Devon, Watermouth Castle Review

Overall Rating

Great choice of rides and attractions for younger children

Older children will probaly be bored

Watermouth Castle is a castle and adventure park aimed at younger children.

The castle is situated on the A399 between Ilfracombe and Combe Martin on the coastal road. A bus can be caught from Ilfracombe or Barnstaple. The castle is magnificent and overlooks Watermouth Bay, a small harbour.

Prices for admission: Adults £8.50, children (3-13 years) £7.00, children under 3 go free. Once the ticket it purchased, all rides and attractions in the park are free, except for the slot machines, food shops and gift shops.

The park is divided into six areas; which I will explain as we go along.

The first area to visit is the actual castle. When we arrived we entered through the Great Hall, where there were some great suits of armour on display. Just a note for those of you visiting with buggies or prams. These will have to be left at the front of the castle and they will be transported to the gardens, for when you have finished the castle part of the tour.

We were then shown into the music room and a guide ran through the various musical instruments exhibited in the room. There were some fantastic items on display, including old banjos, mechanical pianos and organs, and young children were called out to help with the working of the instruments. After the guide had finished, we were then left to our own devices to wander around the rest of the castle. I did feel this part of the tour was slightly rushed, and at some points the guide spoke so fast, Amber had difficulty understanding what he was saying. However, for the younger children, this part of the tour could be boring, so maybe the guides are told to get it over with quickly.

The model railway room held no interest at all for me I'm afraid. The room was dominated by a large model railway which you could walk around. However, this was a popular part of the castle, and was jam packed with people gazing at the trains.

The next room we visited was more my cup of tea - the kitchen!! There were some fantastic old relics on display here such as butter churners, an old range cooker complete with flat iron and a wonderful old washing machine, which was basically a large churn, turned by a handle to wash the clothes. Thank God for automatics!! There is a large tin bath in the kitchen, in which is sat a model of a man having a bath. Some of the figures on display are very lifelike, and we have some great pictures from our visit.

Next we moved on to a room, rather like a cupboard, which was completely full of old vacuum cleaners.

Going downstairs, we entered what was supposed to be the dungeon. This was not in the remotest bit frightening, unless you are a complete wuss and a lot of the dungeon area was actually taken up with old coin amusement machines, which have been redesigned to accept post decimal coinage. Our kids were fascinated with these, even though compared to todays playstations and gamecubes, these were so basic! There is also an area in the dungeon where there is a small maze, but it is very easy to find your way out!!!! Another favourite for our children was the funny mirror section, particularly the one where Steve's head was shaped like an egg and his legs were about two inches high!! There was also a cycle exhibition in this part of the castle, which appealed to both of our children. The biggest part of the dungeon was devoted to looking through the windows of old worlde village shops and seeing dummies re-enacting the crafts of bygone days.

As we left the dungeon area, we walked into the bright sunshine and on the right is a small theatre in which is staged a water show. The shows are timed for every half an hour, and each show lasts for 20 minutes. This was great, and with the aid of water jetting out in different designs, and lights, the show was quite impressive.

Leaving the theatre, we now enter the Watermouth Fayre. This is a section with a couple of shops selling gifts, a caf selling Cornish pasties, salads and sandwiches and a fast food joint. One of the shops sold the most wonderful Devon fudge in some amazing flavours, which cost £1.25 for 100g. Well worth a try, especially the chocolate orange flavour!

After we had stopped for a quick drink and a Cornish pasty, we moved on to the Merrygoland area. This was accessed via a nice path surrounded by woodland. Sign posts gave details of the various plants, trees and flowers along the route. There were three small rides in this area, a merry go round, a flying aeroplane carousel and small boat ride. All rides were suitable for children aged 3-13 years, although Jack (aged 12) had a hell of a job to squeeze himself into any of the carriages. Within the Merrygoland area, there was a large snake slide, of the type that the children had to take a sack to the top, and sit in it to come down the slide. This was probably the most hair raising ride in the whole park!!!

The water gardens were very pleasant and there were lots of fountains to look at. The rolling bridge attraction was a large barrel through which you had to walk. The kids found his highly amusing as it made everyone completely dizzy!!

Moving on to Gnomeland, which I have to say for my children was very boring. I do remember taking Jack here aged 3 and he was enthralled by this little village. There are lots of log cabins in which the gnomes live with lost of little signs along the way, telling you about the lives of the gnomes. For instance, did you know that male gnomes wear red hats and the females green? The tilting house in this area was great, the house actually sloped down and when we tried to walk in it, the feeling was very strange indeed.

In Gnomeland, the children enjoyed the panning for gold. Once they had found four pieces, this could be swapped for a "golden" coin via a machine.

The last section of the park to visit was Adventure Land. In the leaflet, a new Big River ride was advertised, so we were looking forward to this at the end of the day as at least the children would get wet! We had a walk around the maze but unfortunately didn't manage to lose either of the children, despite Steve and I running off in opposite directions. We then had a game of crazy golf on the nine hole course. We had to pay a £1 deposit per ball but nothing for the clubs. This was advertised as "fountain" golf so we expected to get wet but no .the only soaking was a small fountain at the beginning of the course. The kids by this time were getting a bit peeved to say the least and we avoided the tame looking sea lion water ride like the plague. This was just a roundabout on water. At last we approached the big river ride hoping to get a soaking. But our hopes were dashed, as the only soaking we had was a very fine mist of water as we rounded the last bend!!!

So my verdict? Great if you have young children. The last time I had visited the castle my three had been young, Amber a baby, Jack three and Rob six. This time Amber at eight was even too old for the attractions, as she loves all the big theme park rides, the scarier the better. This is not a place for older kids, they will get bored and the rides are too tame. Mine did enjoy the castle part, but they both are very interested in history. If your children aren't, my advice is don't bother taking them!!!

Telephone 01271 867474
Fax: 01271 865864
E-mail: enquiries@watermouth.com
www.watermouthcastle.com