Kryal Castle, Ballarat, Victoria
April 16th 2010 01:38
To get to Kryal Castle, coming from Melbourne, the castle is down a short road on the left about 8km’s before you get to the turn off for Ballarat, so if you hit Ballarat, you have gone too far! But don’t worry, the turn off is sign posted and you can see glimpses of the castle from the road so you shouldn’t miss it.
I found this place on a trip to Adelaide, as we drove pass I got all excited that there was a castle, but it was an extremely hot day and we didn’t really have time to stop and take a look, but I earmarked it as being a destination for a future trip. After having been to the castle I am glad we didn’t stop that day, we would have needed to spend a few hours there to truly enjoy the visit.
We decided to make Ballarat our holiday destination for Melbourne Cup weekend, taking the Monday off work to enable a four day weekend. For those that don’t know, the Melbourne Cup is a horse race that “stops the nation” and happens on the first Tuesday of November each year, and those lucky folk working in Melbourne, and most of Victoria get to have a Tuesday off work.
I hadn’t spent any real time in Ballarat previously, it had been a drive through spot for when we were travelling elsewhere, so I didn’t know an awful lot about it except that there was the Eureka Centre and of course once I spotted the Castle then I knew there was a Castle.
We took along the tents for this trip and stayed at the Eureka Stockade Caravan Park, a nice little caravan park next to the Eureka Stockade and a Park with and adventure playground for kiddies. it only had 6 tenting spots, the rest was for Caravans or there were the Cabins. It was a nice enough park, with clean and tidy amenities, not sure what the kitchen set up was like as we didn’t use it. There pricing was reasonable too, they had off peak rates for that weekend. It was unfortunate that they didn’t have their pool open for use, their website advertises that it can be used between November and March, but we were there for the first weekend in November so it wasn’t quite ready for use. They also have a mini golf course, but it isn’t anything flash.
We travelled up to Ballarat on the Friday afternoon – picking up an additional little traveller that night in Horsham after we set up camp – and were lucky enough to pitch our tents before a thunder storm rolled in. We are also lucky that our tents are very sturdy and withstood the rain, got to say I actually enjoyed going to sleep with the rain pattering down on the tent.
On Saturday after having a leisurely breakfast we headed off to Kryal Castle. When you come from the Ballarat side you need to go past the turn off then do a U turn and go back to the turn off, but this was an easy enough thing to do. The castle looked impressive driving up to it, and you even walk over a drawbridge to get over the moat surrounding the castle – although the water looked dodgy.
The staff at Kryal are fantastic, the lady at the reception area was nice enough to let our little traveller in for the under 5 price even though she had turned 5. The rest of the staff were lovely and friendly, and more than willing to talk at length about their displays and the castle. The costumes were great, but it was a shame to see the girls wondering around with their dress half off and bikini tops on, but I guess it was a warm day, and I think they were on a break.
Although the night before was a thunderstorm, the day was hot and sticky, and we rued the fact that we didn’t take enough water or food with us. There is a little shop where you can get something to eat and drink, but like all touristy places, it can get a bit expensive forking out for food and drink for a few hours.
You are pretty much left to your own devices to wonder around the castle and grounds, which is kind of nice, it meant we could go at our own pace, there are a few little videos and demonstrations at set times, and they are good enough to announce when they are going to start over the loud speakers. We missed the magic show, but the juggling show was fun, we had a few laughs and Custard (hope that was his name, it sounded like Custard anyway) who was a young man dressed up in a court jesters costume was entertaining and did a very good job at showing off his juggling skills.
There was a nice video about the history of the castle, narrated by the owner of the castle, it was quite informative, and while the film making is not up to Avatar standards, it was interesting to watch. It was even more interesting when we later bumped into the Owner and realised at that point how old the movie must have been as he is quite an elderly man now, but still quite a distinguished man, and looked very much the lord of the castle.
One of the other demonstrations was a wench being whipped (it was one of the bikini top girls, maybe she was being whipped for being out of costume). Have to say this was not the most exciting thing to happen that day, there were a few not so funny jokes and a lot of her fake screaming, which got annoying very fast. Apparently they do a hanging, but there wasn’t enough staff working that day so they weren’t allowed to do it.
There was a row of rooms for you to wander through, and show all sorts of interesting artefacts from old fashioned medical equipment, model ships, ancient armoury and even a torture chamber. Be warned that the torture chamber may not be suitable for kiddies. There is also the interiors of an old fashioned church, and they even have the old church pews that prisoners had to sit in. There was even a bit of history about the convicts brought to Australia.
Now while the torture chamber is not for kiddies, there is a kiddies play room, as well as other rooms which had miniature scenes behind glass cases and when you push a button they light up and the puppets start moving about. They look like they need a little care and attention, but still entertained the little one for ages. You can also climb up a tower and visit sleeping beauty, but I wasn’t very impressed by that display.
There was a wedding in the afternoon, no not part of the attractions, but an actual wedding held in the chapel, it was fun to see the costumed bridal party flow past, although would say that their guests struggled to understand the difference between gothic dress and medi-evil dress.
Kryal also comes with its own little maze, its easy enough to get around, but we did the toward the end of our day and I was feeling tired and about half way through I needed to pee so it became urgent to get out!, By the way the loos are clean and tidy enough.
So that is our trip to Kryal Castle, I am sure I have left stuff out, but overall I had a great trip, and I think I will go back again on a day where we don’t have a little one to think about and on a day that is not so hot.
As for the rest of our Ballarat trip, it wasn’t that exciting, we didn’t do too much because of the weather and the additional little traveller, but again we will be heading back to see the sites of Ballarat and the surrounding area – I have heard tale of a miniature village which I would love to see.
I found this place on a trip to Adelaide, as we drove pass I got all excited that there was a castle, but it was an extremely hot day and we didn’t really have time to stop and take a look, but I earmarked it as being a destination for a future trip. After having been to the castle I am glad we didn’t stop that day, we would have needed to spend a few hours there to truly enjoy the visit.
We decided to make Ballarat our holiday destination for Melbourne Cup weekend, taking the Monday off work to enable a four day weekend. For those that don’t know, the Melbourne Cup is a horse race that “stops the nation” and happens on the first Tuesday of November each year, and those lucky folk working in Melbourne, and most of Victoria get to have a Tuesday off work.
I hadn’t spent any real time in Ballarat previously, it had been a drive through spot for when we were travelling elsewhere, so I didn’t know an awful lot about it except that there was the Eureka Centre and of course once I spotted the Castle then I knew there was a Castle.
We took along the tents for this trip and stayed at the Eureka Stockade Caravan Park, a nice little caravan park next to the Eureka Stockade and a Park with and adventure playground for kiddies. it only had 6 tenting spots, the rest was for Caravans or there were the Cabins. It was a nice enough park, with clean and tidy amenities, not sure what the kitchen set up was like as we didn’t use it. There pricing was reasonable too, they had off peak rates for that weekend. It was unfortunate that they didn’t have their pool open for use, their website advertises that it can be used between November and March, but we were there for the first weekend in November so it wasn’t quite ready for use. They also have a mini golf course, but it isn’t anything flash.
We travelled up to Ballarat on the Friday afternoon – picking up an additional little traveller that night in Horsham after we set up camp – and were lucky enough to pitch our tents before a thunder storm rolled in. We are also lucky that our tents are very sturdy and withstood the rain, got to say I actually enjoyed going to sleep with the rain pattering down on the tent.
On Saturday after having a leisurely breakfast we headed off to Kryal Castle. When you come from the Ballarat side you need to go past the turn off then do a U turn and go back to the turn off, but this was an easy enough thing to do. The castle looked impressive driving up to it, and you even walk over a drawbridge to get over the moat surrounding the castle – although the water looked dodgy.
The staff at Kryal are fantastic, the lady at the reception area was nice enough to let our little traveller in for the under 5 price even though she had turned 5. The rest of the staff were lovely and friendly, and more than willing to talk at length about their displays and the castle. The costumes were great, but it was a shame to see the girls wondering around with their dress half off and bikini tops on, but I guess it was a warm day, and I think they were on a break.
Although the night before was a thunderstorm, the day was hot and sticky, and we rued the fact that we didn’t take enough water or food with us. There is a little shop where you can get something to eat and drink, but like all touristy places, it can get a bit expensive forking out for food and drink for a few hours.
You are pretty much left to your own devices to wonder around the castle and grounds, which is kind of nice, it meant we could go at our own pace, there are a few little videos and demonstrations at set times, and they are good enough to announce when they are going to start over the loud speakers. We missed the magic show, but the juggling show was fun, we had a few laughs and Custard (hope that was his name, it sounded like Custard anyway) who was a young man dressed up in a court jesters costume was entertaining and did a very good job at showing off his juggling skills.
There was a nice video about the history of the castle, narrated by the owner of the castle, it was quite informative, and while the film making is not up to Avatar standards, it was interesting to watch. It was even more interesting when we later bumped into the Owner and realised at that point how old the movie must have been as he is quite an elderly man now, but still quite a distinguished man, and looked very much the lord of the castle.
One of the other demonstrations was a wench being whipped (it was one of the bikini top girls, maybe she was being whipped for being out of costume). Have to say this was not the most exciting thing to happen that day, there were a few not so funny jokes and a lot of her fake screaming, which got annoying very fast. Apparently they do a hanging, but there wasn’t enough staff working that day so they weren’t allowed to do it.
There was a row of rooms for you to wander through, and show all sorts of interesting artefacts from old fashioned medical equipment, model ships, ancient armoury and even a torture chamber. Be warned that the torture chamber may not be suitable for kiddies. There is also the interiors of an old fashioned church, and they even have the old church pews that prisoners had to sit in. There was even a bit of history about the convicts brought to Australia.
Now while the torture chamber is not for kiddies, there is a kiddies play room, as well as other rooms which had miniature scenes behind glass cases and when you push a button they light up and the puppets start moving about. They look like they need a little care and attention, but still entertained the little one for ages. You can also climb up a tower and visit sleeping beauty, but I wasn’t very impressed by that display.
There was a wedding in the afternoon, no not part of the attractions, but an actual wedding held in the chapel, it was fun to see the costumed bridal party flow past, although would say that their guests struggled to understand the difference between gothic dress and medi-evil dress.
Kryal also comes with its own little maze, its easy enough to get around, but we did the toward the end of our day and I was feeling tired and about half way through I needed to pee so it became urgent to get out!, By the way the loos are clean and tidy enough.
So that is our trip to Kryal Castle, I am sure I have left stuff out, but overall I had a great trip, and I think I will go back again on a day where we don’t have a little one to think about and on a day that is not so hot.
As for the rest of our Ballarat trip, it wasn’t that exciting, we didn’t do too much because of the weather and the additional little traveller, but again we will be heading back to see the sites of Ballarat and the surrounding area – I have heard tale of a miniature village which I would love to see.
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