Burnley's big one: 400-odd acres of parkland around a Grade I hall that spent the best part of two years wrapped in scaffolding. The £3.6m restoration finished in summer 2025 and the hall is properly open again for 2026, Wednesday to Sunday afternoons from mid February to 1 November. Adults pay £5.60 for a ticket that lasts twelve months; anyone 17 or under goes free.
For most families the hall is the side dish. The park has playgrounds, ornamental gardens, woodland walks with a sculpture trail, and the Rotunda cafe sits next to the Riverside car park, the play area and the toilets, which is exactly where you want it. Park entry is free and parking tops out at £1.50 all day.
Inside the hall the Great Hall plasterwork has been taken back to its 1700s colour scheme, and the museum's Egyptology collection is reliably the bit primary-age kids remember. Allow up to two hours if you do the whole house.
What it costs: Hall admission £5.60 for adults (valid 12 months), free for anyone 17 and under and for students. The park is free; the council lists five pay and display car parks.
Burnley Council's bonfire night at Towneley, on the night itself: funfair from 6pm, bonfire lit at 6.45, a junior fireworks display at 7.15 for the little ones and the main display at 8.15. No tickets on the door and no parking in the park without a pre-bought parking ticket (£8 Woodgrove, £10 Riverside), so sort both online.
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A wind-powered steel sculpture on the moor above Burnley that hums when the weather blows, with a view worth the short climb. It is a half-hour stop, not a day out, so pair it with a walk or Towneley Hall.
Burnley's restored Edwardian park does the full seaside-without-the-sea turn: rowing boats, a paddling pool, a volunteer-run miniature railway and a boathouse cafe. Time it for a sunny weekend when everything is actually running.
A warehouse of giant inflatables on Craven Street in Burnley: mega ball pit, launch slide, jump tower and ninja walls. Book the hour, buy the socks, and let them tire themselves out on something that cannot bruise.
A Victorian weaving shed still holding 308 Lancashire looms, with the mill's own steam engine, Peace, and demonstrations of cotton becoming cloth. Children free, and the season ends on 31 October.
Jacobean hall on the edge of Padiham with free gardens, woodland walks and a natural play area. Children go into the hall free with an adult, adults pay £7, and parking is free. A cheap half day with a house thrown in.
Bowling, an arcade, pool tables and Scrapyard Golf crazy golf in central Burnley. A junior game is £8, a family of four £32, and term-time weekdays drop to £5 a game before 5pm. The arcade is where the change goes.
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.