Honeymoon #1 — Castle in the Countryside
Recently, I wed my best friend, David, in October 2020! Due to the pandemic, we decided to stay local, as we did not feel safe flying to another locale. I also wanted to stay within a few hours of home just in case we did get sick. Taking precautions, we settled on traveling through southern Indiana. I had heard about French Lick, Indiana from a few people, such as my parents, David’s parents, and a friend. They all had said good things about the West Baden Springs Hotel which was a fancy resort. I decided to check it out, as I was in charge of planning. Usually, I am in charge of planning all vacations due to how organized and meticulous I am, so David had no problem letting me take the reins!
While looking up the town of French Lick and the surrounding area, I came across a cute bed and breakfast between our home and French Lick. I forget how I found this place, but I am pretty sure I had seen it on Pinterest. Anyway, this bed and breakfast in Bowling Green, Indiana is a CASTLE!! It was built about 10 years or so ago in the shape of a castle! I was blown away that such a cool structure existed in the state of Indiana! It is literally in the middle of nowhere! We took winding and curving roads, some of which were gravel and one lane roads. The structure is tucked away past some farmland, a lake, and several trees. Thankfully, there were green signs with a picture of a castle on them pointing us in the right direction!
Clayshire Castle is split in half — part of it is a couple’s home, and the other part is the bed and breakfast and event area. It has five guest rooms, a downstairs area, a library, and a great hall. In addition to hosting overnight guests, they also can host events such as weddings and all kinds of parties. They even have a Renaissance fair each year (except for 2020 due to obvious reasons).
We stayed at this castle on the first night of our honeymoon, and we were lucky to be the only guests on the premise! It was enjoyable knowing we would not have to worry about wearing masks in the common areas, unless of course the couple who owned the castle were out and about. It was also nice having the whole castle to ourselves! It gave us ample time to explore around and in the castle. Outside the castle, we took plenty of photos and walked all around the building. Instead of a corn maze, they had a hedge maze. We explored that, as well as a small bridge with a sculpture of a troll on it.
Inside the castle, we brought out one of our medieval themed board games, Kingsburg, to play in the great hall. David and I love playing board games together, so it made sense to bring a few with us on our honeymoon. Also, since I knew we would be going to a castle, it made sense to bring our medieval themed games. David loves playing Kingsburg, so that was an obvious choice to bring. It was quite fun and thematic to play it in the great hall being overlooked by a statue in knight armor. David ended up winning the game!
In the basement of the castle, there are quite a few common rooms, such as a TV room filled with movies, mostly medieval themed, as well as a room filled with costumes. We did not feel inclined to try on any clothes, but it was neat to see all of the options. The game room held other medieval themed games including the castle version of Carcassonne, which was quite a tough game to master. Our favorite game at the castle was the giant Jenga. There were swords nearby, and we were encouraged to use them in order to play the giant Jenga game! There were tips on the ends of the swords, and we would use them to push out the Jenga bricks. We were giddy playing with the swords that after pushing out a few bricks, we realized that we had forgotten the rules and that we were supposed to put the pushed-out bricks on top of the stack. I ended up winning two games, and I was knighted Sir Queen Jenga Winner (or something similar to that!)
Our room was on the second floor and was quite roomy. I loved the cute night light in the shape of a knight to make a knight light! The four-poster bed made the room seem authentic, and the bathroom was up to date. In the morning, we were treated to a lavish breakfast with the most delicious banana muffins! Then, the owners brought out yogurt parfait with blueberries and peaches. After eating that, we were given eggs benedict with a slice of orange and some grapes. We certainly ate like royalty and that was probably the most amount of food I have eaten at a breakfast in ages! I felt like I would have to be rolled away due to being so full!
We definitely enjoyed our stay at Clayshire Castle and would certainly consider staying there again in the future! However, the bed was not the most comfiest bed to sleep on, and the castle was literally in the middle of nowhere. For dinner, we did not have many choices, as there were very few restaurants nearby. We ended up going to Pioneer Café, which had decent food, but hardly anyone (staff and guests) were abiding by the mask mandate even though the sign on their front door assured us that all staff members would be wearing masks. If going back, I would most likely try to bring our own food for dinner. Overall, we highly recommend checking out Clayshire Castle for a fun getaway! We enjoyed the unique experience, scrumptious breakfast, and the number of things to do on site!
*I was not paid nor compensated in any way by the companies reviewed in this post.
