Walking with Harry Potter

We planned to head off early today, but managed to sleep in so we headed off at the normal time around 8 am. Our first stop was Raglan castle, another ruined castle. Raglan is a large site, with most of the castle in ruins. The parts that were standing were quite impressive, and the internal moat was an interesting feature.

From Raglan we made our way to Berkeley Castle. This was the first disappointing site of our trip. The castle was really just set to show off old tapestries and furniture. The guided tour started many rooms with “This was never a formal dining room, but we have set it up as a dining room to show off the table and furniture” (or this sort of thing)… so after a couple of rooms, we decided to make our own way around the rest of the castle, and didn’t take long to head back to the car and on to Gloucester.

Gloucester is a wonderful village, with a huge cathedral. Initially it looks similar to Canterbury Cathedral. Inside it is similar as well, with high vaulted ceilings and wonderful stained glass windows at either end. One of the main features here is that the Cloister was used in the Harry Potter films! They have used some ‘licence’ in the movies, changing the floor and windows on the side, but the ceiling and walls look much the same as the movie.

After wandering around the cathedral and taking a quick look at the town, we headed back to Margaret and Ted’s, and had a lovely afternoon wandering down to the local cider brewery for some tastings and ‘cream tea’. It was a very pleasant day!