Mum has spent most of her life visiting castles. As a child her parents organised family day trips almost every weekend, packing 'Victoria' the VW beetle to full capacity and tootling off all round the country. The packed lunches were wonderful- a full sunday roast, wrapped in silver foil and eaten off plastic plates at the destination. Nowadays Mum is ashamed to say our packed lunches consist of sorry looking sandwiches and a packet of crisps, but that is why we are always commenting on the facilities at each castle- we tend to rely heavily on cafes to top up our tummies!!!

When Mum decided to start taking her family to castles, she found times have changed and the internet has made it easier to find out about visiting , but there was nothing specifically about taking children to castles, so Mum decided to start her own website. Trouble is, Mum likes visiting, photographing and writing about castles. She is no good at computers, so Dad had to help. Any parts of the website that don't work properly are down to him!!!

Transport has also moved on and the beloved VW went to the great scrapyard in the sky many years ago now (RIP Vicky!!) We have Sat-Nav now so Mum does not have to map read like her poor Mum did years ago!!! But Mum also has a bit of a geeky interest in trains, not exactly a spotter but can't resist a train journey every now and then, so we sometimes go to castles by train. She has learned her lesson about getting trains on a Friday afternoon though, the romance of the rails suddenly wears off when you can't get a seat and end up standing in the corridor by the toilets all the way home!! Apart from castles Mum likes gardening ( so castles with nice gardens are especially interesting) and local history.

Fact about Mum: She is scared of heights and went up Oxford motte on her hands & knees (It is very high)