My partner’s mum is very into “experiences” and likes to take her grandkids to do fun things whenever she can. For the past few years, for Christmas for everyone, she has taken us all away on an overnight trip somewhere. This year we were off to Ballarat again, this time to visit and stay at Kryal Castle.
I think I was a factor in this year’s location, as I’ve been trying to beg everyone to go here with me for years. Every time we end up in Ballarat, it’s always to go to Sovereign Hill, which definitely has more local historical relevance, but there’s something about going to a medieval theme park inside Australia that really seems fun for kids, and between us, we have 5.
Kryal Castle Accommodation Checkin Times
The check-in time for Kryal Castle is from 2-5 pm. We arrived around 11 am so we left our bags and things in the car and went straight into the park.
Trial By Combat!
The first show we got to see was the Trial By Combat mock fight in the arena. Our niece Edie was chosen to be the person who had a quarrel to sort. Apparently, her beef was with anyone who puts milk into their cereal bowl before the cereal. No one in the crowd was really strongly for milk first in cereal, so the other knight was fighting for it anyway.
The Guillotine
There are various torture and execution photo opportunities around Kryal Castle. The Guillotine is always a classic photo. Here is Nan Tan about to lose their head to Charlie for her many crimes.
Gift Stores at Kryal Castle
Kryal Castle has a dozen or so gift stores covering different themes around medieval and fantasy. One of the cheaper items that caught Charlie’s attention were these big fake Diamonds (and other colours) which were $5.50 each. I got one for him and he was very happy with it. He eventually managed to get a few dents and cracks in it.
Kryal Castle Chapel
It wouldn’t be a god-fearing medieval village without a chapel. I believe you can married in here.
Inside the Castles
Charlie is a big fan of stairs and definitely liked running up and down these towers. He almost fell down at one point but his mum caught him.
King Charlie
At the top of one of the central towers, there are holes you can poke your face through for photos.
Sir Charlie
The Wizard’s Tower
One of the floors of the towers had a wizard’s workshop that you could view from behind bars.
View from the top of Kryal Castle
The central towers have this great view that shows the arena and some of the other buildings. this represents about 2/3 of the location I’d say.
Kryal Castle Jousting
The jousting tournament at Kryal Castle involves seeing which knights can break their lances against their opponent’s shields. This isn’t quite as exciting or brutal as what I’ve seen in shows like Game of Thrones, but good for OH&S laws in modern-day Victoria, Australia.
At 2 pm, Kryal Castle has jousting. This is also the time that accommodation check-in starts. We watched the jousting first instead.
It looks like Alexander, the blue knight scored a point this time.
Charlie was really excited to cheer for Alexander, the name of his brother, who was the blue knight.
Historically accurate jousting selfie.
Unfortunately, our boy Alexander lost the tie-breaking cheer contest, which Charlie didn’t help out with.
I took Charlie to meet both of the jousting knights and their horses. After this, we went to check in at our Kryal Castle Accommodation.
Kryal Castle Accommodation Photos
We had several rooms booked for our Kryal Castle Accommodation and each room had very different attributes and configurations.
We had rooms for these people:
- Tanya & Steve #11
- Keith, Kayla, Charlie & Alex #16
- Emily #4
- Holly & Edie #7
- Jess, Travis, Hayley & Zac #23
Below is a photo of our room.
Our room had no windows, with the only light entering coming from the gaps under and above the door. The heating was pretty good, making it fine. It did make it a bit confusing when we woke up during the night wondering what time it was.
Emily’s room had a spa bath, which she made good use of, we did not see much of her after hours. I didn’t see or hear much about Holly & Edie’s room or Tanya & Steve’s room, but spent a bit of time at Jess & Trav’s room. Their room did not appear to be cleaned properly. There were big black hairs all over the bathroom and the fridge smelled horrible, being one of the bigger rooms it became our base of operations, however.
Charlie’s Lollipop
I bought Charlie a big lollipop from the lolly store.
Can You Bring Your Own Food to Kryal Castle?
We saw plenty of people bring their own food into Kryal Castle during the day and for night we got Brown Hill Fish & Chips and brought it in with no issue. The venue actually has a lot of outdoor dining areas relative to places to get food. As people stay the night, it makes sense to allow outside food as they don’t have anywhere to get dinner.
What is a Strass Cake?
Brown Hill Fish & Chips was interesting as among the usual fish shop fare, they sold “Strass Cakes” which, as expected turned out to be Strasburg, deep fried, like a potato cake or potato scallop (if you are from interstate). This was actually a great snack, but seems exclusive to Brown Hill Fish & Chips as I could find nothing about “Strass Cakes” anywhere online. I guess that’s why I’m adding something about it here!
Birthday Cake
It was Edie’s birthday recently, so we had a cake.
Giant Chess Board at Kryal Castle
Kryal Castle features a few free activities to help keep everyone busy between shows and events. The kids liked playing around with the giant chess set and the Tic Tac Toe board.
Live Animals at Kryal Castle
The children enjoyed looking at a small collection of farm animals. Some of them were smaller breeds more like what was around in medieval times.
Playground and Picnic Benches
The kids enjoyed the plastic castle playground. The slide entrances come out as dragon mouths.
Our First Time in The Maze
We did one trip through the maze on the first day and another the next day. I got through it without getting stuck quite easily.
The cousins at the end of the maze.
Charlie Playing at Kryal Castle
Charlie got to run around in his pyjamas.
Family Night In
We spent most of the evening hanging out in Jess and Trav’s room which was probably the biggest room as it was for 4 people.
Kryal Castle at Night
The ability to enjoy the park after dark was quite special. The indoor attractions were closed. There was also an engagement party on in the main hall (not pictured).
Starlink Satellites
Kryal Castle Minibar
The minibar gets a mention as it was quite well-priced compared to the highway robbery that you’d usually expect. They proudly advertised that they are voted Ballarat’s Best Value Mini Bar which was an award I’d not heard of before.
Some pricing examples were $3 soft drink, $7 beer, $9 premixed alcohol, $12 mixers and $2.50 chocolate bars.
The Next Morning
It was strange waking up to complete darkness. Charlie did not like sleeping in his bunk bed so he ended up in the big bed with the rest of us.
Kids Sword Battle
Before breakfast we joined a big sword fight with other kids who had stayed the night using foam swords and shields. It was fun.
Sword Fighting Demonstration
There was a sword fighting demonstration for kids where they got to hit training targets. Charlie didn’t want to participate.
Breakfast at Kryal Castle
I had 2 croissants for breakfast at the Alehouse, charlie had a toasted sandwich and I believe Kayla had a wrap. Charlie got some chocolate coins which he shared with his cousins.
Axe Throwing
Whilst we were eating breakfast the others did some axe throwing. I think everyone had a go except for Alex and myself. Kayla was surprisingly good.
Charlie’s Chocolate Coins
Charlie’s chocolate coins had pictures of dinosaurs on them.
Outside Kryal Castle
Charlie was still getting through the lollipop the next morning.
Kryal Castle Throne
Getting a photo of all the kids on the throne was a big challenge.
Alex didn’t want to be held.
Torture Museum
The torture museum is the main attraction I remember from 1997 when I last attended. This rat that claws through your stomach to avoid a fire is the main one that stuck with me.
The Dragon
The entrance of Kryal Castle has two different ways that you can enter the park, I didn’t get around to checking out the longer way through the walk-through attraction until the next morning. There was a big dragon.
Bonus Photo of Alex
With Alex being in the pram most of the time, he didn’t appear in many photos, so here’s a bonus one.
Thanks to Tanya and Steve for this great family trip!
Thanks for sharing your big adventure with us.