Goodrich Castle

We were asking around for suggestions on where to go for our bank holiday. We got loads of recommendations, one of which was Goodrich Castle...

I know I say this every time, but this is my new favorite castle! It was in ruins, but it was still together enough that we see and understand the layout.

Here is a map of the grounds,well, how they were back in the day. My favorite sections of the castle were the prison and keep. They are marked in dark blue on the map.

Here is the dungeon, or the prison:

This room gave me the creeps. It was a 10 by 15 foot room, the ceiling may have been 6 feet high, maybe. It was tiny, smelly, and VERY dark. The only light that came in was from the entry way, but once you stepped in you couldn't see anything. I felt silly taking pictures of a pitch black room but I'm glad I did. I was surprised to find a prisoner in the dungeon, which I only discovered when I looked back through the pictures.

After breaking out of prison we made our way to the Keep, this sign greeted us...

And boy they weren't kidding! All I could think about while I was climbing those stairs was that if this castle had been in America it would have been bulldozed to the ground because it is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Here is the best picture I could capture of the terrifyingly dangerous stairs:

The stairs were so steep and were only about six inches wide. Thankfully there was a rope which I clung onto for dear life but it wasn't as stable as I would have liked. Adam actually climbed these stairs while holding Spencer in the moby wrap...What is a moby wrap?

This is a moby wrap. Spencer usually starts out in the stroller but then he wants to be out and participating with mommy and daddy, so we wear him. Spencer loved walking around the castle grounds. He has learned how to scream and he was squealing with delight all day long!