Plenty for the kids .... plenty for the lads !!! (Haggerston Castle Caravan Park)

Member Name: mickm9

Product:	Haggerston Castle Caravan Park
Date:	20/02/02 (7732 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots to do, friendly staff

Disadvantages: none

Me and the lads try to get away with just our children at least a couple of times a year and have had some really cracking holidays, none more so than the two occasions we have travelled up to Haggerston Castle near Berwick on the Scottish borders.

This place has proved ideal for the sort of holiday we want on these occasions. We want to be able to just sit and relax and have a few beers and a bit of crack without having to worry about what the kids are up to.

Obviously to achieve this certain criteria have to be met, first and foremost it has to be safe for the children who range from 8 – 14. Secondly, there has to be something to keep them occupied and thirdly, there has to be something to keep us adults happy apart from beer !!

Well, Haggerston Castle certainly meets these points on every score … and then some.

The way I’ll demonstrate this is by taking you through what has turned into a typical weekend for us over the last two years and what will hopefully continue for the next few till the kids are too old to want to go away with their dads !!

We travelled up on the Friday morning arriving in Haggerston early afternoon, the place itself is very easy to find with the distinctive tower (hence the name) being visible from miles around and the turning itself being well sign-posted on the main road. So anyway, once inside we went and waited in the bar area … surprise surprise until it was time to be allocated our caravan for the weekend. The process for this is very efficient with the various standard of caravans being allocated a certain booking in time. When your allotted time is up you go into the check in area and tell them your name and they in return give you a pack containing details of where you are, maps, passes etc.

Once you’ve got this info it’s off to the car to find your home for the weekend, this is always a little bit exciting for the kids but nerve racking
for us. Will it be big enough, will it be in a good location, is it miles away from the pub? You know, all the important things !!

To help you in this quest they do supply you with a very detailed map with your own caravan, and route, highlighted and it is usually pretty easy to find your way as the various areas are well sign-posted and the caravans clearly marked. You also get given a very clear map of the site on which your caravan is highlighted to make it even easier for you.

So there we are, we find our caravan and go through the usual ritual of arguing over whose getting what room and forcing the kids to unpack the cars we simply let them loose and off they go. This is usually the last we see of them till they either get hungry or run out of money which unfortunately as far as money goes is not too long in this place, but more on that later.

After enjoying this little bit of peace and quiet we will walk up to the central area where most of the action happens and have a look about ourselves. Luckily on our two visits we have always been within a few minutes walk of the main area which is handy for just popping back and forth. A word of warning at this point, some places on the park do have a considerable longer walk which I don’t think I’d find quite as good. So if you have any elderly or not so mobile people in your party it may be worth bearing this in mind when you book, I’m sure they would be willing to try and place you in a convenient area if you asked them.

Anyway, to get into the main amusement area where the majority of the entertainment is found you will need a pass, these cost around about a fiver per person and come in your welcome pack. In theory you have to have these every time you go in here but we have found that the security guards do show a little bit of common sense if you have forgotten your pass and let you in anyway. Obviously they do ask that you bring the pass next time and it is b
est to try to as it may be a new guard who doesn’t recognise you.

The first thing that hits you when you enter this area is the noise, there are dozens of machines in here ranging from fruit machines to arcade games. These make enough noise in themselves but when you add loads of screaming kids (and attendant screaming adults) it is a bit hard on the eardrums.

So anyway, these machines might give you a bit of a clue as to one of the many black holes the money drains into. On our first visit we made the mistake of giving the kids their whole allowance for the weekend on the first day … big mistake as it was gone in the first hour and the reason was now plain to see !!

This year we simply allocated them half a day’s money at a time which seemed to work a bit better as they didn’t think they had as much to waste in the machines and hence stayed off them a bit more. Didn’t stop me using them though but that’s a different matter !!!

Within this same area is a shop selling all sorts of toys and other bits and pieces, mainly souvenirs. I cant say I was too impressed with the quality of stuff in here but the kids were so another black hole was identified.

Not only were your eardrums attacked in this area but also your nostrils were tempted to part with some more money by the BurgerKing outlet conveniently placed right next to the walkway.

If you managed to get past here you were confronted by a bank of those machines where you feed in a 20p coin and manipulate the grabber to try and pick up a cuddly toy. What is it with these machines that make you pour in pound after pound in a futile attempt to pick up a toy that you could probably but for half the price in the shop ?

So by now you might be getting an idea of where the money goes so I would strongly suggest to you that if you do let your kids loose in here you make sure they are disciplined enough to resist the temptatio
ns …. yeah right, like there is such a thing as a disciplined kid !!

Once you get round the corner however a more adult orientated money waster is confronted … a bookmakers !!

Unfortunately my mates are similar to me in this respect and can not resist a bet now and again so now it was our turn to test our resolve, we managed on this particular occasion I’m pleased to say. I have got to admit though it is a very handy service to have on the site. We found this out the next day when we watched the football on the big screen in one of the bars and decided we fancied putting on a few bets on to make the afternoon more interesting.

At this point in the building you have a few choices as to which way you go so rather than try to give you a guided tour I’ll simply list the various areas and facilities and give you an overview of what they were like.

The bar.

This is the only area that is restricted to adults only and as a result seems to be very quiet and in truth, a bit boring. This might just be because we never went there late on preferring the main cabaret hall or it could be because it is boring, who knows? What I would say though that if you just want a quiet drink this is probably your best bet. We weren’t just after a quiet drink though so we gave it a miss.

The sports bar

This was more our style and was our home for most of Saturday afternoon when the football was shown live on the big screen, the fact that it was a live match obviously brought in a lot of people. These were mainly blokes of course and there was plenty of good-natured banter as the various tops portrayed their owner’s allegiance.

Also in the bar was a full size snooker table and two pool tables which all in all meant that a fair few people visit this place and it has a really good atmosphere.

Cabaret 1

This is as far as the adults are concerned the epicentre of the com
plex, at least on an evening when the entertainment is usually pretty good, the hall is split into three levels which seems to help the atmosphere somehow. The focal point of the room is obviously the stage, which is unusually positioned, in the far corner. This however doesn’t affect the view and in fact I actually believe it helps it.

The main reason I can see why it is positioned in this way is to make way for the really important area …. the bar, this is massive which is just as well I suppose taking into account the size of the hall and the amount of people it holds which I would imagine is in the region of 500 –1000.

They do operate a fairly strange queuing system at the bar however which I haven’t come across before in a pub setting. The best way I could describe this is the way the likes of Argos operate, you decide what you want and queue for an assistant, you then tell this assistant what you want and pay your money. She then gives you a ticket and you go to the appropriate point at the bar where the person behind the bar shouts out your details and serves you the drinks.

It does seem to work pretty well although I do have a few slight criticisms, firstly there are about 4 tills which is fine, the problem is people are allowed to queue either side of this and the assistant will swap from side to side serving one from each queue. This obviously gives the ignorant queue hoppers the chance to swap sides as the situation suits. There’s nothing more frustrating than to be queuing patiently on your side with maybe 3 or 4 in front of you and have someone nip in the other side and hence get served before you. If everybody were made to queue the same side it would stop this. It’s a little point but it would stop a little bit of frustration and everyone would get served in the same amount of time.

The second slightly annoying thing about this system is that once you’ve ordered and went to
the bar that’s it, there’s no going back and asking for something else without joining the queue again. So if you’ve forgotten to get your partners bag of nuts or whatever its tough, the person behind the bar cant serve anything other than what’s on the ticket.

Apart from the above niggles though the system is very efficient and a welcome change from the normal mad scrambles you get in places like this.

What about the entertainment ? Well, they don’t seem to have any big names or high class acts but they do get the balance right. By that I mean you have to take into account children are allowed in this area so they have to be entertained as well as the adults, this they do achieve with just about enough variety to keep everyone happy.

On the times we have been in there we have seen acts such as solo singers, tribute groups, magician show and a “scary” horror show. There is also the compere who pulls it all together and again, he manages to strike the right balance between the kids and adults.

All in all, you can guarantee that you will have a good night in here. It is actually one of the main bits we look forward to because once we’ve settled into our seats the kids can just come and go as they please between here and the amusements and we know they’re OK and we can relax and enjoy the night.

Oh yes, one last thing. It is a good idea to get in here before about 9 o’clock as it tends to fill up round about this time when people move up from the smaller hall.

Cabaret 2

This is Bradley Bears lair, whose Bradley Bear I hear you ask. Well, he’s Haggerstons kids favourite, he is a guy dressed in a big bear suit that wanders around the site during the day playing with the kids. On the night he has his own little show in the smaller of the two cabaret halls. This is really targeted though at the younger kids, we have watched bits and pieces
of the show and it is quite entertaining …. not entertaining enough to drag us away from the main hall mind but I can see why the kids enjoy it so much.

After Bradleys finished his spot on here they also have kids discos, games and the like. This place does tend to be fuller early on though with the majority of the people moving up to the big hall later on.

Café

There are actually two cafes on the site, with the first in the main building probably being the busiest. This is not because it is any better but because the majority of people spend time in that area rather than walk up to the other one which is situated about 5 – 10 minutes walk away.

The food and refreshments in both is pretty average and is the type of fayre you would normally expect. If I were to have one complaint about either of them it would be the speed of service in the quieter one. On the three occasions we have been in there we have noticed the service is very slow compared to the main one, I suppose though if your willing to walk up there your not really in a rush so that doesn’t matter.

Golf course.

There is a golf course on the site as well, which we have visited twice. The course itself is not the most challenging in the world but it is of a good standard and well marked out and maintained. We have though found that it is a little compact with a lot of the fairways running parallel with each other, this does make it a little bit risky when there’s other golfers on there and we have had one or two near misses.

I would also imagine that the caravans near it have had a fair bit of damage to them from stray balls as some of them are well within reach of a poorly hit shot but I suppose that’s a risk worth taking to offer another excellent facility.

The course itself is open to anybody and the prices are very reasonable, we only paid £4 for a round with the hire of clubs only being another
couple of quid. The standard of the equipment is quite high as well and if you hunt through the hire sets on offer there is really good quality makes available.

In summary, an excellent facility that is well worth visiting on a nice sunny afternoon.

Boating lake

For those of you who would prefer something a little more sedate there is the opportunity to hire pedal boats to cruise around the very scenic main lake. This is probably the nicest setting on the whole site with some of the caravans around the lake occupying really nice positions with lovely views across the lake.

To take advantage of this you can hire a boat and spend an hour or so just drifting around, not our idea of fun but there are plenty of people who do enjoy this so another useful little attraction.

I would say that I would like to see them allow fishing on here, which they don’t. In actual fact don’t think it is deep enough to hold any decent sized fish anyway. This I suppose is probably wise as there is obviously a lot of kid’s play around these areas and the deeper the water obviously the more dangerous for them. Setting this safety angle (pardon the pun) aside though fishing is a popular pastime and I’m sure a lot of people would like to see these lakes stocked and fished. From my own personal point of view it would certainly give me another reason for staying more often.

Tennis courts

There is a couple of tennis courts situated near the main area and equipment can be hired on site, as with most places though this facility seems to be quite busy and the courts always appeared to be fully occupied ….. not that we were after anything so energetic !!

Bowling green

A less energetic “sport” if ever there was one. Again though we didn’t really have much interest in participating in this although it was quite busy. It does appear to be in excellent condition although I mus
t confess to not really having a clue as to how good it actually is because I have never played the game and wouldn’t really know a goo bowling green if it came up and bit me !!

Football pitch.

This is more my area of expertise and we did break away from our relaxation to have a quick game. It isn’t a full size pitch and is just yards away from the café buildings which makes it a bit frustrating because you cant really start smacking the ball around like you would on a proper pitch but it did serve its purpose. On that particular day we soon ended up having around about 20 people joining in, a fair few of who were Scottish, naturally enough I suppose as we were near enough in Scotland ! Anyway, nationalistic pride soon took over and we ended up taking sides and ending up in a full blooded England v Scotland game, England won of course !!!

Bike Hire/Kart Hire.

For those of you who are still energetic there is the option to hire a bike or a 4 seater kart on-site. The problem is though there isn’t really anywhere to go other than round and round the site so it’s a bit pointless. Of course you could always hire them for a few hours and bike off site somewhere, the thing is though the cost would be a bit off putting. I seem to remember it worked out at over a tenner an hour, expensive exercise !!

Swimming Pool.

There is 2 pools on the site, an indoor and an outdoor. Unfortunately the outside pool has always been closed when we are there but it is a fairly large sized affair with plenty of seating areas around it to just sit and chill out. The indoor is a different matter, it has always been absolutely packed out so we have never bothered going in, the kids have though and they loved it.


So there we are, practically a full tour of the site. There are of course the other normal things you would expect on a site of this size, a couple of takeaways, a newspaper/gift shop, a supermar
ket etc etc. Incidentally a word of advice, if you do intend to cook for yourself and plan to get in groceries I would suggest you either bring your own or pop up to Berwick to a local supermarket as the on-site shops prices are pretty high in comparison. I suppose its to be expected in a way as to all intents and purpose they do have a captive market, we though just jumped in the car to stock up on the essentials …. bacon, eggs, bread, beer etc !!

To summarise then I would say that this place is absolutely spot on for a nice well balanced family holiday, its neither too loud nor too quiet and there is plenty to do during the day and the night to keep both kids and adults happy. Unfortunately I do not have a price guide to offer you as our visits have been courtesy of the Sun’s £9.50 holiday offers. However, I have noticed one or two brochures around the place where the going rate seems quite reasonable. The prices of course are dependent on season but if I remember rightly they seemed to be around about the £100 - £200 mark per caravan for a long weekend which is excellent value. You could of course always ring them on 01289 381333 for more details.

Put it this way, if we can’t get another deal off the Sun we won’t mind paying that sort of money, it is worth it. We will be going again.

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