May 14th 2012:Penrhyn Castle

The home of a very successful villain who made his fortune out of sugar and slaves, its a folly really, but is striking and has some fine gardens. Heres the view on arrival

This is the entrance, still closed when we arrived, as the gardens open an hour earlier than the house

The walled Garden is the reason for our visit, to see how it fares so early in the year

Too early of course for the roses that fill the box hedge enclosures later in summer and no water lilies on the ponds!

But some of the flowering bushes are out

And so are the camelias

And these unusual yellow flowers

Back at the house we had Mushroom soup and a bead roll for lunch in the tea room, then looked in at the small but interesting railway exhibition

Then returned to the island and drove up to Rhosneigr to buy some postcards and see if anyone was kite surfing, there were just a couple in the bay, as it is very earlly in the season

Then headed back to camp for a snooze. After tea we briefly visited Red Wharf Bay.

Very pleasant at the end of the day.