Whitworth Hall and Country Park

What better activity is there to do on Christmas Eve, than go and see Santa's reindeers?! Well... maybe not Santa's ACTUAL reindeers - but reindeers nevertheless.

I'd been to Whitworth Hall years ago and knew that there were deer there, but never been recently. I've got a thing about deer - I think they're so majestic and I'd wanted to try and get some close up photos of them for ages. Last time I saw deer was at Raby Castle, but they were less tame than the ones at Whitworth, and scarpered when you got close.

So off we went to Whitworth Hall, as you can imagine it was teeming with families - probably all wondering why the reindeers aren't with their gaffer. The grounds of the country park are beautiful, even without the deer, it's worth going if only to see the County Durham countryside. There's also a monument to the 18th century local politician Bobby Shafto, amongst some other things to look at. We were lucky as we managed to catch a lovely sunset too. I've posted some of my favourite photos from the afternoon below.