Wallaton Hall and Deer Park is a Nottingham feature that no tourist should miss. Back in the day, we visited here many times, and always brought visitors when they came to stay with us. Aside from being a large and beautiful park, the old mansion, built in the 1580s, was used in the 2011 Batman movie. We decided to see it again on Sunday afternoon.
While the Hall is not far from us, we discovered that the bus line that would take us there fairly directly (only five stops) does not run on Sundays. So we had to take an alternative, and very roundabout detour, changing buses to a line we'd never traveled before. It gave us a grand tour of the western part of Nottingham, but it took us nearly an hour, rather than 15 minutes, to make the trip.
The park looks much the same, and perhaps even a little better. Despite the hot, dry summer here, the lawns are very green now. And the deer who roam the grounds seem as contented as ever. The golf course was busy with weekend duffers, and lots of folks, like us, were strolling the grounds and around the lake.
Some falconers were showing off their birds, and had gathered quite a crowd around them. Kids were kicking soccer balls around, and families were enjoying picnics. It was a popular spot on a breezy but otherwise pleasant Sunday afternoon.
The Hall, which is now the Nottingham Museum of Natural History, used to be free. But now they want £18 (about $24) for a full year pass. No single day admission. We don't plan to be visiting through the year, so we passed on the pass.
There was less than a 10% chance of rain Sunday, but we still got caught in a brief shower during our walk. We should have learned by now to always carry an umbrella in England. As it happens with these things, the sun returned after a few minutes.
It was almost another hour retracing our bus route home, but we returned feeling like accomplished Nottingham bus navigators.
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