Warwick Castle an extremely beautiful medieval location (Warwick Castle)

Member Name: chrisc92

Product:	Warwick Castle
Date:	03/07/09 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Outstanding scenery

Disadvantages: The attractions spoil it

It is difficult to review Warwick Castle for one simple reason - do you do so as a site of historic natural beauty or as an attraction owned and run by the Merlin group, but here goes.

The castle itself which was originally built on the orders of William The Conquerer from 1068 as a motte and bailey and situated in the very heart of the town of Warwick. It was rebuilt by the Earl of Leciester in 1264, who imprisoned the then Earl of Warwick in it! (Rather mean of him!)

The castle has a long history, and supported the House of York during the Wars of The Roses. In the early 1870's it suffered extensive fire damage. Like most castles, it has secure defences - one of which is the beautiful river Avon that flows around one side of it. When you visit take the tour and explore the ramparts and look at the scenery for yourself.

Many famous guests have stopped at the castle, including the Duke of York (no not the current one) and Winston Churchill, you'll find many familiar faces as you view castle rooms whilst on your visit.

I visited Warwick Castle at Easter with my partner, her daughter and her mum. Parking at the castle was full by 11am and we parked at the Race Course, which is a significant walk away - many more local ones are for less than 3 hours. Still, it gave us an opportunity of seeing other parts of the castle and Warwick's history.

The visit was planned as my Merlin pass was due to run out a month later so was trying to get just one more attraction in before hand. The rest of my group weren't so lucky, so we spent a considerable time queing (nearly an hour) and on top of the entrance fee an additional charge applied to the new Dungeon experience - which when you pay, are alloted a time slot - make sure you get there at the time!

I had mixed feelings that although I'd wanted to visit for many years, I wouldn't find it that exciting, and yes I was right.

As you walk towards the ramparts, all around the grass banks are groups of people wearing and enacting the sort of life that would exist during the 14-15th century as if preparing for a battle.

The first thing we looked at was a bird of prey display on the front lawn, which you have to admit was really good featuring eagles, a vulture and smaller hawks - which included eagles making big loops of the battlements.

There are also reenactments of battles during the War of the Roses and of using seige weaponry (unfortunately we missed the latter). They performed like the sealed knot (reenact civil war battles), but despite all the hype and watching groups of solidiers marching just didn't look authentic - and how many times have you seen someone die, and then 5 minutes later (yes you were spotted) start fighting again!

I'm very much affraid of heights, but I thought I'd try the rampart and towere tour. Was I mad - I think I must have been absolutely!!! It wasn't so much the steep steps and the lack of something to hold on to - it was all those bloody steps - 5 hundred of them! And yes, only 2 of us walked up.

The other main part of the visit is the state room and great hall tours which has alot of interesting artefacts and quite lifelike wax models inclusing Winston Churchill and the Duke of York (pre 1920's) and Henry VIII with all 6 wives - yes and all with their head on!

As for the dungeon tour, I am squeamish, and enduring a wait of more than an hour past our alloted time (after being told to come back 5 minutes beforehand) it certainly didn't help. But, our experience was not that good, it was more the actors trying to frighten you than anything horrible. At one point one of the characters the cook, tried to tell you about the plague and how she'd cut up the doctor to mind out why he'd died, and then pulled back the sheet and opened up his insides which was so clearly rubber and plastic. I wonder what she'd do if someone did an autopsy in front of her - I bet she'd feint! U'm afraid I can't rate it at all, and a disappointment seeing we had to pay extra to get in.

What else is there, well there's a number of stalls selling food and drink (although you can only top your coca cola bottles up at one location - on the grass next to the castle entrance), a restaurant, gift shop and the odd toilet.

Now that I've been there, yes I enjoyed the castle itself, but as an attraction I have very mixed views and I really can't make up my mind whether I'd want to go back again or not. Overall, I've rated it at 3, 4.5 for the castle, 2 for the attraction.

Summary: It is a great place to explore, but you might be disappointed by the attraction element