Wray Castle | Lake District Attractions | Wray Castle National Trust | Lake District Things to do |

Wray Castle national Trust. Lake District National Trust. Lake District Attractions.
Wray Castle is a Victorian neo-gothic building at Claife in the English county of Cumbria. The house and grounds have belonged to the National Trust since 1929, and house has opened to the public on a regular basis since 2013. The grounds, which include part of the shoreline of Windermere, are open all year round and are renowned for their selection of specimen trees.
From the south, follow the lakeshore track from Ferry Head (4 miles). From the north, off road paths exist for the majority of the route, signed Bowness via Ferry, look out for the blue signs. From Hawkshead village, follow bridleway (3 miles).
The nearest train station is Windermere, see National Rail to plan your journey.
Wray Castle is serviced by a bus route offering journeys from Windermere and Coniston. This is run by Stagecoach and drops you half a mile from the entrance, then you can walk, off-road, to the castle. Get the 505 bus: Kendal to Coniston route.
Between March and October, Windermere Lake Cruises operate a passenger boat service on Windermere from Ambleside and the Brockhole National Park Visitor Centre to Wray Castle.
The house was built in 1840 for a retired Liverpudlian surgeon, James Dawson, who built it along with the neighbouring Wray Church using his wife's fortune. After Dawson's death in 1875 the estate was inherited by his fifteen year old nephew, Edward Preston Rawnsley. In 1877 Edward's cousin, Hardwicke Rawnsley, took up the appointment of vicar of Wray Church. To protect the countryside from damaging development, Hardwicke Rawnsley, building on an idea propounded by John Ruskin, conceived of a National Trust that could buy and preserve places of natural beauty and historic interest for the nation.
The house has an association with another key player in the National Trust, Beatrix Potter, who spent a summer holiday there when she was 16 in 1882. She bought a small farm in the Claife area, Hill Top, in 1905 with royalties from her first book The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She went on to buy considerable tracts of land nearby, though she never owned the castle itself. In 1929 Wray Castle and 64 acres (260,000 m2) of land were given to the National Trust by Sir Noton and Lady Barclay.
Since the National Trust acquired the castle it has been used for a variety of purposes, for short time from 1929 being a youth hostel. For twenty years from 1931 the castle housed the offices of the Freshwater Biological Association.
From 1958 to 1998 it became a training college for Merchant Navy radio officers (RMS Wray Castle), with up to 150 cadets living in the castle while studying the procedures and regulations regarding the use of radio for the "Safety of Life at Sea".
The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System or GMDSS was introduced in 1988 and all ships had to be fitted by 1999, thus bringing to an end the position of radio officer. In 1995 the last 'Radio Officer' left and the college diversified into ROV and general telecoms training, continuing to use the name Wray Castle Limited. Wray Castle Limited continues to issue GMDSS licenses as part of its role operating the national administration Centre on behalf of AMERC (Association of Marine Electronic and Radio Colleges), relocating away from the Castle in 2004.
In 2011 the National Trust proposed to lease the property, which had been denuded of its furnishings, for use as a hotel. However, they decided to open it to the public during the visitor season that year. High visitor numbers meant that the property, which in its empty state was particularly child-friendly, had clear potential to be developed as a visitor attraction. In 2014 the Trust applied for retrospective planning permission to change the use of the listed building to visitor attraction.

[@halemist182]

Nice view excellent scenes

[@anjaliarora6853]

Nice place. Thanks for sharing

[@MuhammadAbdullah-gv2bc]

Interesting place looks beautiful

[@aneelakhansh1777]

Views are so beautiful amazing place❤

[@reese2503]

definitely a beautiful place to visit it seems relaxing in a sense

[@prettycool9245]

I love the view. What a God's creation

[@ciracasstory2177]

very interesting video, I really like to see the graceful and well-maintained wrey castle. Around the castle is also very beautiful

[@naveedagha2309]

Wow❤

[@zafgujjs4333]

That was a lovely video, really enjoyed watching it .

[@just.lexi.simple]

This place looks so nice. I would love to visit here one day. Nature is breathtaking

[@benji001ahmad]

It's a pretty cool country side

[@grateful_lady]

I can only imagine or picture how large those living there then used to be.
Quite massive

[@madeingreatbritainchannel]

The Lake District is such a pretty place to go, you can get discounts if you are a National Trust memeber, we are and have some lovely weekends away.