Castle Village and Enchanted Kingdom Park – What will happen this closed popular attraction?

The iconic castle at Castle Village and Enchanted Kingdom Park. Photo: Bruce Forsyth.

May 2023

Castle Village and Enchanted Kingdom Park was once a very popular children’s amusement park, a little to the west of Midland, Ontario, based on several famous fairy tales, including Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Merlin’s tower, Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs, with a large medieval castle welcoming guests at the main entrance.

Opened in 1972 by Paul Des Roches, it originally consisted of the iconic 8,100-square-foot, two-story castle, which Des Roches built as a gift shop to sell his handmade crafts and woodworking. Surrounded by a curved stone wall, the Romanesque-style castle featured thirty brightly coloured turrets, arched windows, with a water-spewing serpentine dragon, and a moat guarded by creatures of the underworld, surrounding the front side of the exterior.

In the basement of the castle, Des Roches added a Museum of Medieval Arms, Armour and Heraldry. Here visitors could learn about heraldry and check out the large collection of medieval weaponry and armour throughout the Middle Ages, along with trying on chain-mail suits.

The basement also featured the Museum of Horror, Dracula’s Dungeons, added in 1982. Here visitors descended down a spiral staircase into the basement, complete with cobwebs, where they’d find old-style prison cells with well-known horror characters locked inside.

As the years passed, Des Roches created Enchanted Kingdom Park in the wooded area behind the castle. Guests would walk along an educational nature trail lined and children could enjoy peeking into the seven small fantasy cottages based on fairytales, based on popular fairy-tales including Snow White’s wishing well, Hansel and Gretel’s candy house, Mother Goose and Family, Teddy Bear’s Tea Party, Giant Fountain, Little Red Riding Hood & Grandma’s house, and Three Little Pig’s House. A Grist Mill and Merlin the Magician’s Tower was also added, with an 80-foot suspension bridge across a pond featuring a giant fountain, providing lots of running and climbing options for children.

Des Roches sold the property in 2016, after around six-years on the market, to businessman Deo Moreno, who proceeded to add an assortment of adult activities. New attractions that were added by Moreno included an escape-room adventure called “Escape the Dungeon,” life-size role-playing game events, an archery range, human foosball and a wedding room to host medieval time-themed weddings.

Not all these changes were well received by long-time fans of the attraction and it continued to fall into disrepair, something that had begun while still under Des Roches’ ownership. Castle Village and Enchanted Kingdom Park closed along with many other non-essential businesses with the coming of the Chinese Communist Party Virus in the spring of 2020 and never re-opened. The two-acre property was put up for sale in the summer of 2020, finally selling in the April 2023.

Whatever the future holds for Castle Village and Enchanted Kingdom Park, it’s creator won’t be around to see it. Paul des Roches passed away in December of 2022.