Santa's visit rounds off a bumper year for Landguard Fort - the staff and volunteers thank visitors from East Anglia (and beyond!) for their support.

During 2022 we've welcomed over 22000 visitors at Landguard Fort which is one of Suffolk's top visitor attractions depicting over 400 years of military, social and geopolitical history.

Staff and volunteers are constantly working hard to provide new exhibits and facilities for visitors and some of the 2022 highlights include the introduction of a multimedia tour app for smartphones and tablets, provision of additional ramps for wheelchair users, collaboration with Felixstowe Museum to offer money saving joint-tickets for visitors to both attractions, re-introduction of the spooky 'ghost tours', installation of two replica 17th century cannons, the development of a new Victorian officers quarters exhibit and the complete revision of all interpretation signage.

Landguard Fort has established itself as an events venue as well as a visitor attraction. The fort was chosen as the 2022 venue for: an episode of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Take Away, The Suffolk Youth Orchestra, the display of an art installation 'Journey with a Container', The Pantaloons open-air theatre production of The Wind In The Willows, the Festival of the Sea, the lighting of the Felixstowe Beacon and events to commemorate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and The Little Fort Of Horrors Halloween scare-night events.

And we've had lots of re-enactment groups stay at the fort for a weekend during the year allowing visitors to see how soldiers lived during the centuries including The Suffolk Regiment, The Sheppey Pirates, The 95^th Rifles, and The Home Guard.

Our themed trails continue to be a favourite with our younger visitors who need to find a number of themed objects placed around the fort in order to receive a goody-bag on completion. This year we've used Easter, the Queen's corgis, pirates, soldiers and Halloween pumpkins as trail themes.

Our Christmas event Felixstowe's big festive family treat was our season finale, and our biggest feature of 2022, when over 1500 people visited the fort between 17th and 19th December. Children needed to have a special passport stamped in each of the seven unique Christmas themed rooms before visiting Santa in his grotto. Everyone had the chance to enjoy the hot chocolate, mulled wine, mince pies and seasonal music provided to get into the Christmas spirit. Mother nature didn't provide any real snow, so the fort provided some of its own to complete the winter wonderland. The entry prices for this event were purposefully kept the same as last year to ensure that as many people as possible could visit and enjoy some seasonal cheer without entry being cost prohibitive. Here's what some of our visitors had to say -

"This was the best grotto we have been to in five years, really well set out and such friendly volunteers, well done everyone"

“Have been telling everyone about the wonderful time we had on Sunday. We have been to many different Christmas events over the years but honestly your event has been my absolute favourite by far. So much effort had gone into it and for me the volunteers made it. Everyone we came across was so joyful and kept the magic alive”

“We loved it, thank you for making it so special. The whole experience was great and it was clear that a lot of time and effort was put into the event. “

Landguard Fort is now closed until February half term, when it will be open every day from Saturday 11th to Sunday 19th.