Witton Country Park
Blackburn's biggest green space: 480 acres with adventure playgrounds, woodland trails and a visitor centre in the old Victorian stables. Free in, free to park, and it absorbs a whole afternoon without anyone asking for money.
Sunnyhurst Wood
Blackburn, Lancashire
Sunnyhurst is a steep sided valley, and the steepness is what saves it from being another municipal green. Sunnyhurst Brook runs down the middle, footbridges cross it in several places, and the wooden animal sculptures are dotted along the paths so a walk turns into a search. Blackburn with Darwen Council runs it, it holds a Green Flag, and the old woodman's cottage at the top now works as a visitor centre handing out free maps and putting on exhibitions by local artists. Get a leaflet there first.
The Olde England Kiosk is the other reason to come. Built in 1912 for the coronation of George V, Tudor styling, beams, and these days a cafe and licensed bar selling snacks and ice cream. It doubles as a wedding venue, so it can be booked out, which is worth a flask in the bag. There is a paddling pool in the wood too, a pleasant surprise on the two hot days Lancashire gets a year. Footpaths lead up out of the wood to Earnsdale reservoir, Darwen Tower and the Roddlesworth woods beyond, though that is a serious walk with children and worth planning properly. For a normal afternoon, the valley floor and the sculpture trail are plenty. It costs nothing.
Know before you go
- The wooden animal sculptures are the thing that keeps small children walking. Get a leaflet from the visitor centre first and turn the walk into a hunt. Darwen Tower looks close on the map and is not: it is a steep climb out of the wood onto open moor, so treat it as a separate outing.
Looking for more parks & outdoors near Blackburn?
Also in Blackburn
Corporation Park
Blackburn's showpiece Victorian park: a triumphal arch at the gate, two lakes with swans, a playground right beside them and a lime-tree avenue climbing the hill. Free, and less than a mile from the town centre.
Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery
A proper old-fashioned free museum in the town centre: Egyptian gallery, natural history cases and paintings upstairs, all doable in an hour. Closed Sundays and Mondays, which catches people out.
Funtazia
24,000 square feet in the middle of Blackburn, with go karts, bumper cars and laser tag alongside the climbing frames. Not really soft play any more, more an indoor funfair.
Flip Out Blackburn
Trampolines, a ninja course and an inflatable obstacle run, with a foam-padded soft play area for the ones too small for all that. Shut on Tuesdays and Thursdays in term time.
Temple of Fun
Darwen's independent play centre with a sensory room, open five days a week in term time and every day in the holidays. Somewhere to sit that is not a plastic bench.