A young person from Bridport group said: "Space Youth Project's young people thoroughly enjoyed the day; we're very grateful to the UK National Trust for allowing us the opportunity to experience the rich history of Corfe Castle in its entirety - with a guided tour, walk around the site as well as a relaxing afternoon spent around open fires beneath the castle ruin. It was an excellent way to connect with other young people from around Dorset during winter - thank you, Space Youth Project for working with the National Trust to organise such an outstanding trip".
Travelling from all over Dorset, 19 young people and 5 staff visited Corfe Castle for the day. By arrangement with the National Trust, we had free entry with the community pass we had been given. The day started with us meeting at 11:00 at the visitor centre, which was a good chance for all the young people to meet in the warm, greeting old friends and gaining new ones.
We then left for a self-guided walk around the castle, everyone enjoying the stiff uphill walks lol, we explored a lot of the walks and took in the outstanding views, it was cold and windy but that made the high points even more exciting! Around 12:15 we descended from the high reaches of the castle to the bailey - which is the open space just inside the main gate of the castle walls.
Here we managed to purchase marshmallows to roast over open fire braziers and then eat our lunch, we had all built an appetite by then you can be sure!
At 1:00 we were met by Liz (a National Trust volunteer) who gave us a guided tour, this was very good as she was able to give us facts and stories about the parts of the castle we had already viewed, this added so much more depth to our previous viewing! Liz was knowledgeable and a very enthusiastic storyteller, taking us through the history of the castle and regaling us with tales of the good and bad things that the castle had witnessed over its 1000 years of existence.
All this time the wind was blowing stronger and stronger. Once the tour was over, we went back down to the bailey to warm ourselves up as we had all started to get very chilly, then back to the visitor centre for warm drinks and another chance to chat and reaffirm friendships. At 3:00 we all left to go our separate ways, back to our homes with some lovely memories.
Thank you to the young people for all the fantastic photos you see here!
Written by: Charity, Youth Worker