Today is #MarketFriday, a project initiated by @dswigle, and this post is my contribution to this project for this week.
To learn more about this project and participate, visit this post by @dswigle.
The topic of my post today is actually leaving me with many questions...
The Greensleeves Castle, situated inside the Camelot Golf Estate in Hillcrest, in the Upper Highway area of Durban South Africa, is a popular venue for hosting weddings, birthday parties, medieval feasts, and more.
As a matter of fact, our oldest daughter got married in January 2014. And guess where...? Yes. At the Greensleeves Castle in Camelot. And it was an amazing experience!
As mentioned, it's a very popular venue...or should I start saying "was"...?
Currently, I have no idea what the situation is.
Last weekend, I decided to head out to Camelot and visit the Greensleeves Castle while my wife had a hair appointment. I was looking forward to a trip down memory lane and I wanted to find out about their current rates and what kind of activities they host. I thought it would be a good idea to share it with you here in a #MarketFriday post.
But talk about a day where nothing worked according to what we had planned...lol!
First, we ended up in a sugar cane field, which you can read about here. Then, I did not go to Camelot while my wife was at the hair salon, which I will tell you about in another post...lol.
But after my wife's hair appointment, we decided to go to Camelot together.
The only thing that worked out according to plan, is that I first headed up to Botha's Hill to get some shots of Camelot as seen from Botha's Hill.
Right on the outskirts of the residential area of Botha's Hill, there is a little open space, from where you can look down at Camelot.
I took my first two photos from there.
This is looking out over Camelot. You can see the golf course below us, with some residential properties in the estate alongside the golf course.
Zooming in a bit and looking more toward the right, I took the next photo.
In the next photo, the "castle-like" structure that you can see in the photo, is the entrance to Camelot. Can you see it?
From here we headed out to Camelot with the purpose of entering and going to the castle.
Before getting to the main gate of Camelot, you enter this gate and drive through the lane up to the main gate.
Once inside and after I parked the car, I took the next shot of the main gate, but looking back at it from inside Camelot. This is the gate that you can see in the second photo that I took from Botha's Hill.
The door into the tower on the right-hand side is the entrance to the golf club office. The building extending further to the right from the gate is a restaurant.
My idea was to get some nice shots of the castle from the outside and also of its surroundings. After that, I wanted to go inside and see if I could get some nice photos of the interior with all the decorations.
Approaching the area where the castle is, you first pass this board.
The first part of the castle that you see as you approach the castle, is the church/chapel. This is where our daughter got married.
Facing the chapel as in the photo above, looking to the right, you can see the entrance to the reception area. You enter through those big doors and walk through a huge courtyard before you walk into the hall.
But this was also where doubt was starting to set in...
There was nothing wrong with the place... But it was just not as well maintained as we expected. As you can see in the photos, it looks like the leaves haven't been raked up for quite some time...
There were also other little things that got us thinking...
Would they just clean up when the venue is about to be rented out? That really doesn't make sense to me.
But let's carry on.
We started walking around the castle toward the front where the main entrance to the castle is.
The first tower appearing really makes the feeling real of being at a castle...
When our daughter got married, she and her bridesmaids had luxurious guest rooms inside this tower where they could spend the night in comfort before the day of the wedding.
Having a wider view, this is actually the chapel extending to the right from the tower.
Walking up to and facing the main entrance to the castle.
This was also where all the guests gathered after the wedding ceremony in the chapel. Everybody waited here for the new couple to come out.
A close-up view of the main entrance to the castle. The notice on the door says "Private Property. Do Not Trespass".
This is what raises more questions... We don't really come here often, but we have been here a couple of times just to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. And these doors used to be open. You could enter. Inside it was decorated in the typical fashion you would expect to see during medieval times.
Anyway, outside, in front of the main entrance, this fountain is also still looking nice, making for a fine piece of decorating art. But it wasn't working though.
Looking away from the main entrance, looking out over the golf course, another castle is visible on the opposite side of the golf course. I have seen it there before, and I have heard someone saying that people are living there.
We didn't want to walk down there, as we would have to walk over the golf course to get there and I most definitely didn't feel like getting hit by a golf ball on my head...lol. You can actually see the roof of a golf cart sticking out at the bottom of the photo. Also, I don't want to invade on the privacy of any residents.
We decided to walk back and go around the castle to have a view of the estate behind the castle.
On the way out, we passed this sword.
With this inscription below it...
Walking away from the castle and crossing the parking area to have a view of the golf estate on the other side, I loved this scene with these trees on the other side of the golf course.
Looking out over some residential properties in the estate behind the castle.
I thought this tree would make a nice picture, being so prominent.
Using the same tree to capture more houses in the distance.
Another beautiful tree...with the golf course just below it.
With more houses in the estate, visible behind the tree. This will be my last photo for today.
I was disappointed that we could not get into the castle and talk to someone about rates and activities.
But after some extensive searching on the internet, the only rates I could find for "Greensleeves Castle", were prices applicable to the restaurant. These prices range between R430.00 and R850.00 per person. It also showed opening hours on a Saturday as 8:00 AM to 11:45 PM. There was nothing open at the castle while we were there...
With the exchange rate currently being at R18.31 for $1.00, it will come to range between $23.48 to $46.42 per person.
I don't know if this would be applicable to the restaurant on the golf course. But for the local market, those rates would be a bit steep for a casual meal while relaxing next to the golf course.
It would be reasonable for a formal dinner or night out though.
But what is the current situation with Greensleeves Castle? I have no idea. I will have to do some investigation to find out. I also checked their Facebook Page, but it seems the last post has been made in 2017.
The Camelot Estate and the golf course are well maintained as always. But the Greensleeves Castle was not as we expected it. It was still a nice experience and we enjoyed the outing though.
But that's it for today folks.
Thank you for reading my post! I do appreciate it!
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