We have been to Belsay Hall a few times now, I went a few times with my mam for the Christmas Fayre and we took the children a couple of years ago when they put on a really good Halloween event. In all the times I have been , I have never been over to the castle. We just stayed around the hall and gardens (and tea room, yum!).
We were up at gorgeous Bolam Lake today for a lovely red squirrel event and on a whim decided that we would pop into Belsay on the way home.
The car park was fairly busy as the amazing Chapterhouse Productions are there tonight with a Midsummer Nights Dream (it is on the list for next summer) but we managed to find a spot.
As with most of the school holidays, there was a time travelling event on for the children. The Hands on History Crew were Going Medieval and we decided to give it a go. We are already Historic Scotland members which gets us free admission into English Heritage properties so this additional event was only £1 per child to enter.
We got a history trail in which we had to locate 8 of England's most famous kings and queens throughout the grounds and at the end the kids had to guess the word and they would get a certificate. We were also told there was some activities at the end of the trail at the castle so we started off on our journey.
My kids LOVE a treasure trail and this one was really fun as there were facts to read and Eva loved finding out about our countries past monarchs.
The trail took us through the Hall gardens and we had to head over to the Castle. The walk over to the castle was in short, stunning. We went through a door which according to the kids was the door to the Secret Garden. This only added to the mystery of the place and we had a wonderful time exploring. What a truly beautiful and unique place. There were rock formations, tons of fabulous plants and trees to look at, we went through more secret doors and under arches, it was wonderful. I urge you all to go have a wander through, you will love it!
It probably took us about half an hour to walk through as we stopped many times to admire different flowers and trees. At the other side we came out into the castle grounds and spotted the History tent. We were just in time for the activities to start and we took part in dancing and dressing up, we did sword skills, coloured in dragons and shields and also heard tales of King Arthur and dragons. The two members of staff, Lewis and Katie, were superb. They really got stuck in and brought the era to life, the kids loved the sword skills and storytime. I was really impressed.
We didn't have time to properly explore the castle and we will absolutely be back very soon for more adventures. There is still time to visit the History Crew as the events are on until 28th August. Thank you Belsay Hall and Castle, we had the most wonderful day.
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