Antrim Castle Gardens and The People's Park Ballymena

Having got the 'Tourist Bug' I got out my map on Sunday morning, packed a picnic and along with my Mum, Sister and 6 year old nephew headed out on my next trip, this time to Clotworthy House and Antrim Castle Gardens (admission free).
What started as a cloudy day soon changed when we arrived in Antrim, the sun came out allowing us to sit outside in the courtyard for a nice cuppa (and sausage roll - very tasty and good value for money) from the cafe.
When we finished our refreshment break we headed to the shop where we discovered by pure fluke that they had a Mobility scooter available for members of Shop Mobility (free of charge), this was great news for us as we had thought mum would have to wait for us in the car!!!!!! The shop also offers visitors the chance to rent a 'Castle Carriage' (essentially a 3/4 person bicycle) which you can rent for £6 for 45 minutes along with photo ID, if you don't have ID a £50 deposit is required.
Scooter rented and armed with a map clearly marked with accessible paths we set off for a walk through the gardens. This was my first visit and I was very impressed, beautiful gardens as well as castle ruins made an archaeology graduate very happy (some pics below).

 When we had walked around the whole estate (for those health conscious among you it worked out at 7500 steps) it was lunchtime and there was plenty of time left in the day to tick another location of the list, so it was back in the car and off to the People's Park in Ballymena.
After accidentally putting the wrong address into the sat nav we eventually arrived at the Park just in time to get  99 from the ice cream man!! While my sister went to the Pavilion to buy a bag of bird seed (<£1) I read the welcome sign which explained the 'Teddy Toddle', a walk around the park guided by Teddy bear signs. Sister back with bird seed in hand we set off to feed the ducks at the lake out the back of the Pavilion (there is a decked area with a fence separating the pavilion from the lake, steps were provided for small children so they could throw the seeds to the ducks) and complete the walk (approx 1k), this took you round the lake, past the tennis courts, bowling green and past an art installation of 5 giant apples by a Japanese artist.

If you are in the Ballymena area it is a great wee park with a decent play area and a few picnic tables, worth a visit if you have the time. This was a great day in the sun topped off with a lovely dinner in Galgorm Manor on the way home!!!
Now time to plan for the next day out!