Chillingham Castle 2/3 May

[John Conyard]

Comitatus are at Chillingham Castle, Northumberland this Bank Holiday weekend with cavalry, infantry, artillery,falconry and tented encampment etc etc .

http://www.chillingham-castle.com/Tours ... 6&V=1&P=38

The event is open 10 am - 4pm on the Sunday and Monday, so there will be a cavalry practice late afternoon on Saturday, with infantry drill at 10 am on the Sunday morning. The set timings are:

11.00 am The skills of the Roman Legionaries.
12 noon. The skills of the Roman Cavalry.
2.00 pm The skills of the Roman Legionaries.
3.00 pm The skills of the Roman Cavalry.

This is the first of our big AD 410 events so we will have seven Roman cavalry out in the arena with visitors from the British museum dropping by on the Sunday evening.

This is as far north as we will be taking the horses this year so perhaps RATers from Scotland can say hello. Where are you Byron?

And since it is the first show of the year horses will be running around in all directions with nothing going right :lol: We are expecting 1,000 visitors over the two days, which makes this a relatively small show in terms of visitor numbers, but that should save too many people seing us making fools of ourselves.

I'm looking forward to the quiet moments after the shows in the evening taking the horses up into the hills on the estate.

http://www.comitatus.net/events.html

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I may pop down for a look. I am in Edinburgh for an appointment, but could hang around a while to head that way!

[John Conyard]

Byron this is a great location. I was there just a few weekends ago. In my head the castle is in Scotland, and so just down the road from you. But really it is firmly in Northumberland, designed to keep you out.

Sir Humphry Wakefield who owns Chillingham Castle shares a common interest with me in saddles and horses. During the site visit there was still snow on the Cheviots overlooking the castle. Over the winter temperatures had fallen to –14 degrees outside the castle, and –7 inside the great hall. I didn’t know really what to expect, but it is a very special place. I have arranged for Sir H. to ride as a Roman with us, and we will equip him over the weekend. Catherine and myself enjoyed our apartment, and sleeping in the most haunted room in the most haunted castle in Britain. My sons now understand that ghosts do not exist. But the wood burning fire at the end of the Elizabethan long galley made the apartment atmospheric enough.

The weather forcast is good and the location is magical. It would be an honour to have you as a target

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

The weather forcast is good and the location is magical. It would be an honour to have you as a target

Hmmm, a Roman can never submit, I may be difficult to hit.
Also, My kit is all over the place at the moment, and I am in the middle unfortunately.
But I may well pop down there and surprise you. I am fed up wit hmissing events and none events....

[John Conyard]

We get our kit togther and share information on how to improve it. We aim to be as authentic as we can.

But if we have any claim to being authenitc we need to test our kit, and maybe ourselves, by using it and showing it isn't just fancy dress but something you can move, fight and sleep in.

I am trying to get my head around sleeping in my cloak in my tent once again. And this year I am trying to get my head around staking out authentic horse lines with canvas buckets etc. to let the horses camp authentically. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together......

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Well, I was hoping I would get down there, but I have a course on monday, which i can't miss, plus recovering from flu, too.
Hope you have a good event, and post some pictures and lessons learned etc, please.

[Ammianus]

All in all it was a good weekend. The horses were all very excited which was hard work.
Amazingly I don't ache but now have a day cleaning kit...
The weather was kind and we enjoyed some sun

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[John Conyard]

It was a really good weekend and a great way of getting us back upto speed. The infantry shows and craft displays were excellent, and the cavalry displays showed promise. We were better than we were this time last year. :lol:

I like your photo and your horse was certainly fast. But was she this fast ......

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[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Bit and Run was it?

[John Conyard]

This was Hal's first time away in the big wide world, and he just ran everywhere. He is a long term project.

Other pictures are at:

http://www.comitatus.net/gallerychillingham10.html