castles

Last weekend we decided to take a trip to Kenilworth Castle. It was the first time we had been. There was actually an event happening on the day, which we didn’t know until we got there! So as well as exploring the castle we could see people dressed up in the medieval costumes and doing some displays and shows.

Kenilworth castle is a ruined castle not an in tact castle, which we prefer really as it’s more fun for the kids to run around freely and explore. Kenilworth castle is pretty large and seemed to be bigger than most of the other castle ruins we have seen so far. There are also some gardens to explore with beautiful flowers. I’ll share photos of these in a separate post.

The boys all love castles and we had a great family day out here.

You can see me down there at the bottom!

There are lots of different sections to explore and you could really spend a full day here especially with a special event on. We only arrived in the afternoon so didn’t get chance to watch as much of the shows as we otherwise would have, as the boys really wanted to look around and see as much of the castle as possible.

Places like this are the perfect day out for kids with lots of energy to use up. You get fresh air, lots of open spaces, and plenty of climbing.

This is an English Heritage property. We really should think about getting membership as we do visit their sites a lot, but because we also go to National Trust and sometimes even pop over to Wales and go to Cadw sites we are not sure what membership to get, as getting membership to everything would add up. If anyone has any thoughts or advice on this please do let me know in the comments!

The boys all enjoyed having ice cream from the ice cream van here. This site does seem to have more amenities and be busier than other ruins we have been to which are pretty quiet, so Kenilworth castle definitely had more of a full day out feel.

Then the boys ended their day by rolling down the hills before it was time to go back home!

Lots of fun!

Linking up to:

You might also like our other Castle and ruins posts:

Castle Acre Priory

Chepstow Castle

Corfe Castle

Ruthin Castle Gardens

More photos from Kenilworth Castle

While we were away at Parkdean Cherry Tree last week we decided to explore a little further afield and stumbled across Castle Acre Priory. The boys love playing, exploring and running free among ruins so it was a perfect place to spend the afternoon. This week I am co-hosting the Lets Have an Adventure linky with the lovely Gingerlily Tea and All of My Days With You and I can’t think of any better adventure for our family than exploring ruins. It’s something we have really been enjoying over the past year and hope to do lots more of over the Summer.

These are not castle ruins, they are the ruins of an old priory which is an old monastic site, but that does not stop the boys playing kings and knights among the ruins!

…

Our adventures in the ruins are always great fun, and I hope they are helping to build some lovely family memories with the boys. Luckily we mainly had the place to ourselves so they could run freely and play together, developing their imaginations. I feel like these kind of play opportunities are great for their sibling bond as I wrote about in my post about our last trip to Chepstow Castle.

These types of places are real hidden gems for our family and we always try to seek them out whenever we visit somewhere new. I have added Castle Acre Priory to the Guide to Britain’s Hidden Gems map (see here.) Why not check the other suggestions and add your own too.

For the above pictures, the top set are taken with iPhone 5s and the lower set are taken with my Canon DSLR and 50mm lens. Although I have a long way to go, I am really enjoying my adventures in photography at the moment as I am making time to experiment with it a little more.

I would love to see your adventures linked up. Grab the badge below and let us know what you have been up to, whether its exploring far from home or nearby.

To join in, add your link to the linky below:

*ad included