Newman's Castle

A few weeks ago, Free Fun In Austin posted about a day trip to Bellville, Texas to visit Newman's Castle. It looked like a fun outing, so I asked my friend if she and her children wanted to join us for a trip to see the castle.

It took about two hours to reach Bellville from Austin. It was definitely worth the trip. The owner of the castle, Mr. Newman, began construction on it in 1998. Mr. Newman said he bought 20 acres of property and was trying to decide what kind of house to build when a friend reminded him a man's house is his castle. That sparked the idea of building an actual castle for his home. He has personally built this home with help from just a few other people. It took 8 years from the start of construction to have a completed living space. Since then, Mr. Newman has been adding onto the structure. He said he initially never thought his home would be a tourist attraction. So many people were curious about it, that he opened his home up for tours, weddings, and various other events.

The kids had a great time exploring the castle. Each of the kids got to choose a sword and were knighted before attacking the castle. Boogs was worried about being cut by Mr. Newman's real sword. Mr. Newman gave the kids quite a bit of information about the parts and purpose of the various features of the castle.

Boogs and Z had a fierce sword fighting battle. It was declared a tie match.

A large rock was catapulted into the moat at the beginning of our attack on the castle. It was neat to see the catapult work.

 Then the knights attacked the castle. They reached it before the drawbridge could be raised.

The victors welcomed us to the castle under an archway of their swords.

It took two men running in this wheel to raise the drawbridge.

Boogs thought it was a very noisy process.

The torture chamber had stocks, a bed of nails, a hanging cage, and chains. Boogs was small enough to escape from the stocks.

The knights had sword practice in the courtyard.

Mr. Newman is currently working on completing the bell tower. The outer wall of the tower is built but it does not yet have stairs inside it.

There is even a small chapel in the castle.

The kids enjoyed the view from the top of the castle keep.

It was a long way down from the castle keep to the interior courtyard.

There were plenty of spaces to explore.

Mr. Newman built all of the wooden furniture.

The conquering knights held a feast in honor of their victory. The food was provided by Newman Bakery in Bellville. During the feast, Mr. Newman called several people up to act out a scene between a witch, frog prince, and princess. Boogs volunteered to be the frog prince. Z volunteered to be the witch. They were so cute!

 

We all had a fun time at the castle. It was well worth the trip and the $15 per person admission fee.

There is a video about the castle from the Texas Bucket List.

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