I’ve been visiting Hever Castle since I was a young girl, but never really thought it would be somewhere to take young children. But I was so wrong! There is so much to do for young ones, especially over the summer when Hever Castle host a number of events. Hever Castle is the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, and was lovingly restored by the Astor family.
We were recently invited down to visit, (it’s about an hour away from us) I brought my mum and sister down as my husband was working. Once we arrived we got stuck right in with a stroll through the sunken gardens, down to the Loggia. Where we stood and watched the boaters out on the lake. Oliver loved running around down there, and racing and down the steps and Henry did lots of walking around there. We then made our way up to the castle through the Italian gardens.
After our walk through the gardens (which were looking absolutely stunning at the moment and Oliver enjoyed spotting the sculptures in the flower beds) we reached the lawn by the half moon pond, and set ourselves up for a picnic. Oliver had a great time running up and down and racing his Auntie, Henry tried to get involved, but isn’t quite at the running stage yet!
We then made our way over to the Castle and decided to have a look around. In hindsight I should have taken the baby carrier in with me as Henry was wrestling me most of the way around to get down. But it was still interesting to have a look around. Oliver loved looking at all the little displays (he was particularly enthralled by the torture instruments, I should probably be worried!)
When we left the castle we made our way into the Tudor gardens and had a wander through there. We would have gone into the Yew maze but the buggy wouldn’t fit and we couldn’t agree which one of us would stay behind with Henry! When we came out we saw some of the jousters had stopped at the front of the castle, then Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn arrived and declared the jousting match would be beginning imminently!
The Jousting is on on various dates throughout the summer (August 10, 11, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25 & 26) and Oliver was captivated by it! It was great to break the day up a little and give us some time out to relax and have a bit of fun.
After the Jousting ended we had a little bit more time before we needed to make our way home so we headed over to the Water Maze. This was so much fun, and brought back memories of me and my sister doing it as youngsters! Oliver thought it was the best thing ever and was constantly trying to spray himself! I stripped him down to his pants as we didn’t have a spare pair of clothes, so if you’re planning on going I would suggest you bring a spare pair and a towel! We all got absolutely soaked but it was such fun.
After drying off with an ice cream in hand (their ice creams were amazing and such generous scoops!!) it was time to head home. We made our way back to the car through Diana’s walk, which is a lovely path along the moat which winds through beautiful tall flowers and finishes on the edge the Italian Garden. When we were walking back through there was a wedding going on down in the Loggia. What a dreamy venue!!
We had such a wonderful time at Hever Castle and can’t wait to visit again. They have such a huge programme of events on over the summer, if you want to take a peek as to what they’re offering this summer then click here. Thank you for having us Hever Castle, we will be back very soon!
We were given tickets in exchange for this blog post as an ongoing partnership with Hever Castle. However all words and pictures are my own.
