[Ad- gifted experience] Last year, Dann took Robin, Kai and Amelia to Markshall Estate for Enlightened while I was away in Spain for a work trip. This year, however, I was able to come along with them and they got to show me all of the lights and areas that they enjoyed about this light walk. Enlightened has a few different light trails in Essex and beyond, of which we have gone to all of them over the years! Hyland Estate was our first ever light trail, so we do love all of the different areas that Enlightened has to offer, as they feel like classics and must haves in a light walk.
When we got there, we saw that they have a little sit-down restaurant and a smaller, take-away style bakery, along with one food truck. Because it was so well set up at the start, there isn’t marshmallows or food trucks along the trail, so it’s good that they have this at the end and at the start, as the trail is a loop. They also sell some light up torches at the start of this trail, and Robin was kindly gifted one as part of our review, which was a new design to last year, she said! There are a few different options, but I think she got the coolest one.
There is a large arch at the start of Markshall Estate, which is beautiful and well lit, before walking towards the classic Enlightened letters, that dot around. There were quite a few lights before we hit the talking tree, who welcomed us to our walk and told us what to expect. You can sort of see the light trail in front of you, as there isn’t tons of forest at Markshall Estate, and there is a giant pond that’s absolutely stunning along the way. With that in mind, Enlightened does a great job with the space; there are three different light trails (triangle one, square one, and the classic light up long one), as well as hanging balls – though the balls were a bit tall for some of us. These are classics and often you see at least one of them, but it was great to see all of them.
Markshall Estate had a few interactive points, one being a game where you needed to stop a green light on top of a pillar that had a red light, which Amelia was fantastic at. There were spotlights that could be moved about, the spots that you can run on to change their color (which is Robin’s favorite, and she ran across no less than five times as there weren’t many other people attending at our time slot), and there was a new interactive which we hadn’t seen before. A giant Rubix cube, with two sides showing, challenged people to change all the colors so they were the same before a timer ran out. Amelia understood how to play quickly and completed it, which was great! We also made wishes and hung them on the wish wall, before reading through some of the others there, and continuing on.
Dann and Kai’s absolute favorite part of the light trail was the lights on the water. I think this pond is the biggest of the Enlightened trails, so they make great use of the fountains, spirting water into the area with lights dancing across it. It’s just so lovely and we get to cross a little bridge to see it, really getting into the middle of the water which provides a great view. There are also a bunch of little frames dotted around, including one that allows you to have these fountains spraying in the background, which is absolutely stunning! There was a fake snow area too, where the snow fell on everyone, that was really magical. We really enjoyed our time at Enlightened Markshall Estate and found it to be such a lovely seasonal activity!
You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!