“Castle Green House is due to host a typically grand banquet for a number of distinguished guests. It is the morning before the banquet and you are visiting the Castle and Mrs Davies, the lady of the house, has noticed her priceless pearl necklace is missing!
Mr Davies is furious and is refusing to let you and your party leave the Castle until you can prove your innocence by finding the real guilty party! Clues as to the whereabouts of the main suspects are hidden in the Rainbow Room at Cardigan Castle. Working together you must narrow down the list of suspects and out the thief of Castle Green House!”
The premise of searching for a thief in an ancient castle in deep Wales is certainly an exciting one, and we couldn’t wait to discover what lay ahead!
You really do feel like you are in the early 1800’s whilst doing this room. From the furniture to the books, everything feels really authentic to that time period. Trying to find who stole the pearls also makes it feels like a murder mystery (minus the murder) but makes excellent use of our detective skills!
This escape room is in the Rainbow Room within the Castle Green House in Cardigan Castle’s grounds. The room did not need much added decoration or fancy accessories as it was already so unique compared to other more ‘traditional’ rooms that we’ve played in previously. I mean, it’s literally a castle!
At first glance, this room might feel quite small, but they make use of the space really well and with just the right amount of puzzles and clues without cramming too much in.
We were particularly impressed at the use of the castle’s interior and layout to implement clever puzzles and clues! Whilst your playing space might feel slightly small, being observant in this room and looking beyond your immediate area will serve you well in your escape efforts.
However, we would say taking more than 4 escapees into this room might make it feel a little too cramped, making it difficult for everyone to play their part. This is true of many escape rooms though, but just bare it in mind if you’re considering taking a large group here!
We completed this room as a couple during a short break away in Cardigan and found that there was more than enough for us both to get stuck into.
We had absolutely no idea what to expect when it came to the actual gameplay of this room.
Finding reviews for Cardigan Castle’s escape room is difficult and not much is given away about the types of puzzles and codes we would have to decipher. This actually made it quite fun and exciting as we really had no idea what we were in for!
There are plenty of the usual coded locks present in this escape room, but there are also a few puzzles that we have not seen much or at all in other rooms!
They have been very smart and unique with using educational information about Cardigan Castle’s history within some of the puzzles. It was refreshing and a nice change of pace, especially as we were visiting Cardigan on a holiday break, so learning about the area and its history whilst simultaneously trying to escape was pretty cool!
A nice surprise and something we haven’t seen before was this Escape room’s use of the Welsh language. It was a fun addition to the room that we weren’t expecting. We were both extremely impressed and pleasantly surprised at how inventive and clever the clues and puzzles were. Each one was challenging and provided a great mix of having to be observant and having to crack complex codes. One of our favourite parts included genius use of the castle and its grounds (we shall say no more!).
“The Mystery Of The Missing Pearls” at Cardigan Castle wasn’t super difficult but we did have to get a few clues throughout the 60 minutes. We are aware though that having done many rooms before gives us a skewed perspective of difficulty, so newbies may face a different challenge.
We did get stumped by a few puzzles, the more visual and observational ones more so than the locks and codes, but are sure that this is because we hadn’t come across them in other rooms we had done, making them quite unique to this castle and escape room.
Although some of the puzzles were harder than we anticipated, it was still not overly difficult to the point where the room was impossible to complete! Overall, there was a great balance and variety of codes to decipher that would challenge players of all types.
As you play escape rooms all around the country (and the world!), you come across many different types of clue systems, some better than others.
We’re used to the classic TV screen with a timer and written clues, but this one was a little different.
To receive clues in this room there was no TV to wave at or shout a specific phrase to, we had to knock on the glass window within the room and the games host would then enter. Once in the room, we were allowed to ask the games host what we specifically wanted help with.
To be given clues face-to-face was a new experience for us but the host was very good at gently nudging us in the right direction if we were on the wrong track entirely! It was a nice to change to the usual pre-loaded clues and felt more personal having clues tailored to our journey in the room.
Thinking back now, the choice to omit the classic TV screen clue system is pretty genius, as a huge clunky piece of modern tech hanging off the wall would almost certainly negatively affect the historic aesthetic of the room.
Whilst escape rooms aren’t the main focus of Cardigan Castle, they have done a super job and we were surprised at how attentive and well set up everything was.
Whilst assuming that the game’s host doesn’t always host escape rooms, she was amazing at telling us the story, and the mission was explained really well for being the only escape room at the Castle, and a very unique one at that!
Yippee! We got out! With just over 13 minutes to spare, can you believe it?! The lovely games host let us know that it was a really good time for 2 people to solve the room in. Not that our egos need boosting any further…
So overall “The Mystery Of The Missing Pearls” at Cardigan Castle was an exceptionally unique escape room with lots of use of the gorgeous interior inside the castle house. We would say that this is a good room to start off with if you haven’t done many escape rooms before. The difficulty level is scaled to a point where any player would find it challenging and thrilling, despite being one of the easier rooms that we have played on our adventures.
We visited Cardigan whilst on holiday within the area and discovered that not only can you do an escape room in the lovely town of Cardigan but you can also take “A Bay To Remember” boat trip to see dolphins and then you can finish your day indulging in delicious Pizzas at the Pizza Tipi, just across the road from Cardigan Castle. Make sure to book though as it is very popular!
Whether you’re a Cardigan local, or someone passing through like we were – we definitely recommend booking in and seeing if you can successfully hunt down the pearl thief!
Find prices and more information here!
https://cardigancastle.com/escape-game-cardigan-castle-the-mystery-of-the-missing-pearls/
One thing to mention is that the price of this Escape room also includes admission to the Castle and its grounds. Ooooo! It was really pleasant to be able to have a short mooch around the castle before tackling its room.
It is worth calling up and clarifying the times you can book though as the website currently says weekend only, but we booked our Cardigan Castle escape adventure on a weekday.
Find prices and more information here!
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Visit Cardigan Castle Escape Room
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01239 615131
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