#CountryKids at Carew Castle and Tidal Mill

This is the last story from our summer holiday in Pembrokeshire. On the last whole day a few of us decided to head together to Carew Castle and Tidal Mill as there was a special medieval weekend going on. Its another one of Edward I's Marcher Castles and its still impressive even in its ruinous state:

First of all the children did a special  treasure hunt which had them all hurtling up and down the many stair cases:

Each clue had the next clue on it and once they let a grown up read them we realised that if you read the guide map then you had an answer to the clue. For instance we had to find the tower inhabited by bats:

We had a pause part way through the trail as there was a fighting demonstration by these men at arms:

It was rather tongue in cheek but there were some good little sparring matches:

Once the demonstration was over we followed the trail again which took us outside the castle walls:

And down to the Tidal Mill:

The castle looked very dramatic looking back up the estuary:

Inside the mill some of the machinery was still installed but it no longer works:

It must be quite a powerful tide to power the mill when it came flooding in and out up the river:

The trail continued back up level with the castle to a picnic area on the far side of the river. You can imagine what a magnificent place it must have been in its heyday:

The trail took us back around the castle and the award was a chocolate coin and a scroll! At least it made the children look around the entire place and we saw virtually all of it - even if it was at high speed...