Parks & outdoors Windermere & Bowness
Playgrounds, country parks, woodland trails and nature reserves. Most of these cost nothing.
Brockhole is free to walk into and then charges for parking and for each activity, Zip World's treetop courses, Minty Land's indoor play and the Wild Bounce inflatables alike. The old archery and boat hire have gone while BeWILDerwood rebuilds the site.
Orrest Head costs nothing beyond the village car park. A short climb gets you a summit with the whole lake and the high fells laid out below, a surfaced accessible path now runs the entire way up, and Holehird sets no fixed price at all, ten acres of fellside garden above the Patterdale Road with a suggested £6 an adult and children free.
The old national park visitor centre on the Windermere shore, now run by BeWILDerwood and still mid-makeover. The grounds are free to wander; Minty Land indoor play, Zip World's treetop courses, Wild Bounce and the lake cruises are the paid extras.
Ten acres of fellside garden looking down over Windermere, run by the Lakeland Horticultural Society: terraces, a walled garden, glasshouses and children's trails. No fixed entry price and children go free.
The classic first family fell: a short climb from Windermere village to a proper summit with the whole lake and the high fells laid out below. A surfaced accessible path now runs all the way up, though it is still a real 120-metre climb, not a stroll.
The reliable default: gardens, a children's zoo, a big playground and plenty of room to run. Pay for parking, nothing else.
A raised peat bog nature reserve at Birchwood with woodland trails, bird hides and a visitor centre with toilets. Free, close and short enough for little legs, but closed on Fridays.
St Helens' biggest park. Play areas, open space and a walled garden, and it costs nothing.
A 20-metre white head rising out of a reclaimed colliery, with woodland trails around it. Genuinely strange and memorable for kids, and a short walk rather than a hike.
A green corridor of canal towpath and parkland running from St Helens down towards Warrington. Flat, traffic-free and ideal if the bikes or scooters are coming.
A Tudor hall with woodland walks, a maze and a natural play area in the grounds. Free if you have National Trust membership, and the indoor house is a good rain fallback.
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.