Be a rainbow explorer

Edinburgh Castle

Castlehill

Edinburgh

EH1 2NG

 Tel 01312259846

www.edinburghcastle.scot

A recent weekend away took us to Edinburgh where we found masses to do!  High on our list was Edinburgh Castle which is a very imposing building seen throughout the city. Built during the Middle Ages by King David l of Scotland, it was constructed on Castle Rock, a volcanic crag, and served as both a royal residence and a military base. It is a huge place, so if you are planning to visit yourselves, be prepared! Wear comfortable shoes, layers of clothing (it is quite exposed being on the crag and much of it outdoors, so we felt quite chilly) and take your time.  There is so much to see here so plan for it in your itinerary.

Entry fees vary for those who buy tickets online and those who buy on the door. Having said that, we did have a problem getting entry as we chose to purchase tickets when we arrived. After we had climbed the slope to the entrance we were greeted by attendants who informed us that all tickets had to be bought online. It seemed that tickets were not otherwise available until the afternoon.  I would strongly recommend purchasing before you arrive as the attendant wasn’t particularly helpful and watched us struggle with QR codes, phones, downloading and then having to trek down the hill again to collect the physical tickets. It was frustrating and could have marred our day if we had been unable to do all this. Tickets bought online are cheaper: adults £21.50, concessions (65+) £17 children aged 7 to 15  £13.  If you are a member of English Heritage there is half price entry for those in their first year of membership and free entry for renewals or lifetime members which was not made clear to us but something we had discovered before arriving. The website also states that when all online tickets are sold, no further tickets will be made available so you could be turned away if you take the chance of trying to buy at the gate.

It is also a good idea to download a map of the castle before you arrive to help guide you around as there is so much to see. Audio guides are available at an extra cost and leaflets are available on entry too.

I vaguely remembered visiting the castle as a teenager but enjoyed looking around again and in more detail. I could describe everything but will focus on some of the highlights and some of the areas we particularly enjoyed. The Great Hall is quite spectacular with its displays of weapons and armoury. Completed in the 15th century for King James lV, it is noted for its wooden roof.  It was here that all the grand banquets and stately events would have taken place. When the castle was captured by Cromwell in 1650, the Great Hall was dismantled and turned into barracks and later in the 1800s, a military hospital.

The Royal Palace apartments are open for viewing and the birthing room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James Vl can be seen. It is cordoned off to prevent people entering, but you are able to have a look in.  King James Vl was crowned king at just 13 months of age and became the 1st monarch of both Scotland and England.  The last monarch to stay in the apartments was King Charles 1 who resided here the night before the Scottish Coronation.

The Scottish Crown Jewels which are the oldest in Britain are in the depths of a building near the apartments. There is a queue for this and you don’t get long to study them in depth, but the queue moves quickly and they are well worth a look being objects of such immense significance. Mary Queen of Scots was the first monarch to be crowned with the crown on display. When Cromwell arrived, the jewels were hidden and after the Act of Union in 1707 between Scotland and England, they were locked away and almost forgotten about. They were eventually rediscovered in 1818 by Sir Walter Scott.

St Margaret’s Chapel is tiny but rather beautiful. It is a very small, private chapel and the oldest building in Edinburgh. It was built in around 1130 by King David l and named after his mother who was canonised in 1250.  In the 1500s it was used as a gunpowder store and it was later given bomb proof vaulting.  The tiny chapel is still used for weddings and christenings and there are always fresh flowers on display. These are provided by the St Margaret’s Chapel Guild whose members are all called Margaret and live in Scotland!

There are plenty of canons on display including the Mons Meg Canon which was cutting edge military technology at the time. This 6-tonne siege gun was named after the Belgian town where she was made. At one o’clock every day apart from Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day a newer canon is fired in a short display.  Ships on the Firth of Forth set their own clocks by it. The ceremony dates back to 1861 and was the idea of businessman John Hewat who had seen something similar in France.

In the vaults you will find a recreated are  showing how various prisoners of war would have been housed in around 1800. Many were French privateers but the youngest prisoner was a 5 year old drummer boy, captured at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805!

Other displays can be seen at the National War Museum housed here and the Royal Scots and Royal Regiment of Scotland Museums – packed full of artefacts and interesting stories.

My main reason for visiting Edinburgh Castle was to go into the Scottish National War Memorial which opened in 1927 at the former North Barracks. This beautiful building is filled with monuments, sculptures and plaques dedicated to all Scottish men who have died in battle. These amazing pieces symbolise courage, peace, justice and survival. There are so many to look at.  Sadly but respectfully, no photographs are permitted in this area. Around the sides of the building are the many books of Remembrance. These are on view but you are not allowed to open them due to their fragility and importance. However, if you have a family member that you would like to look for, the guides (who were extremely helpful), will happily open the book at the right page for you to see. As such, I was able to find my Great Uncle, David Stewart McQuillan Davidson who tragically died at the age of 19 whilst training during the second world war. How wonderful it was to see his name recorded for evermore. I found it surprisingly emotional.

There was a lot of walking around the castle grounds, with cobbles and stairways to deal with, so a welcome sit down in the Redcoat café was appreciated. There was a good selection of light snacks or more filling meals available here – a little pricey perhaps but beautifully prepared.  There was also a quality gift shop with some excellent products on offer.

All in all, Edinburgh Castle was well worth a visit, but I must admit, that by the end of it we were absolutely shattered!  I hope if you are able to go yourselves, you will enjoy it just as much as we did. 

Ryedale Folk Museum

Hutton-le-Hole

Kirbymoorside.  YO62 6UA

www.ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk

email: info@ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk

tel 01751 417 367

Ryedale Folk Museum is set in over 6 acres within the North York Moors National Park and is home to over 20 heritage buildings and 40,000 historical objects, in an open air museum. Open every day except Fridays from 10am till 5pm until the end of September, 10am till 4pm October and November, it is a fabulous place to visit with something for all the family to enjoy.

No pre booking is required, though tickets can be bought online, and entry lasts for a year enabling further follow up visits as and when you want to. Tickets cost £10 for adults, £9 for children ages 4 to 15, with under 4s free.  Concessions (65 and over) at £9.  There are toilets, an accessible toilet, baby change, outdoor picnic areas and a gift shop, it is dog friendly and they will accept both cash and card payments!

The Folk Museum allows visitors to take a step back in time and to discover the story of life on the North Yorkshire Moors over the last 4000 years.  The collection evolved from the efforts of  local collectors who were determined that the legacy of traditional Yorkshire rural life should be preserved for all time. The original exhibits were collected by Wilfred Crosland and Bertram Frank whose aim was to share the stories of ordinary folk. Their first small museum was opened in the family home for two weeks in order to raise much needed funds for the village hall. By August 1963 they had opened 3 rooms, charging an entry fee of 1 shilling and the collection built from there.

The buildings have been rescued, relocated and reconstructed, stone by stone, from various areas of Yorkshire and show life from pre history to the present day. There is a huge variety of buildings crammed with artefacts depicting normal life. There truly is something for everyone from the Iron Age Roundhouse to the Medieval Manor House, a 1950s village store, a 15th century crofters’ cottage and a Tudor Long House.  There are also a number of reconstructed workshops with displays of tools and equipment depicting many rural crafts such as blacksmiths, cobblers, coopers and saddlers.  Other interesting buildings are the school house, the undertakers and the Edwardian Photographic Studios where you can dress up and have your picture taken. It is the oldest studio of its kind in the country.  In Stang End cottage, you can see one of only 20 known witch posts that were supposed to discourage evil from entering through the chimney!

The site has been used in a variety of TV programmes due to its historical context and accuracy and has a varied programme of events and activities throughout the year which can be found on the website.  These include a number of holiday activities for children – included in the entrance fee.

Visitors can wander at their leisure, picnic, enjoy family games and gain a fascinating insight into lost rural life. Most of the area is accessible but due to the nature of the site, there are some uneven paths and a few buildings have one or two steps. There is no official car park, but visitors are welcome to park at the pub located next door for £3 a day (coins only) or in the North York Moors National car park which is about a 300m walk away.  The village itself is beautiful  and well worth a wander round, with ice creams, tea rooms and interesting gift shops to investigate.

We have been here several times and each visit I notice something different – I’ve not got bored yet. My only concern is that I am now beginning to recognise some of the items from my own past!

Cadbury World

69 Linden road, Birmingham, B30 1JR

 www.cadburyworld.co.uk

Tel 0121 828 9300

As a chocoholic, a visit to Cadbury World has been on my to do list for quite some time! So when a free weekend came up, I decided to book up and check it out.

Situated in the beautiful and historic village of Bourneville, where Cadbury first started making their chocolate products over 100 years ago, the Cadbury World Visitor Attraction opened in August 1990 and welcomes over 600, 000 visitors each year.  The centre is a self-guided tour which shows the ‘history, making and magic of Cadbury.’

There are 14 sections to work through including the origins of cocoa beans, set out with models and structures, sound effects and interactive games for children (and adults to try), two short films in small theatres describing the history of Cadburys, a reconstruction of a Victorian street where the first Cadbury shop was opened, an advertising section and plenty of memorabilia provoking lots of memories! Who remembers the Milk Tray Man?  Sweet tins that were big enough to hold a huge fruit cake? And the drum playing gorilla which was a particular highlight for me?

There are plenty of screens showing different aspects of the business and facts relating to how many of each product are produced. Here you can see how crème eggs are made and wrapped and the sheer quantity churned out every day, how each product goes through a metal detector before wrapping, how Easter eggs are produced and so on.  Although busy, we found these areas were often missed out as the majority of visitors were families with young children who just weren’t interested, so we could take our time and watch as much as we wanted to.

There is a short laser ride, (Cadbury Quest) where you journey through Cadbury world in a cart, shooting at various things on the way. It took us a while to work out what we were supposed to do but then found it great fun. Beware if you are in the front of the cart as you may get a teensy bit wet at one point!! There is also a playpark outside and a 4D ride which was sadly not working when we were there. Apparently it is ‘just 6 minutes, but a really good 6 minutes,’ we were told by the chap having to tell people it wasn’t operating!

There are also opportunities to play with the chocolate.  After a short demonstration of how moulds are filled we got to have a go at tempering chocolate ourselves and then drawing our names with liquid chocolate. This is followed by a look at some of the staff decorating and creating items and enjoying a small cup of liquid chocolate with 2 toppings of your choice.  During school holidays there is also an entertainment programme and live shows.

All in all, although a little concerned that it was mostly young families entering the centre, we enjoyed our visit and found enough to keep us occupied.  I particularly liked looking at the variety of products that are no longer in existence.  It brought back memories of long forgotten childhood favourites like Country Style with its distinctive gingham wrapper and Jamaican Rum (not sure how my parents allowed me that one!)  Seeing how the packaging has changed over the years was also interesting as well as realising how well the workers were looked after. Green areas, parks, sports fields, dental care and so on, were all provided for the workforce: the view being that a happy workforce would be a productive one.

Visitors are reminded that this is a visitor centre and not a factory tour. It is currently open between 10 and 4.30pm with the last entry at 3pm.  We took about 3 hours to complete our visit.  All tickets are pre booked by the website and prices vary throughout the day starting from around £22.50 for children over 16 and adults and £20 for those aged 3 – 15.  We bought our tickets through the Tesco Clubcard Reward scheme which was an added bonus.  Visitors are asked to attend at the time on their ticket and say you may be refused entry if you are late arriving, so allow plenty of time for potential delays.

On entry we were given a large bar of Dairy Milk and there was an opportunity to buy a special tote bag to carry it around in.  I did hear some parents say they would rather have been given it at the end as they were being constantly nagged by their children and of course, you do then have to carry it around with you. You are also given a small caramel bar after the Cadbury Quest laser ride. There is a café with snacks and drinks and a shop with a selection of chocolate products and merchandise and these can be visited before and after your timed visit along with the outside play area. Once inside, the route is one way as you progress through the attraction.

There is free car parking which did fill as the day progressed so be aware and also note that Birmingham is a Clean Air Zone and your car may be liable to fees so check before you go.

While in the area, it is worth having a little look around Bourneville itself and a heritage map can be downloaded from the Cadbury World website. Nearby Selly Manor is also very interesting with a children’s trail, dressing up, scent boxes and other attractions to keep the kids entertained. Ticket holders for Cadbury World can get a 20% discount on what is already a very cheap entry fee. (£4 each for us with our ticket and concession.) With a walk around Bourneville, nearby cafés and the attraction itself, we filled our day very easily.

Another one crossed off the wish list!

The Young V&A Museum

(formerly the Museum of Childhood)

Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London  E2 9PA

www.vam.ac.uk

email: young@vam.ac.uk

After consultation with over 20,000 children and the local community, this museum has recently had a £13 million revamp to transform it from what was a museum of nostalgic childhood to a museum for modern children. Its primary audience is 0-14 years of age, but there is still plenty on offer to entertain older members of the family too, as my husband and I found out when we visited recently.

Based in the old Victorian building, the museum is not what you would call traditional in its look.  With the original windows now uncovered, the whole space is lit with natural light and appears spacious and airy. It is very different to many of the museums we have visited in the past where vast amounts of exhibits are packed into dark and gloomy rooms. It was extremely busy when we visited but still seemed surprisingly spacious.  The 19th century marble mosaic floor has been fully renovated, there is a new entrance and plenty of storage space for bags, buggies and the usual paraphernalia a family might have with them.

Accessibility and inclusion appear to have been primary targets during the renovations and seem to have been successful. The entrance is step free and although laid out on different flours, all areas are accessible without having to use stairs, with a lift and ramps available. There are toilets, baby changing facilities in both the men’s and women’s, a changing places toilet and buggy parks. Breast feeding is welcomed and there is a reading room which can be used if you want a quiet space, somewhere calm to pray, read, have a sensory break or for breast feeding if you require more privacy.

The Museum is located very close to the Bethnal Green tube station which is great unless you have buggies – there are no lifts, just stairs so this needs to be taken into consideration when choosing to visit. Entry to the museum is free, though a charge may be made for special exhibits which change throughout the year. Inside the museum is divided into three galleries: Imagine, Play and Design.  There is also a shop selling good quality toys, crafts, books and pocket money toys and another upstairs with preloved clothing and accessories.

The Play gallery is designed for babies and toddlers, encouraging them to discover colours, textures and shapes. Everything is at eye level and includes a mini museum.  Exhibits are displayed in original ways rather than thematically or chronologically eg through colour, alphabet letters or use. This means that newer exhibits sit alongside older ones providing a different viewpoint.  There is a construction zone with den making and a large marble run and for older children an Arcade focussing on board games and video games. Here there are both vintage and modern games for children (and adults) to access and enjoy. We particularly liked the workbooks used by designers showing their initial thoughts on games we recognised and how they developed into the finished items sold in shops today.

The Imagine section encourages creative expression through performance, storytelling and imagination. Here you can find Joey the War Horse puppet and a dolls house collection set up like a street which had one young visitor totally enthralled when we were there. Listening to him talking to his mum as they both sat on the floor in front of the exhibit was a delight to see – I suspect he could have stayed there all day as he studied and discussed each individual dwelling. The theatre area allows children to perform their own shows with dressing up clothes available, but also puts on shows for them to watch too.

Although we enjoyed both of these sections and found (as adults) interesting exhibits to look at and remind us of our own childhood toys, we found the Design section of particular interest. Here, older children are introduced to design processes, ideas creation and problem solving. There was a fascinating section on how waste materials can be used to create new products, how designs need to change for growing children and how items from a hundred years ago have been adapted for the modern family. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of a red Raleigh chopper bike having owned one of these fabulous machines myself and I was fascinated by the family scooter – we could have found that very useful when our own family was younger.

The main central hall is now an open space with a café area, tables, chairs, benches, highchairs and kids everywhere! Everyone seemed calm and relaxed and now known as the Town Square, it is a great communal place for families and friends to meet together. The café provides a small selection of hot and cold meals, cakes, pastries and drinks but families are also permitted to bring their own food or picnics from home to eat there! (Most unusual!) Bottle warming and microwave facilities are available too.

All in all, we enjoyed our visit despite being child free. There were enough exhibits to remind us of past childhoods, items of interest to study and marvel at and new things to make us think, even though we were not the target audience. As a free resource, it seemed a wonderful opportunity for families providing you can cope with the tube and the steps to get there and it really does offer a diverse range of opportunities with something for everyone, whatever their age.

It was described as a ‘21st century museum to foster the next generation of artists, thinkers, makers and innovators,’ and with its unique approach, I think it could be very successful.

Whilst in the area, it is worth having a look at the Stairway to Heaven memorial on the opposite side of the tube exit/entrance.  This remembers the Bethnal Green tube shelter disaster, which turned out to be the worst civilian disaster of WW2. The tragedy was hushed up through the war so it ‘did not affect morale’ and took many more years to be made fully public and for a memorial to be erected. It sits in the nearby park, remembering the 173 victims, many of them children, who are named on the sides and on plaques. These people were sadly crushed as they ran into the unfinished tube station that was being used as an air raid shelter, to escape what they thought were falling bombs. In the ensuing rush to safety, a young mother and child tripped at the bottom of the unlit stairs causing others to fall and many to be crushed. It was a horrific night, made even more so when it was discovered that there was no air raid that night despite the siren being sounded. There is also a small plaque directly above the stairs to the entrance/exit.