A Visit to Illuminate - The Tonbridge Winter Light Trail

Seasons greetings! It's the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas is over for another year and we have a week between Christmas and New Year to relax. If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, short days and long, dark nights provide the perfect setting for bright lights and illuminations. This year, we headed to Tonbridge Castle in Kent to visit their magical winter light trail.

The last time we visited Tonbridge Castle was during the lockdown of 2021. I was delighted to see how the castle was transformed by light and sound on this very cold winter night.

The trail leads you around the ground at the foot of the gatehouse where you can see disco balls and fields of lights that change colours in time to music.

There were illuminations projected against the gatehouse and the ruined walls.

We followed the path down past this field of electric tulips to the river walk.

These glowing orbs constantly changed colour too.

As we exited from the tall arched walkway, I turned back and spotted these friends chatting. I couldn’t resist taking a photo – they were lucky to find themselves alone under the lights – it had been packed with people moments before.

A short walk later and we found a stall to serve us Baileys Hot Chocolate. It was delicious and a treat to warm up our hands and bodies.

We continued to follow the path past yarn-bombed trees, magical toadstools and floating jellyfish before meeting this handsome dragon. As we exited the trail, we headed for the food stalls to grab some bratwurst and churros to round off a perfect winter evening.

@mandyist A visit to the Illuminate Winter Lights Trail at Tonbridge Castle #winterlights #winterlights2023 #winterlightsfestival #winterlightsfestival2023 #tonbridgecastle #illumination #illuminations ♬ Tubular Bells - Pt. I - Mike Oldfield