At the beginning of September we went to Shropshire for a family holiday and one of the locations we visited was Ludlow Castle, a considerable amount of which remains to be seen. It is in the heart of the town - which has a lot of other historic buildings and plenty of places for food and drink - and very accessible. Information about it is easily available online, so I won't repeat it here. But I did take a selection of pictures.

The inner dry moat. The little entrance on the left is to an ice house.

The chapel.

An old entrance walled up.

A murder hole!

Outside the castle entrance is this cannon captured during the Crimean War 1854-56 at the siege of Sevastopol.

It has some details on the trunnion in Russian, which is not a language I know, but I suspect they are to do with its calibre, poundage, date of construction? Anyone know for sure?

The parish church, which is one of the largest parish churches in England, has some delightful misericords - something to perch on when standing in the choir to ease the strain on your legs - which portray scenes from everyday life, religion or mythology. Here are just a few.

We also went to the site of Clun Castle, which is west of Ludlow. There is not much of the castle left now, but it is set in a lovely position and there are some display boards.

How it might have looked in the High Middle Ages.

Our last historic visit was to Stokesay Castle, which was never a castle but a fortified manor house. The main buildings are medieval; the gatehouse is 17th Century. It is a very well preserved site and well worth a visit.