Once upon a time in a land far, far away, in a time in the not too distant past, lived a beautiful princess. She lived in a wonderful magic castle in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains.
This castle was called Barretstown and what made it so magic and special was that once you came through those iron gates you couldn’t help but smile and laugh. This enchanted story is about 21 amazing families who came to visit the princess and her castle one magical weekend in September….
On Friday the 23rd September 2011, Barretstown opened its gates for the first time in the autumn. At the front of the castle stood a noble prince who welcomed many families into the magical grounds where they would spend a weekend challenging themselves, making friends and having some serious fun! As the families arrived there were jesters waiting to play lots of fun games like bubble making, kite flying, canoeing and zip line. Robin Hood heard about all the fun so he even popped by and ran some Archery for these special people.
Now the thing about Barretstown is that it really doesn’t matter what age you are, just like never-never land once you come to this enchanted place everybody becomes a child again. After our first banquet the families attended a magical show where they had to complete different challenges like who had the smelliest shoe on and who could feed their parent a yogurt without using a spoon, they even had to sing some songs and solve some Disney clues. That night as the younger princes and princesses retired to their beds the teenagers and the child like adults had some special time to chill out and enjoy a lovely campfire by the lake.
Saturday came round so fast and as what a day it was the princess organised an array of activities to thank the families for coming to visit her, she arranged activities like Fishing, music, archery, smore making, messy madness, drama and even some high ropes. Once everybody re-energised over lunch the families participated in some quality family time where they did some family challenges like making fairytale houses, a photo scavenger hunt to find snow whites dwarfs, some noble horse riding, some high ropes to save captured princesses and even some theatre school to find all the Disney characters.
After the long day the families enjoyed another banquet where they were served a beautiful meal and everybody had some lovely quality time together. But that was enough relaxing as captain hook heard that all the families were at Barretstown so he decided to break into the enchanted land, capture Repunzel and put a spell on all the fairytale characters. Thank goodness the families were here because they were able to go around to all the fairytale characters and break their spell in order to release Repunzel. The princess was so grateful that she organised a very special night where the parents came to a café and enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate and listened to some live music.
Sadly on the Sunday the princess had to say goodbye to the wonderful families but before she did she arranged for the families to have a chance to have one last go at their favourite activities. The families helped the princess in so many things over the weekend they all met new friends, they laughed and they shared in some very magic moments. Before they all went on their merry way they all watched a slideshow of all their challenges and adventures and received a lovely certificate and some t-shirts to remember what a special time they had at Barretstown.
Now as enchanted stories go it has to be said that because of all the wonderful activities and the help from the amazing volunteers the princess was able to ensure that everyone had an amazing weekend and they all went home to live happily ever after….