After making its successful debut last year, the spectacular Christmas Lights at Leeds Castle trail returns for another glittering festive season.

The trail, which includes thousands of twinkling fairy lights, colourful projections and larger-than-life installations, made a fantastic first impression last year and I was excited to see what the team had come up with for its follow-up.

It’s a chilly opening night at the historic attraction, just outside of Maidstone, but that hasn’t stopped me and a host of other visitors, from grandparents with walkers to little ones running riot through the grounds, from turning up.

The walk starts with a stunning view over the lake where you can catch an early glimpse of some of the installations from a distance before heading down to the first display, the new Chandelier Walk.

The walk sees beautifully designed chandeliers delicately suspended in the trees and leads out to a charming series of wooden sculptures depicting the 12 Days of Christmas.

It’s not long before we emerge from the woodland and find ourselves standing in front of the striking castle, which looks even more impressive in the moonlight illuminated by lasers, projections and flashing lights.

It’s all paired with dramatic music that blasts out from nearby speakers, and the light sequences change with each piece of music. It’s something we could’ve stood and watched for hours - but the food village next door was calling.

This area was much larger than last year and included a children’s fairground and undercover seating.

There were street food stalls selling Greek kebabs, bao buns, loaded fries, burgers and churros; not exactly a festive feast, but definitely a good range of eats.

We grabbed a halloumi wrap from Hide and Greek (a small wrap cost a whopping £12) which was tasty but didn’t feel very Christmassy, so we paired it with a Baileys hot chocolate to help keep the festive spirits high and continued along the dazzling trail.

The route is completely different to last year, so if you’ve visited the trail before you’ll be in for a whole new experience this season.

We passed lots of installations that were truly stunning, from the Carol of the Bells, a sweeping display of spheres that changed colour to music, to the immersive Feast of Light with its glowing rainbow-coloured strings.

The finale was the breathtaking Pixel Tree, a 12-metre high Christmas tree made of thousands of LED lights which changed colours along to It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year that made for a heart-warming end to the trail.

It took us just over an hour to complete, but we easily could’ve been there longer with kids - especially as Father Christmas says hello to the children from his grotto and I imagine this could take a while with little ones.

As we took one last look at the illuminated grounds before heading back to the car park, with the music faintly playing in the background and lasers being projected into the night sky around the castle, the festive feeling definitely kicked in and I can say for sure that I’m now ready for Christmas.

You can book tickets to the Christmas Lights at Leeds Castle trail online here.

The trail is open now until New Year’s Eve.