Ratings

Buggy - suitable for gardens, although no access to quarry garden, buggy isn't allowed in Walmer Castle*.
Carrier - good for gardens would need to check before entering castle as it says "no back packs".

Walking - plenty of places to sit if needed, the gardens are very pleasant, with good wood play areas for children.

Toilets - in the walled garden, seemed perfectly clean. Toilets for disabled at this point.

Wheelchair - castle not wheelchair friendly, due to age and design of the building..

*buggies are not allowed into Walmer Castle itself. There is no designated buggy park.

Things to note

Walmer Castle is an English Heritage property, pay at the gate or membership required.

Walmer Castle

Completing our tour of Kent coast castles, we took in Walmer Castle. Again we had visited Walmer before, but not for a number of years, during which time English Heritage have done a lot of work on the gardens, in particular the moat garden.

The first thing that struck us was the lack of signage for disabled parking. There appeared to be a number of spaces near the entrance to the castle, but the signage had faded with time, but as the day wasn't too busy we elected to park in the grass car park - again there was disabled parking here, but appeared to be fenced off due to the wet conditions!

Once at the entrance to the castle we had to be let in by a kindly gentleman, via a side gate, as we had come for our visit with two pushchairs, which couldn't travel through the castle - more on this later!

Like the other castles we had visited this week, Walmer Castle is owned and run by English Heritage. There has clearly been a lot of work done over recent years, to make the castle and grounds, in particular, of interest to visitors. On the day of our visit there was a free trail for the children to do, which helped keep the adults amused, if not so much the kids, who just wanted to run off into the woods and play on the many play structures, many made out of felled trees and other recycled wood.

The walk round the grounds is fairly easy going, on some compacted gravel paths, although to get the most from the visit you would need to venture onto grass too, which might be a problem for wheelchair users, as would getting into the old quarry garden, where there are only steps and not disabled access route.

I understand, like the access problems to old buildings, that keeping the integrity of the quarry as a garden means that building a slope or some other means of getting up and down would be problematic, as would access around the quarry. Those pesky Georgian garden designers really didn't have an eye for people with disabilities!

Having completed our quiz trail we headed for the moat gardens. This is approached via a slope, which would be suitable for both push and wheelchair access to the gardens. The moat is sectioned off into four walled garden, with a snaking ribbon of grass running through the middle. There has been recent extensive replating of much of this area, and work is still ongoing.

To complete our view of the gardens we went on to the Queen Mother's Garden, gifted to her upon her 95th birthday. The first of note here is that there is a large uncovered pond, which whilst a hazard for any child, is double so for a child who may have an almost unhealthy fascination for water, so be extra alert.

Having finished our run of the gardens we decided to venture into the castle itself. First thing to note, there are no pushchairs allowed in the castle, not that the signage tells you as such, we found this out at the end of our visit, when we collected our pushchair we had left just inside the doors to the castle, when we were told rather brusquely that we shouldn't have brought the chair in.

As said, there were no signs to that effect, and no buggy park outside the castle to leave unattended pushchairs - be warned! The sign also says "no back packs", so this could possibly run to back carriers for babies too!

Also of note, there is no photography allowed in the castle.

As we couldn't take the buggy through the, castle to visit the shop, we had to go back through the gardens and back out the gate we came through. This gate can't be opened from the inside, so we had to wait for a member of staff to open the gate for us!

Make sure you have your receipt or membership card to hand, as they will ask for this as soon as you walk into the shop - not very politely I hasten to add. I understand they do this, as members of the public could, in theory, if they managed to evade the gate staff, just walk through the shop into the castle, without paying! It just seemed a little unnecessary to bark at us the second we walked into the shop, and made us feel slightly uneasy and a little second class - all because we had pushchairs.

Anyway, despite that, we had a good visit - the kids enjoyed the grounds and the adults enjoyed the gardens, so not too bad all round. Just the little niggly bits with the castle and over officious staff.