Many years ago my parents visited Warwick Castle during a holiday in the UK. Being quite young and obsessed with knights and castles, I was absolutely fascinated by their stories of the visit. So coming over to a conference at the University of Warwick, the first thing that I added to my sight-seeing list was this nearby castle.

It is certainly one of the most well preserved medieval castles in England, and I was interested to notice two separate themes in its displays. The parapet walk and the basement follow the middle-ages theme and have a number of displays centred around “The Kingmaker” Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick during the Wars of the Roses. The other theme, somewhat more recent in chronology, is that of a royal weekend party hosted by the Countess of Warwick in 1898. The private appartments (library, sitting rooms, bed rooms, et c) are set up as exhibits within this context.

I managed to thoroughly enjoy myself despite the somewhat “touristy” environment (and a number of noisy school groups). It was fantastic to walk along the parapets and climb a the tallest tower, and I quite enjoyed a falconry display. They had a working trebuchet, set up pointing away from the castle, with which they threw a 30 kg stone wrapped in burning cloth.

Every good castle needs arrow-slits in the parapets.Looking down from the tallest tower at the main castle buildings.This wax-works horse had a swishing tail and moving eyes, and even smelt like horse!Impressive.The waterwheel has an interesting history. In medieval times there was a wheel that ground wheat, but a hydro-electricity generator was installed in about 1900.There's nothing quite like knights in shining armour to inspire romantic nostalgia about the middle ages.Trebuchet Master and some assistants after the successful firing of a flaming ball.20090707-1705-33_warwick_castle