📍 Berkeley

Berkeley Castle

Medieval fortress lived in by the same family for nearly 900 years, with jousting events, a butterfly house and a dragon treasure hunt for children.

Where Berkeley, Gloucestershire Price Premium When wet Indoors & out

✦ We visited

The jousting events are worth checking the calendar for, they give the visit a drama that the rooms alone cannot. The Dragon Treasure Hunt keeps younger children moving around the grounds between the history.

Berkeley Castle is a medieval fortress in the Vale of Berkeley that has been lived in by the same family for almost nine centuries, and the rooms inside carry that weight of continuous occupation. The castle is best known historically as the place where King Edward II was imprisoned and died in 1327, and older children who have covered the period in school often find it genuinely gripping to stand in those rooms. The Great Hall, kitchens and state apartments are part of the tour, and there is real medieval fabric throughout.

For families the eight acres of grounds provide as much of the day as the castle itself. There are jousting events with armoured knights on summer weekends and during school holidays, archery sessions, a children's Dragon Treasure Hunt around the grounds, a dressing-up area, a butterfly house and a woodland play area. Free arts and crafts activities run on bank holidays and during school holidays, so the programme builds up on those days. The free car park has a picnic lawn attached, which makes it easy to settle in for lunch before or after the castle.

The castle opens Sundays to Wednesdays from late March to the end of October, which means it is closed Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; check before travelling. It works well combined with Cattle Country Adventure Park, which is about a mile away and a quite different type of day.

Good for: history, outdoors, fairytale. Ages: 0–2, 3–4, 5–7, 8–11, 12+.