Muncaster Castle shortlisted for major national award Muncaster Castle has launched a campaign for votes in this year’s National Lottery awards. The Lake District Castle is competing for votes with nine other schemes for the Best Environment Project after being shortlisted from over 640 entries. The public now get the chance now get the chance to vote for their favourites and their three highest scoring projects will go through to a final round later in the summer. Peter Frost-Pennington, whose family have lived at Muncaster for nearly 800 years, says: “We’re very excited about being shortlisted for these awards. Lottery funding has played a vital role in helping us to make Muncaster one of Britain’s best visitor attractions. Our success in getting to this stage of the awards shows just how much has been achieved and reflects the hard work of everyone who works here.” Muncaster will be campaigning at the Castle itself, online and even in the virtual world Second Life. Peter Frost-Pennington says: “We’re up against some tough competition so we need as many people as possible to show their support and vote for us, people in the Lake District but also those who have visited Muncaster in recent years and even our new fans in Second Life.” In the 1990s Muncaster was badly in need of investment as parts of the building was falling into disrepair. Lottery funding meant that it was possible to make significant improvement to the Castle and attractions such as the World Owl Centre, which is based at Muncaster. The funding also helped Muncaster to create a new attraction for children, the Meadowvole Maze, featuring the voice of Harry Enfield. In recent years the Castle has won a number of tourism awards including the Excellence in England Award for the country’s best small visitor attraction.
|
