer day that we visited. A statue of Robinhood was outside of the grounds and rubbed shiny with all the visitors having their photos taken. Although historians have searched through acres of documents and found a wide collection of Robins there seems to be no evidence of Robin of the hood being a real philanthropist or sharp shooter.

Not somewhere we'll visit again too soon - don't talk to me about the hire car GPS woman! Getting back to Cambridge from the midlands was three freeway tricky.