I’ve been a Potter nerd since I was a kid, so I feel very fortunate that Harry Potter experience has opened up in my very own county. Nice to see Warner Bros putting Cheshire ON THE MAP.
The Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience is a sound, special effect and light show currently taking place at the Arley Hall and Gardens, just north of Northwich, Cheshire. Prices vary depending on what day/time you visit, with an adult Peak+ ticket costing you £34. I’m a skinflint, and also wary of spending too much on an experience and being underwhelmed, so I bought two £24 tickets for myself and Aimee to visit at 9:50pm on a damp and cold Monday night – definitely not peak time.
If you are thinking of going, I should probably mention SPOILERS AHEAD.
The day before, a snowstorm hit Cheshire and made the place all wintery and picturesque. Sadly, by Monday evening, the snow had all melted away, making the ground sodden and muddy. For our late night walk through the woods, Aimee bolstered her reputation for bringing appropriate footwear.
No prizes for predicting how they will end up.
On our drive down dark narrow lanes through the Cheshire countryside, in search of Arley Hall, I noticed a blue tinge to some clouds in the sky – markedly brighter than the rest of the jet black sky. It was pretty spooky, almost extraterrestrial, and I figured it must be coming from the Experience.
Wow, this thing must be decent if they’re painting the night sky to appear more ghostly.
We walked down the path towards the lights, with varying international accents passing us in the opposite direction. We were directed towards a circular pen lined with Hagrid’s lanterns.
A greeter inside welcomed us in – “there’s plenty of room!” – and every single person decided to stand as far away from his as possible.
This isn’t social distancing – this is social awkwardness.
He ran us through the rules – basically stick to the trail, don’t leave the trail and watch out for the muddy bits (lol Aimee).
With the aid of Dumbledore’s Deluminator, he lit up the trees ahead for us to begin our walk.
They’ve done a good job of adding some magic to this forest.
As you walk through the trees, you’ll hear soundbites from particular movies when the characters have entered the Forbidden Forest. The first voice we heard was Delores Umbridge shouting at centaurs from Order of the Phoenix.
Soon we came across the first sculpture – Hagrid and Fang.
With Hagrid looking the other way, one arm holding aloft a lantern and the other crooked in front of him, it kinda looked like we had stumbled across a half-giant having a wee.
Toilet selfie!
Next, we encountered the Centaurs, who mocked us for being humans.
A little further on, we started hearing hooting from the trees. Then we found a nice photos spot with Hedwig.
One big bonus about coming so late in the day: small queues. I can imagine if you come earlier, you’d have to wait ages to have a photo with Hagrid, Hedwig etc, and the risk of a knobhead photobomber skyrockets. I imagine.
From one beaky animal to another. Buckbeak the Hippogriff (Microsoft Word is not liking all these weird new words – red lines everywhere).
Next, a darker section of path.
From the darkness, expect rustling, glowing eyes and low, menacing growls. A couple of girls walking near to us let out a shriek.
We’d seen (the back of) Hagrid, now we came across his half-brother, Grawp.
A much scaled-down version of Grawp – he’s definitely bigger in the books and on screen. Grawp is the son of Hagrid’s giantess mother Fridwulfa, and my friend Andy raises a valid question: How did Hagrid’s human dad and giantess mum, yaknow, make a baby? It’s a valid question.
The Forbidden Forest Experience isn’t just a light show. There are interactive activities as well. For example, you can partake in a duel.
Even at this late hour, the queue was fairly big. So I made do with snapping some strangers.
Here marks the halfway stage of the trail. There are some shops to buy food, drink, and Harry Potter merch at heavily inflated prices.
Yep, that’s £7.95 for a little bottle of butterbeer.
In 2012, I visited the Warner Bros. Studios outside Watford for The Making of Harry Potter tour, and tried a butterbeer for the first time. It was RANK. Fizzy and cold and too sweet. But I’m glad I gave it another go. Nine years on, my taste buds have changed (or the recipe has), and this fizzy butterscotch drink is absolutely delicious. Not worth £7.95, of course. You definitely want to keep the bottle as a memento for that price.
Next up on the trail was a feature I did want to queue for. It was time to see what animal form my Patronus Charm took. Could it be a phoenix, or a puma, or a stag?
That, my friends, is a badger. Well, at least it wasn’t a slug.
Aimee’s was a little yappy dog. Appropriate.
Next we walked through some green trees and found some destroyed crates of Blast-Ended Skrewts.
There was no sign of the Skrewts, but for small explosions from within the trees.
I’m sure if you’ve made it this far into the blog, you’re into Harry Potter, and I don’t have to apologise for all this Potter terminology. But if by some bizarre reason you’re not, you can still appreciate the light show.
It really is pretty beautiful walking through this forest at night, with all the trees lit up in different colours. Magical, you could say…?
I actually really liked this next feature.
A unicorn, walking almost silently through the trees. I almost missed it, but it’s glowing light caught my eye. Thankfully, Professor Quirrell was not around to drink it’s blood.
The trail then took us by a lake, with water like glass. Unnaturally still, like the lake in Voldemort’s cave.
From across the lake you can hear Ron and Harry driving Mr Weasley’s Ford Anglia. Then you see headlights that appear to fly through the trees before crashing somewhere.
As you continue walking, you can hear an engine from other parts of the forest, before you finally come across the flying car gone feral.
After walking through a glowing mushroom patch, we came across a bundle of Nargle infested mistletoe.
Cute.
After passing some Niffler nests with accrued gold, we entered Aragog’s Lair.
Oho, a good sign. We went in.
Behind a large net was a huge metal frame, from which hung spiders. As the speakers ran through the dialogue from the film, the spiders descended, and Aragog appeared.
Aragog is definitely bigger in the Chamber of Secrets.
After a last walk through the enchanted trees, we came out beside a large lake for the final act. Across the water, Dementors swooshed through the air, before Harry screamed EXPECTO PATRONUM!
This was actually a pretty cool watch. The audio effects, the music and the location really did make me envisage myself standing on the opposite side of the Black Lake – how I always imagined it when I read this scene in the book.
The stewards thanked us for visiting and directed us towards “The Village”.
I loved the Christmas market vibe, with Christmas trees and little grottos sprung up all over the place. They even managed to achieve the “extortionate pricing” feel of a Christmas market.
The only thing I thought I would bring myself to buy was a Cornish pasty. Thank you, JK Rowling for incorporating Cornish pixies into your books, for it meant one stall was selling genuine Cornish pasties. Sadly though, as it was now 11pm, they’d sold out. All that was left were cheese and onion pasties. Nah.
It was time to see how Aimee’s appropriate footwear had fared.
I said no prizes.
In true Banksy style, we exited through the gift shop. Staggeringly, everything was bloody expensive.
And so we found ourselves back at the entrance, where we could go full Instagrammer and have a photo with the Patronus sculpture.
Again, this late hour meant no queues. Winner.
It was a lovely walk through the woods and I really enjoyed the lights and the nostalgia. Some of the sculptures are a bit naff, but this is the event’s first year I think, so maybe in years to come, the exhibits will improve. If you’re a big Harry Potter fan, then the Forbidden Forest Experience is a must-do. Just don’t forget to empty your Gringotts vault before you visit.
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