A Day Out at the Hylands Estate Adventure Castle ⋆ Jupiter & Dann

In the hunt for more places to go out and visit, we found that we actually live quite close to the Hylands Estate Adventure Castle, which is a completely free, quite massive park for kids to play and explore. We wanted to make it more of a day out, so we actually packed a lunch to eat there – though there is a little cafe which is perfect for getting lunches or hot drinks if you need it.

The Hylands Estate Adventure Castle is basically four or so little play parks, all packed inside of a castle exterior. These areas are quite beautifully designed, as all of them can be accessed by children in wheelchairs, allowing large ramps to bring children up to the top of towers and to higher view areas. There are other ways to climb, of course, with rope bridges, climbing walls, and more. Robin’s favourite area was actually a musical area, where you could use a metal wand to hit little tubes, which then made loads of different noises! Lots of kids seemed to enjoy being loud and making noises.

The swings in Hylands Estate Adventure Castle come in two varieties – the large circular spider-web swings and tire swings, that have a foot area inside of them, making them quite different from any other swings we had played before, though the children needed to be lifted on and off of these at first, but soon they could climb them themselves, which was good.

There were a bunch of bridges that wobbled when you walk across them and plenty of sides for sliding down. These slides were big enough for two people, as was most of the park, so adults could move around easily in the play area, helping anyone if they get stuck. A bit tucked away from the main areas was a small play area designed specifically for 6 and under, which also matched the castle aesthetic and as it was set away, they were able to play on their own without larger kids running about.

It’s also worth noting that there were plenty of picnic tables and benches dotted around, so having lunch there is easy to set up. The parking nearby is free, as is the park, so it’s a great little day out or fun time at a park.