I went location-hunting on my holiday...
A few weeks ago I went on a trip to the southwest of England.
While being there - or before I went there to be precise - I made a little detour into Wales across the bridge that crosses the river Severn and back through Gloucestershire. I did do this for a reason of course :D !!!
The reason was me being obsessed with all things Merlin-related and so I visited wonderful places like Raglan Castle (The Isle of the Blessed), Puzzlewood (the "unicorn forest") , Speech House Lake (Avalon) and Chislehurst Kiieevs... uh I mean.. Caves :D.
Beware! Very pic-heavy!!!
Seriously, this will be the dooooom of your slow internet connection!!
After spending quite a long time on the M25 (grrrr...too much fucking traffic there) we finally managed to get to the M4 and drove all the way to Merlin-land Wales. Around noon we arrived at the Isle of the Blessed!!!
As it was during the week only very few people visited the castle at this time which was quite nice as we could enjoy this wonderful place, wandering around undisturbed, taking pics etc.
It is really worth a visit!!!
Nowadays you don't even need a boat and magic spells to go there.... you just go there by car and park convienently in front of it :D
I even went up the highest tower for you to make this nice overview pic (the things I'd do for you!)... with that - to top it all so to speak - you also get a lovely view of the surrounding landscape!!
On the flagstone in the middle of the courtyard there was the altar in ep. 13 btw...
No, this is not Merlin ... (or let's say this is my own personal Merlin ;D).
Well , I waited for a while hoping the "real" Merlin would come racing up the stairs... but obviously he was busy that day...
The same entrance from the other side... and now I could see why he could not come up those stairs: there is a barrier...grrmpf...
From the "Isle" we travelled on ... only a few miles cos apparently the forest that is home of unicorns is practically just around the corner!!!
Okay, I must say, the magical beauty of Puzzlewood just blew me away!!!!
It really is a fairytale place! If you like the forest in ep. 11 when you saw it on your TV you will love it when you actually see in in real life!!!! Well, I did....
We were really lucky with the weather: it was a sunny day and quite warm but as soon as we entered puzzlewood it was cooler because the trees blocked out the sun almost entirely. There were some spots where a stream of sunlight came through the leaves and gave the whole place this magical look. I tried hard to capture that in some pics but failed miserably. It was even more amazing when I was there and saw it with my own eyes!
I don't know if I actually took pics of some locations here by accident I just made photos of everything that looks utterly beautiful... so simply enjoy!!! :D
(note: somehow this guy in a red shirt smuggled himself in some of the pics ... *shakes head*)
(10 points and a virtual cake for you if you'll find the ghost hiding in this pic ;-P )
So if you'll ever be in vicinity of puzzlewood (and even if you are not, then make a detour) do pay it a visit!!! It is really worth it!
And while you are there try the cake in the cafe at the entrance!! It's fantastic!!!
(and take a look at the wall where they put up the newspaper articles about the filming in puzzlewood... awww....sweet!!!) :-)
And on we went.... to the next location:
(a big thank you goes to Mrs_Leary (sorry , but LJ sucks and won't let me use the userlink :-( ) here as she was the one who wrote down the coordinates of the lake in her LJ!!! Thanks sweetie!!)
Yes, the sign might say something about "Speech House Lake" but we all know that this is where actually the gates of Avalon are!!!
No, those are NOT some Sidhe elders... just some cute doggies frolicking in the water :D
.... but they must have scared away the sidhe coz they wouldn't come out after the dogs had left :-(
... and another look at the lake from Merlins POV (that's point of view Richard ;-P )
By the time we had returned to our car it was already to late to go to THE MAZE as it would have been closed by then. :-(
Ah well... doesnt matter... it isn't as big as in the show anyway....
After our little detour we spent a lovely week driving through Devon and Cornwall and having an awesome time (I will probably make an entry about all the places we visited in the next days....)
Anyway, after that we went back to the airport but on our way there we made a little break to spend some time in a very dark and very cold place ... muahahaha... ehm... yeah...
Next to this sign there is the entrance the film crew was using when filming in the caves. I only realized that when I was back in the car looking through the pics, so unfortunately hadn't take a proper pic but if you look carefully you can see it in the next photo on the left side of the house)
In the video diaries Colin and Katie went alongside the front of the house and then went through that door.
This might look familiar too:
If you want to go inside the cave you can do this only with a tour guide coz the cave is huuuuuge and there is no light down there only pitch-black darkness (as Katie said in the diaries :D )!!!!
The (guided) tour is quite spooky because it is so dark down there and you are only given 2 or 3 oil lamps per group to light the way. Besides that it is really a very interesting place and the tour can be quite funny (depending on your guide maybe ;-) ). But make sure to take a jacket with you during the summer coz it is very cool in the cave!
As you might have guessed we went on that guided tour and I just randomly took pics by pointing my camery in every dark aisle we passed. They basically all looked similar, so I just post one pic for you to see:
Oh my God, is this the afanc????
No, this is just the lovely Gordon (as our guide told us). He makes sure the cave stays rat-free and does this by eating them apparently....EWWWW.... maybe Merlin should go round and give him the recipe for his delicous rat stew....:D
After the tour had finished I asked the guide if he was there when the Merlin filming took place. He said he wasn't but that Stuart (or Dave or James.... I can't remember the name), the other guide, was and pointing out a man with long hair (ponytail) who was just leaving to guide the next group of visitors into the caves. He looked kind of familiar and after some time I remembered him from the extras as the man who said to Katie he had turned out the lights :D !
So much for my location hunting during my holidays.
It's always amazing how many lovely places one gets to know when looking for locations that had been used for filming (yes, I am a nutter, I've done this location seeking several times already now *is not ashamed* :D)
Hope you enjoyed!
I'll try to find the time to post some pics of all the other places I had visited (Bath, Glastonbury, Tintagel, Lands End, Porthcurno, Lizard, Goonhilly, Lyme Regis, Corfe Castle) in the next few days....
EDIT:
If you like to see my other holiday photos follow the ugly link: ghost-0106.livejournal.com/16890.html