Medieval Mayhem at Malahide Castle

We’re always on the lookout for fun family activities on the weekends, so I thought we were in for a real treat when I saw the advertising for Medieval Mayhem in Malahide Castle this weekend. Apparently it included a real life medieval village, craft and cookery displays, and battle reenactments. It promised a fun-filled family day out.

We arrived there shortly after it was advertised to start at 11.30am. Our initial impression wasn’t great because we were initially directed to park in the field beside the event by some official looking people in high vis jackets. No sooner had I put on the sling and got Little Woman out of her car seat and into it than someone else (also in a high vis jacket) came running over to tell us that parking there was only open to performers and workers at the event and we needed to move our car. Charlie went off to do that, and ended up being directed back to the overflow carpark at the gates to the castle grounds. Meanwhile Little Man and I went to get our tickets. €16 for the two of us – €10 for an adult and €6 for the child. You can imagine my disappointment then when we walked a circuit of the fair while we waited for Charlie to get back from re-parking the car, only to realise that we had seen everything before he’d even had a chance to make his way back to us. Plus he ended up paying another €10 for his ticket, meaning entry had cost us €26 total because we missed out on the family pass by coming in separately. Unfortunately we didn’t realise that there even was a family pass until we got home.

I saw no sign of the advertised real life medieval village. There were medieval-style tents set up around the perimeter of the field alright, with animal skins, and armour and a few other things in display.

Despite the fact that there appeared to be volunteers or workers everywhere, I’m not sure what they were doing.

We decided to get something to eat while we waited for the battle reenactment scheduled for 1pm. The food was very tasty, but expensive. €10 for a hot dog, some rice and salad and a soft drink. We shared it between us rather than getting one each! As a treat we got some cupcakes from the Monaco Cupcakes stand and they were really delicious. The coffee from the coffee stall was pretty good too. But it was turning into an extremely expensive morning. And I know it’s not something the organisers had any control over, but the squally weather didn’t help either.

At least they seemed to have planned for that, providing a large open tent for people to shelter in, with picnic blankets thrown on the ground.

When 1pm rolled around, we made our way back to the centre of the field but nothing seemed to be happening. After a while a group of eight or so men with swords and spears began play fighting each other. By this stage it was approaching ten past one, and Little Man was bored and whining that he wanted to leave. I didn’t blame him. I was feeling pretty whiney myself by that point. So we left, very disappointed with the whole event.