Christmas at Warwick Castle

Originally built from wood by William the Conqueror in 1068 Warwick Castle was rebuilt in stone during the 12th century. It’s been home to many important historical figures, possibly the most well known being Richard Neville who was nicknamed the Kingmaker due to his actions during the Wars of the Roses. But, learning about the history of the castle wasn’t really my purpose for visiting last weekend. (It vaguely had been but it soon became clear that Christmas at the Castle was very much its own thing and I wasn’t going to learn much about the history while there – I bought a guidebook for that!). This visit was part of an annual tradition with a friend to visit a Christmas light show or market every year. We’ve done this for a very long time, only having to cancel plans during COVID lockdowns. You can read about some of our past adventures here and here.

We chose Warwick Castle because it was a convenient location and we’d never been inside before. There are various different ticket options available – we went with a visit to the castle plus the light trail in the evening selecting the 4.30pm slot. There are also add ons like ice skating and meeting Santa that were available. The tickets cost us £31 each (it’s slightly cheaper during the week) which we felt was reasonable given that you can access the castle from 10-4pm and then you can spend as much time as you’d like going around the light trail. We decided to eat elsewhere for lunch figuring, quite rightly, it would be very busy (there were food stalls plus the usual castle eating areas) and arrived at around 2.30pm.

We were just in time in fact to see one of the twice daily birds of prey displays which was very good, despite the falconer’s microphone dying at one point so we couldn’t hear anything for a while. We saw the eagle owl which was beautiful and a very impressive display of flying by the falcon. We then headed inside to the warm and the Great Hall and State Rooms. The castle is vast so we’d decided to be very picky about where exactly we visited and were delighted with all the Christmas trees on display, each one decorated to a different theme.

We did some more meandering in some of the lower rooms, bought a couple of souvenirs – you’ll see the Christmas tree decoration I bought from here in a post next week) and then explored outside. My friend isn’t keen on heights whereas if you’ve been here a while you’ll know I rarely find a tower I won’t climb so we compromised by going up one of the less steep trails to what’s known as the Conqueror’s Fortress area. This gave a great view of both the surrounding countryside and the Great Hall part of the castle as well as a light Christmas tree which would look much more impressive later in the day.

We went to investigate the food stalls but decided not to buy anything (we were both still full from lunch) and had a look at the ice rink before joining the queue for the light trail. We’ve done a few light trails together now including the excellent Blenheim Castle and Warwick Castle’s was just as inventive. There were lots of fun decorations, lots of Christmas music to accompany the dancing lights and a really good atmosphere that definitely put us both in the mood for Christmas. And if you needed warming up there were some hot chocolate stalls (which obviously I had to sample) and some food stalls as well.

The light trail probably took us an hour to an hour and a half to walk around, bearing in mind that we were stopping a lot to take photos and see some of the musical displays from start to finish. We were pleasantly surprised by how much of the grounds the trail covered and that the castle building itself was incorporated so well into the design. We’d definitely recommend it – the last day is 7 January. Note they also do a couple of days of sensory friendly versions for people with autism etc.

One final bit of practical advice – be aware that unless you have a disability you’ll be directed to the car park that is about a 20 minute walk from the castle. This is in part because the castle is a protected monument and car parking facilities can’t be built any closer – it’s a well kept path, mostly flat and well lit at night when we were returning. There were plenty of staff on hand to help if needed. Parking cost £6 and you could pay at kiosks near the front entrance or on leaving the site – I think by card only.