Northwood Park (Castle Park) — Attraction in Irvine

This place is a childhood classic - I have a scar from playing here in the 90s! The wood structures may be long gone, but in its place is a ton of fun structures for children to play on - probably with less splinters.

The community center here is fantastic, and Kids Club was my first volunteering and job! I’m sure it’s still a wonderful program, and the center itself hosts many classes and has well-maintained bathrooms and cold water fountains.

The rest of the park boasts two tennis courts, a handball court and one basketball hoop, a baseball diamond, room for two soccer fields, and a lovely track with some workout stations along it. There’s a restroom on the track near the baseball diamond, too. There are also two picnic table areas that you can reserve (I think for free) to have parties or BBQs at.

Lastly, the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial stands open on the corner to remember the fallen in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It’s almost a surprise so much wonderful stuff is in such a small space, and so well kept. Only downside is total parking, but you can also park along...

Unique castle themed Park. Our 4 and 6 year olds give it 5 stars (but to be fair, they would probably rate most parks this way). There are a lot of different areas to enjoy including at least 3 different style monkey bars. You wouldn't really notice how much there is to do by just driving by sonce the castle structure hides most of that, so its worth the effort to park and have a look around. The only negative I found would probably be the amount of sand in the various playgrounds, I would have preferred it to just be in one or 2 play areas, but it actually surrounds the castle as well. That being said, I am not lowering my rating since others may actually see...

This is a great park for kids of all ages. There are 4 playground sets with 4 bucket swings, 4 regular swings, and 1 tire swing. The castle is pretty cool, too, making this a unique park. There's sand and sand equipment. There are nice built in restrooms and a newer water bottle refill station. Plus,...