A Day Out at Enlightened Colchester Castle

We aim to get to at least one lights trail with our children this time of year! It’s been a tradition for so many years, that we are running out of new light trails to take them too! Enlightened has a few different locations and is one of the first light trails we took them too, at Hyde Park. This is probably our favorite children-focused light trail, due to all of the interactive elements and children’s themed elements along the trail. This year, we went to Enlightened Colchester Castle, which was as amazing as expected!

It is worth noting that there isn’t parking on site for this event, but there is plenty of nearby, on-street parking that you can set your car up at! Once we got to the front entrance, the massive castle gate, we made our way inside. In traditional Enlightened branding, the word itself was bold and big, up on the side of Colchester Castle. From there, we started our walk.

Enlightened Colchester Castle doesn’t have a theme throughout, but there is a talking tree that gives you a bit of an overview and tells you what to expect, then there are a bunch of different sections – with the first always being the fairy area. Amelia and Kai remembered this from the Hyde Park light trail, and everyone enjoyed seeing the fairies again, especially with their magical music. Next, we went on to a bunch of very well lit areas of the walk, with loads of lights dripping from the trees and disco balls set up. These light up areas feel magical and are only enhanced with the joyous music we could hear around it.

We hit our first interactable before we got to the food area of the walk, which was a bunch of light up circles that changed color and came to life as you ran along them! There were tons of children running up and down this, taking turns, and ours took a few go’s at lighting everything up. We then stopped for some hot chocolate and a treat at the food area by the pond, which was beautiful to see all lit up. This food area was a little disappointing; hot chocolate, alcohol, marshmallows to toast, and hot dogs was all there really was. I’d have loved for a taco stand, a stand with loaded fries or something Christmas-y, but we enjoyed our little treat and there was plenty of seating before moving back onto the trail.

From there, Enchanted at Colchester Castle got better and better – we walked along giant light up areas, went through a tunnel of giant, light up beads and made a wish at the wish area, where there were plenty of tags to write your wish on and tie it to the fest. Our kids had impossible wishes this year – with Robin wishing for a FOURTH cat. My goodness. The next bit of the walk was extremely interactive, with a giant band set-up, like a drum set, piano and guitar with buttons, allowing children to play Jingle Bells if they hit the right colors along with a holiday themed projection. This was very fun and Amelia was also able to play Happy Birthday as she knows the drums.

We saw some big sculptures – my personal favorite being the giant jelly fish, before hitting the Naughty or Nice button that tells you if your are Naughty or Nice. Robin got Nice, Kai got Naughty, and in a strange turns of events, Amelia got Naughty too, which she wasn’t impressed with, declaring the whole thing a fraud. We continued swiftly into the rainbow cube tunnel, which is a classic at Enlightened, and then went to my favorite tunnel of the night – a giant rainbow light tunnel. The next area had a short Owl video, where a cute owl wished us all a Happy Holidays, and we were basically around the side of the castle by now! We watched a display that was completely projected on the walls, showcasing Santa, fairies, snow and so much more, before taking a photo in the giant ornament and heading off.

Enlightened Colchester Castle had some new lights to see, and a few of the classics. We really enjoyed the interactive aspects this year and found them to be a real highlight when it comes to choosing a trail to go on with your children. This trail also wasn’t too crowded, even though tickets for our time slot were fully sold out, which is always nice!

Check out our list of the best Wintertime Lights Trails in England