An Explore at Markshall Estate Enlightened Light Trail

[Ad- gifted experience] Being December it’s the season for lots of things, but one thing that we always try to get along to during these colder Winter nights is light trails. Over the last few years we’ve visited loads and loads around the UK (and beyond) and that’s included a couple from events organiser Enlightened Moments. When we found out they were running another one, and not too far from us, we had to go, and so off we went to their newest installation at Markshall Estate, near Coggeshall in Essex.

Markshall Estate is a beautiful, carefully manicured gardens and arboretum, and – even though we were visiting at night – the light trail took us near some of its well-known features: beautiful sculptures, its walled garden and walked us across the bridge between its two ornamental lakes. It was a tranquil place, and the lights on the trail (as well as the noise of chuckling faeries) were clearly carefully placed with that in mind.

Enlightened at Markshall Estate starts off with you walking into the estate past the on-site Tea Room, Mrs Salisbury’s Famous Tea Rooms, which we dipped back into a the end of our time there for some snacks and drinks. Outside of that there was a lit up chair, perfect for pictures, as well as a beautiful grove where the trees were decorated with lights and wishes. There was also a picnic area which had an amazing entryway: a archway of bushes shaped to look like two giraffes. On from there you walk through the grounds of a small garden centre and into the information centre which then starts you off on your journey through the grounds.

The trail itself was fantastic, there were several elements that we’d seen at the Chelmsford and Colchester versions of Enlightened, such as the glass-lens faery projections, faery hovels and the field of lit candles. It also included the interactive instruments and simon-says installations, which are lovely to see and really fun. We went at quite a quiet time and so the kids got to have a couple of goes on each of these, which they really enjoyed. The instruments are probably my favourite of the interactive installations, with a guitar, drumkit and large keyboard all rigged up with buttons that play notes, and instructions for playing along to a song projected on a nearby screen.

There were a lot of different displays along the path, so much so that it would be really hard to pick out a favourite. That said, the fact that it was looping around one of the lakes – and at one point you walk between that and the second lake, meant that the organisers could do some really impressive installations on the water itself. This manifested mostly as three major installations: The first was a beautiful disco-ball on the lake, with multiple lights beamed onto it from the shoreline. The second was a group of dancing fountain-jets, with changing lights creating a lovely effect. But, it was the final, third installation that really blew us away.

This installation took the form of a mounted light that stood at the distant end of one of the lakes. It must have been about a meter off the ground, but due to the fact that the lake was man-made it meant that it was largely still and created an exact mirror image. Not only that, but it filled the air with a mist which the light then rippled and broke across. It meant that the entire sky filled up like a sky full of lights, with beautiful textural effects as the mist formed clouds within it. We must have stood there for ten, fifteen minutes just taking it in, and then, when you turn around you’re faced with the dancing discoball that I mentioned earlier. It was absolutely breathtaking.

After that we made our way along the rest of the path which included some of the fun, one-directional lights installations, dangling balls and a very well assembled faery village. Robin especially liked the disco-ball forest, which is a frequent feature at Enlightend events, however these ones were not locked in place and so spun in the wind, casting off sparkles and beams of light around the area.

Finally, we got back to the main area and grabbed some food. There were two trucks set up for this event, with one that focused on burgers although had some different bits and bobs like chicken wings and chilli cheese fries, while the other one focused mostly on take-away drinks. After eating we took a look around inside the tearoom which actually had quite an nice menu including Turcky wraps, Jacket Potatoes, cakes, soup and more. We grabbed some hot chocolates and the kids each had a slice of cake (Amelia and Kai really enjoyed the Blackberry Eton Mess) before getting on our way.

All in all, we had an amazing time at the Markshall Estate Enlightened show; it’s a great location, the on-site tearoom is fantastic and the water-based installations were massive highlights. Well worth a visit!

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