We purchased a season pass for Carew Castle this year (mainly because you get entry to Castell Henllys with the same voucher, so if you're planning to do both at some point, then it's worth the pennies.)
Worth a Visit?
We love a castle, Cooper loves to explore them; climb the steps, work out where the dungeon was, find the bathroom (the hole in the seat for a toilet always a highlight) and play hide and seek in the grounds. Carew Castle is quite a good one but it isn't one of the free ones. When you compare it to Llawhaden Castle for example, which is free, I'm not sure it's work the £6.50 entry fee for adults and £4.50 for children, it doesn't offer a lot more in my opinion in comparison to Llawhaden.
However, like I said, we have a season pass and enjoyed a little hour exploring the grounds. There's quite a bit of the castle left standing and plenty of little rooms to explore and discover, one of which has been decorated a little to look like a banquet hall (most of the rooms are just empty though.) There was a little dressing up box in one of the rooms, demonstrated beautifully by my mother and child!!
There's a fair few steps to climb, some staircases are quite narrow and not particularly enjoyable with a young child, but there are ropes to hold onto on the walls if you wish to venture to the top levels.
There are a couple of plaques dotted around the places with stories/information on them, but not a lot to be honest. Although we did enjoy the one about the Ape that killed his master and now haunts the halls!
When we went today there was also an archery section where you could pay £2 for 3 arrows or £5 for 10 arrows; we didn't do that as Cooper probably w0uld have had someone's eye out!!
What else can you do at Carew Castle?
There's a cafe onsite with lovely food and cakes to be fair and you can visit this area without paying to go into the castle itself. They have invested in some lovely sheltered huts to picnic and eat outside in the courtyard and there's a small climbing frame for the children in this area too and some public toilets.
If you did visit the cafe and fancied a nice walk, there is a paved, relatively flat path all the way around the castle. It's a good mile walk around I would say but good to take a scooter or bike for little ones who are using wheels confidently. It does go around some open water (where a lot of people go crabbing by the way - just check the tide times as when it's out there's no water there whatsoever.) This part of the walk around the grounds is pram and wheelchair friendly but it would be pointless taking anything with wheels into the castle itself. You can take your dogs here by the way and parking is free! You can park here to walk around the castle even if you're not going in, which we often do.
Along this walk is the Tidal Mill as well, it's included in the price of the entry but we didn't go here today because it had started raining so we didn't fancy the walk around. You can see a bit of the path and walk in this photo.
It's worth keeping an eye out to see if they have any events on there; they had a Jane Eyre and David Walliams event this summer; I looked at the David Walliams event but thought it was a bit pricey if I remember correctly so didn't end up going to that.
Opposite the castle is a nice pub with a beer garden and next to the pub, you can't see it off the road, is a small and very basic playground?
So, will I go again? Maybe, as we have the pass, but I probably won't renew the pass next year as it's not somewhere I'm desperate to return to, especially when Llawhaden offers more or less the same for free.
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