My wife and I enjoy walking in the grounds of old castles and stately homes, not to mention rambling through woodlands and other wild places. She brings her camera and together we snap images of the locations we visit. Today, we went southwest into Derbyshire and visited Elvaston Castle.

There are some weird things at Elvaston, the most obvious of which is the great pile of rocks which in elder times was constructed as a special structure called, “The Mount”. These days it’s known locally as the “Mound” and although it has suffered greatly from years of neglect and children climbing over it, the Mound was sending me all kinds of fantasy vibes.

Is this an ancient portal? There was a certain mystical air around the weirdly shaped archway and I was taken by the way in which the whole Mound was seeded with trees. Looking around, we also found weird looking cave-like alcoves which had me thinking of dungeon entrances.

Strange rock structures dot the landscape and had us wondering, “Why?” Such a strange choice for the gardens of a stately manor house styled as a castle. Was this another now collapsed portal?

But the lakes were beautiful and the view of the house pretty. I was thinking about the way in which these old structures imply lordship and control over the populace. Medieval feudalism still imbues these Isles with the archetypes of knighthood and honour.

Finally, we tromped through the wet forest habitat which is home to herons, grass snakes, and squirrels. Here we discovered a forested isle in the middle of a lake where the herons build nests. I was imagining a similar isle, perhaps where the wyverns gather to mate. Perhaps there is an entrance to the old wizard’s tower among those trees.

All in all, it was a merry morning in the sunshine and it filled my mind with wonder and calm.

Game on!