castles

[aliah]

what is the best child friendly castle to visit with little children,that isn't too dear?

Warwick Castle is excellent and easily fills a whole day. We could have done a second day and repeated very little.

It might however come into your 'too dear' category.

Depends where you live/are staying. We have Historic Scotland membership, which (now that we're in our second year) gets us into most Scottish, English and Welsh castles for free. In Scotland, Stirling is pretty good (better than Edinburgh) - St Andrews castle more ruined, but dramatic and my two (5 and 2) love it.

Where, loads in the Welsh borders and coasts, Pembroke, Chepstow, Raglan are ones I've enjoyed running about, but it depends where you are and whether you want old stones like those 3 or something more themed like Warwick.

I took in look at the price of Warwick, as a student, and drove past. I wandered round Leamington Spar with DH instead.

Both DDs have been to Warwick with school and loved it.

Depends what you want. Depends what your definition of a castle is.

They vary from ruins to medieval portcullis and dungeons. The one we went to last year near Minehead was essentially a stately home.

As others say you have Warwick castle but that isn't really a very traditional castle experience as it has been heavily commercialised.

In terms of 'affordable' you don't want to touch Warwick with a bargepole, unless your dc have Blue Peter Cards, when it is free to get in. Likewise Tower of London.
Goodrich (on the English /Welsh border) is quite good (from memory)
as is Kennilworth (not that far from Warwick)

Your best bet is a few days in North Wales - Conway, Caernarvon, Harlech, Cricceith, and probably lots more I can't remember at the moment.

I haven't found a castle which is not a ruin which is still in good condition and is cheap. I expect at least £15-20 per adult.

We went to Warwick, was ok but as PP said very commercialised. We went to Arundel, a lot better, especially on a special event day.

Hever Castle is also nice, again they do special events.

Bodiam Castle is a ruin but the National Trust does a Medival Weekend with lot of different things going on. DD loved it.

London has Tower, Hampton Court, Windsor Castle.

Second the North wales idea, you can buy passes that cover 5 castles (I think it is 5).

Carlisle Castle hasn't been mentioned yet. I thought that was good fun and very reasonable. All depends where you are of course...

Depends what your dcs want to do.

One of our favourite castles is Bothwell Castle in Lanarkshire which is a ruin but great for children to charge around playing at being knights or kings and queens, or just hide and seek. It's small and a visit would probably last about an hour for an adult, but it's a whole afternoon out for us (and cheap).

Otherwise, if you want exhibitions, reconstructions etc etc then the larger places (in Scotland for example) like Stirling have loads on for children, but are ££.

Tbh, I prefer the ones where we can use our imagination, don't have to worry about negotiating a dozen tour parties and often have the place to ourselves.

Harlech