On P2 Castle Day the children arrived in splendid fashion dressed in their medieval costumes. In our midst we had knights in full armour, noblewomen in their beautiful gowns, a majestic king, a gentle shepherdess cradling her lambs and a groom combing a horse’s mane. Someone even arrived dressed as a castle itself complete with a portcullis and drawbridge!

The day started enjoyably with a Ceilidh dance called “The Swedish masquerade” performed under the watchful eye of our dance teacher, Mrs Brockbank. Our magnificently dressed Lords and Ladies held their heads high as they marched in the opening section of the dance. They became the castle ghosts in the waltz section and then, in the polka section, became frogs jumping in the moat!

Inspired by a medieval jester performing some tricky juggling tricks we then had a go juggling ourselves using some colourful scarves. We even did some acrobatics by balancing on top of each other in a pyramid shape. Carrying on the jester theme, we then made our own jester hats out of coloured card.

Meanwhile the cooks were busy in the castle kitchen preparing a scrumptious banquet for us to eat in the Great Hall. We ate some hot vegetable broth then a variety of cold meats including ‘wild boar’, ‘pheasant’ drumsticks, ‘venison pie’ and some ‘quails’ eggs. We ate vegetables grown in the castle gardens and drank ‘wine’ crushed from the grapes and some beer! Dessert followed with delicious strawberry tarts and jellied fruits. We ate off slices of stale bread called ‘trenchers’ and ate with our fingers. There were no forks in medieval times! During our feast we welcomed Lord Taylor of Cargilfield who had just returned from a morning of hunting in the forest, and we entertained him with our hilarious jester jokes.

In the afternoon we watched some video clips showing a trebuchet launching rocks at a castle wall. Impressed by this weaponry, we played a high-spirited game taking on the role of these catapults and hurling rocks (i.e. sponge balls) at the opposing enemy’s castle. A further energetic game saw us threatened by a siege, gathering provisions (i.e. bean bags) then setting out to pillage them from other castles. The winning team was the one that had gathered the biggest hoard! Finally, we tested our strength and skills of accuracy by throwing spears at increasing distances. Rain fell in the afternoon, but it didn’t dampen our spirits and enjoyment of a thrilling day. A huge thank you to all those who helped make our P2 Medieval Castle Day such a memorable one.