Crook O' Lune Picnic Site
Turner painted this view, which is worth nothing to a seven year old but does explain the crowds. A picnic site on the horseshoe bend of the Lune with tables, toilets and easy riverside walking.
Days out with the kids in Lancaster
12 places in Lancaster, Lancashire, 3 of which cost nothing. Everything below is within easy reach if you live locally.
12 in Lancaster3 free9 indoor
Williamson Park earns Lancaster its page almost single-handed. The Ashton Memorial is the dome you can see from the M6, and around it sit views across Morecambe Bay, a butterfly house with mini beasts, and a good playground below. The park is free, the butterfly house is the modest paid extra, and the whole thing is comfortably the city's best free afternoon.
Salt Ayre Leisure Centre is the answer when the weather closes in, with enough indoor activity to see off a wet Saturday. And Lancaster's quiet advantage is position: Morecambe is ten minutes away, where Happy Mount Park does the old-fashioned seaside day, splash park and trampolines and adventure golf, with the prom for the ice cream afterwards. A day out in Lancaster with kids is a park, a backup and a coastline. That covers more weather than most towns manage.
Places in Lancaster
Ryelands Park
Forty-six acres north of the Lune with an accessible play area for under twelves, outdoor gym kit and five football pitches. Free parking, and a free junior parkrun every Sunday morning.
Williamson Park
The Ashton Memorial dome you can see from the M6, with views across Morecambe Bay, a butterfly house, mini beasts and a good playground below it. Lancaster's best free afternoon.
Giggles Play and Adventure
Adults go in free and you only pay for the children who actually play. Giggles takes birth to ten in Lancaster Leisure Park, with the frames split by size so the crawlers are not flattened.
Judges' Lodgings Museum
A 17th-century townhouse below the castle with a Museum of Childhood on the top floor: 200 years of toys, a Victorian schoolroom and nurseries. Free for children, adults £5, and open Thursday to Sunday until mid November.
Lancaster Castle
Guided tours only, an hour to an hour and a quarter, through a castle whose history is mostly crime and punishment, witch trials included. Brilliant for a gruesome-minded eight-year-old, wrong for a toddler in a buggy.
Lancaster City Museum
The city's own museum in the Georgian building on Market Square, with the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum inside. Children are always free, and so are adults who live in the district.
Lancaster Maritime Museum
Lancaster's port history in the old Custom House on the quay, with a grab-and-go cafe and a dog-friendly boatyard outside. Afternoons only, four days a week, and free for children.
Salt Ayre Leisure Centre
Lancaster's council leisure centre doing triple duty: Energy soft play, XHeight climbing walls and a 33m pool with a waterslide and inflatable sessions. Cheaper than the private soft play chains, and everything is under one roof for a wet day.
Lancaster Grand Theatre
A theatre that has been going since 1782, now a charity and home to the Lancaster Footlights companies. The Christmas panto is £49 for a family of four, and touring picture-book shows fill in the rest of the year.
The Dukes
Lancaster's theatre and cinema in one building, with a Christmas show in the round, the odd family show through the autumn and year-round youth theatre. The cafe bar sells Mrs Dowson's ice cream, which helps.
The Little Cobbled Village
A pretend village for under 8s on the Lune Business Park: fire station, vets, supermarket, ice cream parlour and seven more wooden play shops. Booked sessions, calm by design, and very little climbing.
What’s on in Lancaster
14 dated events coming up.
St. Luke's and St. Chad's Youth Group (opens on St Lukes, Skerton, Lancaster)
St Lukes, Skerton, Lancaster
2 Nov. Monday 2 November, 7pm
Crafts, sports, and bible-based activities for school-years 5 to 8.
Listed by St Lukes, Skerton, Lancaster · collected 1 Nov
Youth Group (opens on St Chad, Skerton)
St Chad, Skerton · Lancaster
2 Nov. Monday 2 November, 7pm
Crafts, sports, and bible-based activities for school-years 5 to 8.
Listed by St Chad, Skerton · collected 1 Nov
Jelly Tots (opens on St John's Church, Ellel)
St John's Church, Ellel · Lancaster
4 Nov. Wednesday 4 November, 10am
St John's Play Group for children under 4's, and their adults.
Listed by St John's Church, Ellel · collected 1 Nov
Youth at St Tees (opens on St Thomas' Church, Lancaster)
St Thomas' Church, Lancaster
5 Nov. Thursday 5 November, 6pm
11-18 year olds meet on Thursday evenings.
Listed by St Thomas' Church, Lancaster · collected 1 Nov
Light Up Lancaster (opens in a new tab)
Across Lancaster city centre
5 Nov to 7 Nov. Thursday 5 to Saturday 7 November, 5pm to 10pm
Three nights of free light art around the city, with interactive pieces children can ride on and play with, and BSL-guided tours. Fireworks were not in the published programme when we checked, so come for the lights, not the bangs.
Written by us
The Cottage by Candlelight (Light Up Lancaster) (opens in a new tab)
Cottage Museum · Lancaster
6 Nov. Friday 6 November, 5pm to 8pm
The Cottage Museum in Lancaster lit by candlelight for Light Up Lancaster. Free, no booking, 5pm to 8pm on 6 November, and suitable for all ages.
Written by us
Everything on in Lancaster8 more not shown here
Also worth the drive
Not in Lancaster, but close enough for a day out.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
The big one. Nickelodeon Land covers the primary ages properly while the Big One and the wooden coasters wait for brave older kids. August queues are real; go in expecting them and it is a great day.
Blackpool Tower
Tower Top's glass floor 380 feet up, a proper circus that still knows how to play to kids, and the famous ballroom below for a fancy ice cream. Buy the attractions you want rather than the bundle you will not use.
Sandcastle Waterpark
The UK's biggest indoor waterpark, kept at tropical temperature: proper toddler pools and mini slides at one end, big flumes at the other. Rainy-day Blackpool solved.
Blackpool Zoo
Elephants, gorillas, giraffes and sea lions in 37 acres that are actually walkable with primary-age legs - big enough to feel like a full day, small enough that nobody ends up carried.
Sea Life Blackpool
A solid seafront aquarium with an ocean tunnel and rockpool sessions - the reliable wet-weather hour when the beach plan falls apart.
Stanley Park
Blackpool's grand free option: Italian gardens, a big boating lake, one of the best playgrounds on the coast and model boats on the lake. The antidote to a wristband day.
WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre
Otters at feeding time, flamingos, pond dipping and a canoe safari through the reeds in season. One of those places that quietly turns a nature-indifferent child into a nature child.
Windmill Animal Farm
A friendly hands-on farm whose star turn is the miniature railway running out across the fields. Animal handling sessions, indoor play for wet spells, and it never feels too big.
What’s on near you, every Friday
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.