"Stay the night at Hougoumont" Topic

http://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/Properties-list/hougoumont-waterloo/Holiday

No ghosts?

My first thought was that this was an April Fool.

But, if this does prove to be genuine, well……….why not?

The choice lies between watching the place collapse or earning a living to preserve it.

When it was abandoned, it was such a luxury to just climb over the fence and sit there for ages. It was empty. No one seemed to find their way down there……….so the ghosts filled the place.

I stole nothing, I damaged nothing, but I saw what just one year did to it, on my second visit. My third visit it was covered in scaffolding.

It needed it. It will not be the same once it becomes the "Compleat (sic) Hougoumont Experience" but it will still be there. not collapsed. I presume any profits go back into the preservation, of course………

No minibar…….'er indoors needs GHD hair straighteners and cocktail bars also…she does not "do" cots. The Dominica in Brussels is more our thing. They do a great Manhattan

That is awesome, but having been there less than a month ago, that July date is a bit tentative. There is much work to be done there in much less than 100 days, but if it saves the building and preserves the battlefield I hope they can make it work. I have bookmarked this for a potential visit in the future. Thank you.

No April Fool. I think is it surprisingly brilliant! Lets hope this sort of use will preserve us from the "Compleat (sic) Hougoumont Experience". Landmark Trust are a brill organisation – here's a blog on this…

link

"As we pushed through the gates into Hougoumont as it was being restored, it was impossible not to be deeply moved. The chateau itself, a tall squarish building, was burned that night, and is now only a few shattered half walls. But the rest of the site remains amid the same fields of swaying crops. Its soft brick outer walls are peppered with shot and firing holes, its gatehouse stands blind-eyed, its vast beautiful barns gently sag with their own age. Around the buildings are the orchard and paddocks where thousands of soldiers fell that day. Here long-lashed cattle now graze among stone memorials that bear the names of the dead in looping copperplate script. And when they stood to scratch their backs, it is against the spreading trees into which the hedgerows of 1815 have now grown."