The quest...

Gaynor, Holly and I are on a quest. Our quest is to get our ‘moneys worth’ from the Family National Trust card we have direct debited each year for the last ten years. Most years we use it to get us into a beach car park or two, Llanbedrog, Morfa Nefyn or Whistling Sands - and that’s all, hardly good value for money. So this year we are making an effort and we’re doing pretty well - along with the car parks, we’ve also been to Bodnant Gardens, Plas Newyth, and then last weekend we visited an Escher drawing.

Yes, we visited an Escher drawing!

Now I’ve never been big on Escher, I admire the technique and draughtsmanship – but once you’ve made one drawing of an impossible, never-ending, out-of-but-still-in-perspective staircase, then you’ve probably made enough. But Escher just kept on doing it, repeating the same idea over and over and just applying it to other objects – hands, fish, eyes; all a bit boring really.

Penryhn castle was built by Thomas Hopper between 1820 and 1845 for the Pennant family. They were immensely wealthy, making their substantial fortune from slavery, Jamaican sugar and Welsh slate. The castle is a huge fantasy - mock Norman, solid and somber, with the air of a medieval fortress; it’s the sort of place where Errol Flynn might swash his buckles. Detail is everywhere, the plasterwork and wood and stone carving has to be seen to be believed and the place is crammed with Norman style furniture (functional, heavy, and very beautiful), immensely valuable paintings (I spotted a Rembrant, a couple of Canalettos, and a Gainsborough; no Escher though), and incredible, unbelievably intricate stone staircases - I turned a corner and found myself looking at an Escher staircase.

Now, you aren’t allowed to photograph inside the castle, but how could I resist? Well, I am a trust member, have been for years, and I DO want my moneys worth. Talking of money - it’s been estimated that it cost the Pennant Family about £150,000 to build this magnificent folly, less than the average cost of the average UK house these days, back then though it was equivalent to about £49,500,000. That’s inflation for you and, as Michael Jackson discovered, at some point the money runs out. In 1951 the castle and 40,000 acres were accepted by the Treasury in lieu of death duties, which is why it now belongs to the National Trust and why I can pop in any time I like, flash my card and take a walk up an Escher staircase

By the way, I hope I don’t pass one of those Escher figures - they don’t look like they are National Trust members to me.