Leeds Castle is nowhere near Leeds. It's in Kent. About 5 hours drive from Leeds. It's quite a famous castle, thought to be one of England's most beautiful.
There isn't much to castle itself. The amazing thing about Leeds is the moat.
Leeds castle and moat
Leeds castle gate house and moatYou learn a lot about castle building once you've been to a few. There a few different types. All castles have a keep, which is the last resort, a castle-within-a-castle you can defend if the invading hordes inconvieniently knock a hole in your garden wall. The Normans built 'Mott and Bailey' castles, which are long, with the keep on top of a hill (the mott), and the rest (the bailey), down below.
Leeds is different because the keep is not up a hill, but in the middle of a lake. I don't know about the relative defensive capabilities, but the results are certainly more scenic, in a story-book kind of way, which explains why it was bought by an American heiress, who like many wealthy commoners before her, went and got herself a title by marrying an impoverished posh type. In this case, 1st Baron of Queensborough, no less. Easy to imagine a spoilt girl living her childhood princess-in-pretty-castle-in idyllic-countryside dreams.
The castle has had some more interesting owners: it was bought by Edward I (Longshanks from Braveheart). Henry VIII, who seems to have made his mark on every place in Britain, kept Catherine of Aragon here, and his daughter Elizabeth was imprisoned here for a while as well.
Inside there isn't much to see - it's interior is all 1920s American kitch.
But there aren't many nicer places for a picnic than on the edge of the moat, complete with swans.
Alice and I under the portcullis