Winterlude Kryal Castle

Winterlude: Kryal Castle 2015

This Winterlude Kryal Castle has a Knights of Fire display that is sure to wow.  In honour of the Fire Gods the Knights of Kryal Castle pay homage by adding a bit of flame to their battle.

When: Weekends,Victorian School Holidays and Public Holidays from 10am – 4pm (last entry 3pm)

Where:  121 Forbes Rd, LEIGH CREEK

Cost:  Families $89 (2 adults and up to 3 children), Adults $31, Children (4-16 years) $19

Review

If we were visiting Kryal again this winter I would play our day a little differently.  The highlight of the day was definitely the Knights of Fire display – but we made the error of coming early in the day and finishing with the Knights – if we had our time again I would have arrived just after lunch and started with the Knights of Fire.  Looking at the timetable below I reckon the afternoons activities look like loads of fun (and there is not so much waiting time in between each activity).

Other tips would be to dress super warm.  We really felt the bleak godforsaken winter chill of the middle ages through to our bones (the kids didn’t care but my friend and I struggled to keep our sense of humour as the day wore on).  There were a few fire brasiers dotted about but the day we went, for whatever reason, they were a bit neglected – it was more smoke than fire and given they were small only a few people could get close to them at any one time.  There were also only a handful of inside activities and inside there was no heating so it wasn’t really like you could go inside to warm up either.

When we left we asked the kids what they thought; what score they would give the experience out of 10.  Charlie (aged 7) gave our outing a 25/10 where as the girls gave it a 5 and a 7 out of 10, the 12 year old in our group gave awarded a 2/10.  So the takeaway from this quick vox pop was that younger kids are able to more easily loose themselves in the make-believe of the castle, knights, princesses, magic, dragons and battles.

Winterlude Kryal Castle program

11am             Meeting at the round table – watch a meeting unfold
11.30am       Skill at Arms – the knights and horses complete a sword, lance and spear skills test
12pm            Stories in the castle’s Rotunda
1.30pm        Knights of the Fire – a battle between the Sir Hector and the Black Knight to honour the Fire Gods
2pm             Pantomime The Gnome – in the Jester Theatre
2.30pm       Militia Training – children are invited to learn the skills of the knighthood from the knights including sword fighting
2.30pm       Jester School – learn tricks like juggling, stilt walking and ribbon twirling

Looking for somewhere great to have a coffee or a meal before or after your visit (or if you’re like us both)?  Ballarat Provedore is a two minute drive past Kryal (if you’re travelling from Melbourne), it is family friendly, they make good coffee and have a toasty warm open fire.Ballarat Provedore

(This video depicts Christmas In July at Sovereign Hill, the Pop Up Ice Skating in Ballarat as well as the flaming sword fight at Kryal Castle.)

Disclaimer:  Meetoo travelled to Ballarat in July 2015 as guests of Visit Ballarat and we were provided with a Ballarat Pass to review.  All views are our own.  All details were correct at time of publishing.