Step Back in Time at King’s Landing

King’s Landing

Step back in time in Port Williams, New Brunswick

Watch our Vlog here

One of the places that Greg was most interested in when he moved to Canada was King’s Landing. Truly a gem in New Brunswick, it is a place where you get to step back in time and experience what life was like in the 19th century.

Greg and I chose a nice fall day in September to check out King’s Landing (located 40 kilometres outside of Fredericton) and decided to document our journey. This is a truly unique experience, where all of the village has actors to really give you an immersive experience with their backstories. They teach you their way of life and will answer any questions that you have.

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Admission:

• Adult: $18.99
• Senior: $16.99
• Youth (ages 6 to 15): $14.99
• Children up to age 5 are free!

There are also options for season passes, family rates and this September if you have a library card, your local library may be able to offer you a free pass to King’s Landing for use for one visit during the month of September.

Atmosphere:

There is something for all ages at King’s Landing. This is a great place to learn about history while being fully immersed in it. Each location at King’s Landing (house, store, blacksmith, etc) has a backstory with actors to tell you about their culture and ways of living. We got to learn about making butter, hauling logs (and I even got to try it for myself!), tools and crafting, as well as getting to enjoy some of the 19th century cuisine at the King’s Head Inn!

At King’s Landing, while wandering through the village you get to go into all of the houses and check out how people lived in the past. Our favourite part was that the actors inside the houses were just going about their daily lives by cooking, or doing their chores or working hard on their professions. As you enter each location, they will strike up conversation with you and explain what it is they are working on and tell you all about their lives.

Ingraham House – learning to make butter

If you check out the Jones’ house, Mr. Jones will be there to greet you and tell you all about his house that he had built on his father’s land for his wife after they got married. Mrs. Killeen at the Killeen Cabin will tell you all about her migration to Canada from Ireland and how basically how her husband and all of their friends are named “Timothy”!

Each house we were almost excited to smell something new. The fires cackling, fresh brown bread cooking in a stone oven in the wall, to the dried flowers hanging from the ceiling.

Dried flowers hanging above the fireplace

The village is very kid friendly as well, there is a Kid Zone near the welcome centre with a playground, sandbox, life size Lincoln Logs and more fun for little ones!

Carriage Rides

While you are wandering along the village paths, you will often run into big, beautiful horses pulling a carriage full of people. Although we ended up choosing to get our steps in, and didn’t go on a carriage ride ourselves, we saw the horses constantly stopping and picking up/dropping off people all over the village. These are completely FREE and a fun way to get around (especially since there can be a lot of walking in King’s Landing), so if you aren’t able to get around as easily, or if your feet start to hurt – or if you just want to enjoy a horse ride don’t worry! They have you covered. During COVID, you are required to wear a mask on the carriage ride for protection. These rides continue throughout the day until 4 pm. We even saw some of the farm dogs riding up front on the carriage and it was so cute!

Horse carriage rides through the village

Food & Beverages

King’s Head Inn Restaurant: There’s lots of good food (and themed food!) at the King’s Head Inn restaurant. You do need a valid admission to the village in order to eat at the King’s Head Inn, but they have a lot of great options for everyone.

I ordered the two piece Fish n’ Chips for $13.50 (they also have a one piece option for $10.50). These were probably the best Fish n’ Chips I’ve ever had. They were really amazing. Greg wanted to go with the 19th century theme a bit more, and ordered the “Lumberjack Special” for $12.99. It came with ham, two scoops of potato salad, baked beans, fresh warm brown bread and a little gingerbread cake for dessert. I’m personally not a huge fan of things like baked beans and ham, but we both tried it together and Greg really enjoyed it. The brown bread was really delicious, and so much fun to try especially since we got to smell in cooking in some of the houses that we visited! I really loved the little serving of gingerbread cake, Greg isn’t a big ginger fan so I lucked out and got to eat the whole thing.

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Axe & Plough Cafe: Attached to the Peddler’s Market gift shop and the Main Entrance is the Axe & Plough Cafe, a great little cafe to grab some baked goods, an ice cream or most importantly – COFFEE! They serve all types of specialty coffees as well like expressos and lattes. Greg ordered an amazing cinnamon roll with icing, I of course ordered a cookie since that’s my favourite dessert of all time (it was a really big cookie too!) and tried some of their delicious coffee. They had ice cream selections, and you could also buy some bulk baked goods to take home (and even order what you want ahead of time before visiting) – you could even take home their famous brown bread!

Picnic Areas: If you don’t feel like the options in King’s Landing, don’t worry. You are also able to bring your own picnic in as well and there are lots of areas with picnic tables for you to have a meal, a snack or just to sit and relax for a bit!

Grant General Store: Although not a true “food” location, you are able to purchase bottled water here, as well as purchase from their selection of old fashioned candies! Honey sips, chicken bone candy and more!

Candy selection at Grant General Store

Purpose:

The purpose of King’s Landing is to bring history to life. Instead of reading about history, to get to hear, see, smell, taste and feel history. King’s Landing has done an incredible job in succeeding in bringing the past to life. All of their staff were such great actors that you forgot they were even acting! The staff/actors were able to answer all of our questions, and even kept encouraging questions. The costumes were so well done, the houses were well kept and really made you feel like you were visiting a lovely neighbour’s home in the 19th century.

Greg had made the comment we were “learning on the weekend” and it was so much fun that we didn’t even notice how much we were learning! The staff is very engaging and are eager to show you all of their work, baking, tools, crafting etc. They all had such a passion for what they are doing and and excitement to teach.

COVID Safety

King’s Landing (like most places you would visit now) have put in a lot of great measures in place due to the pandemic. We felt safe our entire day there (most of the time you are outside, but when you do enter a building you must wear a mask). Some of the COVID guidelines at King’s Landing are as such:

• All staff have masks, and guests must wear a mask while inside any building (children under 2 years old do not need a mask)
• There is hand sanitizing stations set up all throughout the village for you
• Masks must be worn on horse carriage rides
• The Welcome Centre has plexiglass between you and the staff, as well as social distancing markers on the floor. Before we walked up to the counter to purchase our tickets we watched the staff sanitize the debit machines and the entire counter
• Washrooms are frequently cleaned
• DINING: The biggest change is probably the dining at King’s Landing. They did a FANTASTIC job of setting this up. During COVID, you aren’t able to eat inside the restaurant. Instead they have a window set up on the far side of the restaurant where you place your order. Once you order, you go choose a socially distance picnic table in the garden area, and they bring out your drinks and your food right to your table. We were so surprised by how quick our food came out, and it was hot and fresh.

Conclusion

If you have a list of places in the Maritimes that you want to check out, make sure that King’s Landing is on that list. Even if you’ve been here before, I’m sure there’s something new to experience each time! Greg and I can’t recommend King’s Landing enough. It truly is beautiful, fun filled, educational and interactive and I enjoyed it way more than I even thought that I would. A lot of work goes into making this a great experience, and we can’t wait to go back again someday!

Check out all of the fun on our YouTube Vlog at King’s Landing HERE:

For more information, please check out King’s Landing official website here: http://www.kingslanding.nb.ca

Where should we go next? Let us know in the comments below!