The Skelves Outdoor Escape Room!
Castle Howard 2023
The Brief
For the October half term in 2023 Castle Howard asked us to create something exciting and as yet unseen for the Skelves and to link the content with the upcoming Christmas theme in the house – Neverland!
What We Did
We had been looking for an opportunity to bring in our love of escape rooms to our Rusticus events and the Neverland theme gave us the perfect opportunity. The Neverland pirates had arrived at Castle Howard early and disrupted the world of the Skelves! The Great Skelves Gathering was imminent and some of the Skelves had yet to answer their RSVPs – where could they be..? We brought associate, Rob Laughlin on board to help us create some themed escape room style puzzles suitable for families of all ages and identified a good route through the parkland adjacent to Skelf Island. We created accompanying workshops – pumpkin carving, broomstick making and new for 2024 – Skelf Combat workshops for which we introduced a feisty new Skelf – Fern! Skilled in combat, she drilled our audiences to ready themselves in the face of a pirate battle!
The Result
We delivered nine superb days of activity over the October half term – successfully attracting both families with young children and teenagers to the event. We provided fresh new activities for loyal audiences and offered a cross-promotion for the Christmas themed opening at Castle Howard.

“We love the Skelves!!”
Want this for your event?
If you would like us to deliver this sort of performance at your venue, get in touch.