Moors Valley Country Park

As part of my #MummyBudget project, I am determined to discover days out that can be done on even the smallest of budgets.

This weekend we visited one of our local country parks – Moors Valley.

Yes, the weather wasn’t great, but we donned our wet weather gear and off we went.

Admittedly the parking is rather pricey (£7.50 for 2-4 hours), but for a family of 5 and the facilities they offer it was well worth it.

Mum, the play trail is this way!

Play Trail

The play trail is more suitable for older children, but Eliza was happy just to be out and exploring her new environment.  You can explore inside a giant ‘ants nest’, climb and crawl through ‘towers and tunnels’, slide inside giant snakes in the ‘snake pit’, attempt the ‘crocodile crossing’ and find your way through the ‘pond maze’.

On the spiders web

The trail is only a mile long but with so many exciting pieces of play equipment it takes at least an hour and is suitable for pushchairs and mobility scooters.

Look Mum, I’ve wrestled a crocodile

Play Areas

There are also two imaginative play areas close to the Visitor Centre.
The Adventure Play Area, designed specially for older children, includes a zip slide, huge space net, climbing boulder and a fortress of towers and crossings with a long tube slide which as you can see from the picture below was a huge hit!

Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

Younger children will be enthralled in the Castle and Sandworks area with its gentle slides and swings, all set inside a safe sand area.  We forgot our bucket and spade, but had oodles of fun anyway.

Having a rest

There is also a cafe, shop and toilet facilities close by and a lovely picnic area for when the weather is better.

Starting from Kingsmere Station you can travel along the banks of the Moors Lake and follow a double loop around the play area incorporating three tunnels, tight curves, inclines and a bridge, before stopping at Lakeside station. From there you can travel back alongside the lake, through a 4th tunnel and the goods yard before arriving back at Kingsmere Station. A return journey covers one mile and will take about 20 minutes.

Choo Choo

At Kingsmere station you can visit the model railway shop and the railway buffet for drinks and snacks.  We walked back along the side of the lake and saw a nesting swan and lots of other wildlife.

There is plenty to do here, room for a Frisbee game or a football kick about and even a treetop trail, which we couldn’t do with a buggy.  You can also hire bikes if you don’t want to bring your own!

Also at Moors Valley is Go Ape – a tree top adventure which involves climbing through trees and whizzing down zip lines.  They have also started Segway tours too, which I can’t wait to try, but I will leave that for a whole new post!

If you are close to a country park or even just the great outdoors, give it a go – it’s a whole lot of fun!