Apr 30 - Lymington (Dorset)

 Apr 30  - Lymington (Dorset)

A travel day today, Beer to Lymington. 


As we’d missed out on the ‘chain library’ in Wimborne minster on the way down to Beer earlier on in the week, we decided to check it out on our way to Lymington.  However, for some reason the cathedral changed its opening hours this week and it’s now not open Saturdays!  Seriously?  We’ll just have to come back for a ‘3rd time lucky’ some other time. 


Although we’d missed out on seeing the minster, fortunately for us JEM had seen a signpost to a nearby National Trust property, Kingston Lacy.  As previous members of the NT we knew they own some absolute gems, and this proved to be one of them. This 17th century, Italian inspired country mansion, set in over 8,000 acres of gardens and parkland, is fantastic!  The ‘house’, after much restoration work, and along with its collections of fine art, old masters, and antiquities, is just magnificent and definitely has a ‘wow’ factor!  The gardens haven’t been missed either, with extensive work completed over many years, it would be very easy to spend hours in and around the various formal gardens and estate (apparently Queen Victoria sent her gardeners here for inspiration!)

A tip for anyone visiting the UK and wanting to visit National Trust sites, join the NT in Oz as it works out to be about 1/2 price compared to here. 

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