Museums & science in Keswick

Keswick is well stocked for a wet day. The Puzzling Place is the quick one, an anti-gravity room where water appears to run uphill and a hologram gallery. The Derwent Pencil Museum sits on the works that made the world's first pencils, with wartime pencils hiding maps and a coloured pencil close to eight metres long.

Keswick Museum in Fitz Park is the town's own, with a digital gallery where children play the Lake District as a video game, and every ticket lets you back in free for a year, which pays off on a week's holiday. Threlkeld Quarry, three miles east, is the outdoor one: a narrow gauge train into the quarry is included in the £5.50 child ticket, with mineral panning and a yard of old diggers. Its season ends at October half term.

Museums & science in Keswick

Derwent Pencil Museum

Keswick~0 min

★★★★☆4.4(3,136)

Keswick made the world's first pencils and the museum sits on the works. About an hour indoors: secret wartime pencils with maps hidden inside, and a coloured pencil close to eight metres long.

Adults £6.65, kids £5.85, families from £11Indoors1 April to 1 November, seven days a weekAges 3-11

Keswick Museum

Keswick~1 hr 50

★★★★☆4.4(524)

Keswick's own museum in Fitz Park: galleries on the rocks, history and people of the area, plus a hands-on digital gallery where children play a video game version of the Lake District. Under 5s are free and every ticket covers a year of return visits.

Family £21.50, valid for a yearIndoorsAges 4-11

The Puzzling Place

Keswick~1 hr 50

★★★★☆4.4(2,039)

An anti-gravity room where water appears to run uphill, a hologram gallery and a room that shrinks the grown-ups. Cheap, indoor, and exactly the right length for the age group.

Attraction ticketsIndoorsAges 5-11

Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum

Keswick~1 hr 45

★★★★★4.5(730)

A long-running quarry museum three miles from Keswick, with a narrow gauge railway ride into the quarry included in the ticket, mineral panning and a yard full of old diggers. Excellent for any child who stops for roadworks.

Adults £9.50, children £5.50, train ride includedEaster to October half term, plus Santa trains in DecemberAges 3-11

Museums & science elsewhere in the North West

World of Glass

St HelensIn town

★★★★★4.6(956)

Free, indoors and better than it sounds: interactive science aimed at younger children, glassblowing demos, a picnic area and a small playground outside.

Free museumIndoorsAges 5-11

World Museum, Liverpool

Liverpool~30 min

★★★★★4.6(16,054)

Five floors, free, and it covers three things small children reliably love: giant dinosaurs, an aquarium and a space gallery. The best wet-weather day within half an hour.

Free entryIndoorsAges 4-11

Catalyst Science Centre

Widnes~20 min

★★★★☆4.4(1,125)

Hands-on science galleries and a glass rooftop observatory over the Mersey. Small, cheap, indoors and close.

Low entryIndoorsAges 5-11

Science and Industry Museum

Manchester~30 min

★★★★☆4.4(20,615)

Working steam engines, the story of Cottonopolis, and hands-on galleries in the world's oldest surviving passenger railway station. Free, and the live demonstrations are the bit kids actually remember.

Free entryIndoorsAges 4-11

Manchester Museum

Manchester~30 min

★★★★★4.7(10,653)

A T. rex skeleton cast, live frogs in the vivarium, Egyptian mummies and a genuinely good natural history floor. Free, university-run, and less overwhelming than the big London equivalents.

Free entryIndoorsAges 4-11

National Football Museum

Manchester~30 min

★★★★☆4.3(7,724)

Shirts, trophies and match footage across six floors, with penalty shootout and skills games that football-mad kids refuse to leave. If yours do not care about football, skip it - it is exactly what it says.

TicketedIndoorsAges 6-11