Little ones will have magic weaved all around them by even littler ones at Bunratty Castle and Folk Park on Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th June when Shannon Heritage unveils its latest attraction – a ‘Fairy Village’.
To celebrate the unwrapping of this impish little wonderland, the good folk at the 15th century castle complex, which is among Ireland’s favourite visitor attractions, are putting on a special Mid-Summer Festival for the weekend. The two-day festival will have the official opening of the Fairy Village as its centre piece but will be wrapped by a web of other activity, including activity trails, bow making demonstrations, archery, storytelling and puppet shows.
The Fairy Village, which has an idyllic location in a woodland section of the park adjacent to a duck pond, itself includes a range of magical items for children to explore, including a Willow Tunnel, a willow t-pee and fairy doors behind which the mysterious pixies live. Also on view will be a variety of tiny fairy houses sprinkled around the Fairy Village.
To go with this delightful little world, Shannon Heritage has also introduced a whole host of appropriately sized new animals, including Dexter cattle – the native Irish breed and smallest in all of Europe. There’ll also be Kunekune pigs – a small New Zealand breed – and Pigmy goats from West Africa.
“We should have a very special weekend here. All our guests are important to us but none more so than our youngest ones. We already have a lot of features here for them but we wanted to add another bit of magic and the Fairy Village will be a great piece of fun for them, as will our new animal arrivals. All the better that we mark it with this Mid-Summer Festival,” said Ivan Tuohy, recently appointed General Manager of Bunratty Castle & Folk Park.
John Ruddle, CEO of Shannon Heritage, commented “We appreciate the wonderful loyalty our customer base has shown over the years and we are always looking for way that to enhance our visitor’s experience. The unveiling of the new Fairy village will we hope add a new special dimension to the Folk Park.”
Numbers to the event are limited due to maximum capacities of particular activities on the day. For this reason the event must be pre-booked online. For more information call 061 360788. Tickets available online only for the June 18th & 19th festival at www.shannonheritage.com
All photos by Sean Curtin.
