A National Trust leaflet fell out of a magazine the other day and tempted me to spend just over £70 on a year's membership for all the family. So given that I had just spent out, we decided we better start to make good use of it and off we went to the 14th century Bodiam Castle.
We had visited back in the Autumn before we were members and you can have a great walk around just for the cost of the car park (£3 for a car) and you only have to pay if you want to go in the castle. This time armed with our temporary membership card we accessed all areas and had a fabulous time looking around.
When we went it was half-term and there was archery available on site if we wished (with a charge) but we felt it was too windy and when we went in the autumn there were craft activities for £1 per child.
This time around there were some great living history actors in the castle and it was great to chat to them and find out what life was like and they also took a little talk which included some drama that we all got involved with and my twins were star actresses, turning the spit for a roasting hog! lol
There are some good displays in the castle if you wish to learn more and a small room with an informative video to watch. The girls had an 'eye-spy' sheet and they had to spot things around the castle and JJ had an A3 map of how the castle would have looked and he loved being our tour guide and telling us what would have happened in each room.
The boys climbed up the narrow and steep staircase and took a windy wall across the top of the front of the castle whilst the girls and I explored some more.
All the children enjoyed our time at Bodiam Castle, there are plenty of fields to run around and normally there is a WW2 shelter that the kids can play in but today it was closed due to the flooding and a fallen tree. We were looking around for a good couple of hours and no-one was bored. It would be a great place to take a picnic when the weather is finer.
We finished off our afternoon in the cafe with a cream tea. The prices were fairly reasonable, I spent £14.00 on drinks and a cream scone for all 5 of us.
Check out the National Trust site for full details of costs, opening times etc.
Our day finished in a harmonious way, which is always amazing with my kids, so nice to see them having fun and getting along without any squabbles!
Check out my more recent post from 2020 about visiting Bodiam Castle as a family with older kids.
Why not pin this post for later?
