Lakeland Maze Farm Park
A working farm on the edge of the Lakes with a giant maize maze cut fresh each summer, go-karts, trampolines and animal handling. The maze opens mid-July once the corn is tall enough.
Outside In
Kendal, Cumbria
Outside In is a charity play centre set up by Kendal parents, and it shows. The soft play is a model of Kendal Castle, with a spiral slide, a climbing wall, rope bridges, a trampette and a giant tree that leads out onto a 'Ye Olde Kendal' rooftop walkway, which slips in a bit of local history on the way round. Across the floor is a role-play high street of Kendal landmarks, the library and the post office among them, and the role play inside each building changes monthly.
It is built for children up to about 10, and the smallest get their own area behind a dry stone wall with blocks and interactive panels. Children can wander between the indoor space and a small outdoor play area without escaping. The cafe cooks with local ingredients, and tickets sit between £3.19 and £9.50 with one adult free per child.
Mind the hours. Outside the holidays it only opens on Wednesday mornings and at weekends, so this is an answer to a wet Kendal Saturday rather than a wet Kendal Tuesday.
What it costs: Tickets are sold on TryBooking and range from £3.19 to £9.50. One adult per child is free but still has to be booked as an 'Adult accompanying child' ticket; extra adults pay. Every child from crawling age needs a child ticket, and non-mobile babies are free when they come with an older sibling.
Know before you go
- In term time it opens on Wednesday mornings only (9am to noon). Weekends and school holidays are 9am to 5.30pm. It can also close for private bookings, so ring 01539 723924 if you are coming any distance.
- There is no public parking on site, only blue badge spaces and drop-off. Use the street parking on Beezon Fields, the Kendal Museum car park or the Westmorland Shopping Centre.
- All food eaten inside has to be bought from the cafe, so the packed lunch stays in the car.
Worth knowing: For children up to 10 (about 130cm).
Looking for more days out in Kendal?
Also in Kendal
Sizergh Castle & Garden
A medieval tower house with proper gardens and a wild play trail in the woods just off the car park - climbing wall, rope swing, stepping stones. For National Trust members it is the easiest Lakes stop off the M6; for everyone else the garden ticket is the sensible buy.
Lakeland Wildlife Oasis
A small zoo five minutes off M6 junction 35 with over 100 species and, crucially, a lot of it under glass: tropical hall, butterfly house, aquarium and small mammals inside, dik-diks and hornbills out. Compact enough that little legs see everything, open every day from 10am.
Kendal Castle
A free 12th-century ruin on a grassy hill above Kendal, open all the time, with walls to circle, arches to charge through and the whole town and fells spread out below. Ten minutes of steep pull to get up, then let them loose.
Levens Hall & Gardens
The oldest topiary gardens in the world, laid out in the 1690s five miles south of Kendal and still clipped into the same absurd shapes. In child terms, acres of giant green chess pieces to run between.
Low Sizergh Barn Farm Trail
Turn up at half three and you can watch the herd being milked through a gallery window in the cafe, drink in hand. It is a working dairy farm outside Kendal and the trail round it is free.
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.