I’m not sure what it is about ruins that attracts me. They can be lonely places. Going around a stately mansion that has been restored to its former glory or has never lost its burnish is
very different from visiting a place where the roof is off and the birds are nesting in the fallen towers. And yet there is something compelling about a ruin. Perhaps it’s glimpsing the ghosts of grandeur past. Perhaps it’s because it leaves room for the imagination to move into the gaps.
Last weekend I went to Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire. It was once the home of Sir Christopher Hatton, one of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourites. She apparently took a shine to him after seeing his moves on the dance floor! He developed Kirby in the hope that she would come to visit but sadly she never did. However by the 1690s the beautiful grounds at Kirby Hall were described as “ye finest garden in England.” By the nineteenth century the house had been in decline for a long time, the roof was off, and a shepherd and his sheep lived in a corner of the courtyard.
Kirby is a fascinating place to visit. You approach the house through the ruined loggia and courtyard but when you step into the Great Hall it is to find that it is complete, as is the Great Chamber and Great Withdrawing Room upstairs, plus various bed chambers and the Billiards Room, Library and Great Parlour downstairs. So the house is an odd mixture of ruin and roofed, with the west front one of the most elegant pieces of Elizabethan architecture I have seen. The bay windows are so huge that they light and
warm the rooms beautifully. Here I am soaking up the sun on the window seat in one of the ground floor bedrooms, looking out over the gardens and imagining myself as an Elizabethan lady!
Kirby Hall’s peacocks add the final touch with their eerie cries echoing around the empty walls. There is a real atmosphere about the place. Close your eyes and you can feel the swish of those long skirts and hear the voices as Kirby’s ghosts pass by.
Do you like the atmosphere of a romantic ruin? Do you feel it brings you close to the ghosts of the past?
Oh I love the atmosphere Nicola. I love to stop in one place with my eyes closed and just feel the energy from times past. My imagination puts me right there. To me it becomes an emotional experience. I know sappy like my kids tell me. lol
Carol L
Well if you are sappy, Carol, so am I! I think it’s wonderful just to be still and absorb the atmosphere of a place. You can even stay at Kirby Hall and wander round the grounds at dusk and when it is closed to the public.
Oh, Nicola, I am pea green with envy. I would love to have visited this lovely old hall. The fact it is unoccupied, but somewhat intact makes it all the more haunting. Places like this have that feeling of the inhabitants having just stepped out and you can feel them around every corner. What a great atmosphere and inspiration.
Thanks, Louisa! Yes, it does feel as though you are only a step away from the past. I love that sense of it being so close.
Ruins, not just grand places but even cottages, lead me to speculate about the one time owners and to feel sorrow that their dreams have disintegrated. I am rather glad that the inhabitants don’t rustle around in my hearing.
That is the other side of it, isn’t it. Liz. There is a very sad aspect to a ruin that was one a place that contained someone’s hopes and dreams.
What a beautiful ruin! I agree with your comment, “it leaves room for the imagination to move into the gaps.” So much to imagine! I am sad that such a beautiful home is a ruin as well, though. Thank you for sharing this marvelous house! Do you know why it became a ruin?
Thank you, Tai. I am so pleased you liked the blog piece! According to the guide book the family who owned Kirby preferred to live on their other estates and so didn’t bother keeping Kirby Hall in good shape. Gradually it became neglected and started to fall down and over several centuries the neglect turned it into a ruin. It always astonishes me that families could own an enormous and impressive mansion like that and yet have other even bigger estates elsewhere! I suppose there is always a financial element as well – such places must be incredibly expensive to maintain.
I’ve been to Kirby, as my brother used to live not far away from there. I confess I’m not as big a fan of ruins than still functioning houses, they usually make me sad.
Once exception though is Ury House, and I think I like it better as it is not a manicured ruin, it’s just sleeping and waiting for rescue!
I love the idea of a house that is sleeping and waiting for rescue, Alison! Just like a fairytale.
Yes, ruins have an exraordinary atmosphere.
By the way, I wonder if there are ghosts of Elizabethan gentlemen who had huge rosettes on their shoes to hide their gouty ankles.
Rosemary, that reminds me of those poor Regency gentleman who had to have wadding down their pantaloons!