At the end of January I went on a lovely mini break & I’m finally writing my second post about it. You can read all about the first day, when I went on the Harry Potter Studio Tour, here!

We decided to visit Hampton Court Palace, take a stroll round the beautiful grounds, find the centre of the maze, & see if we bumped into Catherine Howard’s ghost. It was a grey, rainy day but we didn’t let that put us off, and had a nice breakfast of waffles, strawberries & blueberries, & maple syrup to set us up for our day’s adventures.

Hampton Court was built by Cardinal Wolsey during the reign of Henry VIII & was then partly rebuilt during the reigns of William & Mary, giving the palace a distinctly split look with one side remaining Tudor, the other more opulent Baroque.

I’ve always loved & read a lot about the Tudors, & find it amazing to be able to walk through where they lived, & where certain historical events unravelled. Henry VIII’s 5th wife, Catherine Howard, was put under house arrest in the palace when she was accused of adultery. Desperate to plead her case to the King, she escaped her guards, & ran to beg for her life. However, she was caught & dragged back to her rooms screaming before she had chance to reach Henry. It’s said that you can still feel her ghostly presence in the ‘Haunted Gallery’ but sadly we didn’t catch a glimpse of anything untoward.

Hampton Court is open 7 days a week, & I definitely recommend a visit if you’re ever nearby. There’s lots to do & see, & plenty of stories to find out & unearth. I bought myself a book about mysteries & spooky goings-on surrounding Hampton Court & it was a fun a little read.