I took my little girls to Newby Hall and Gardens, we chose to have access to the gardens only. We spent a good 3 hours at Newby and could have probably made a day of it.
As we drove down the long drive, said hello to the sheep, we found there was plenty of parking and a very large picnic area with families playing games on the well manicured field.
We then sauntered over to the reception area, adjacent to the garden shop, where we were warmly welcomed by friendly staff. We got our tickets, our map and went to explore the gardens.
Our first stop was the miniature railway, we had to pay extra for the tickets, but it was money well spent. We got an overview of what was on offer as well as lovely views of the river. The kids also enjoyed waving at all the people as we went past.
We then played in the ‘dancing waters’, I’d recommend a change of clothes for small children. Then we went into the adventure playground area, which had many exciting things to do, the boat swings being their favourite! We even had a go on the pedalos (operated using your arms)
I then managed to tear the kids away from the playground so that we could explore some more of the gardens and we encountered a magical part of the garden full of crooks and crannies, places that fairies would love! It had stone bridges, waterfalls and more.
By this time, we were a bit hungry, so we went to the café for a quick snack before wandering into the dollshouse exhibition, the teddy bear exhibition and having a quick look at the stone sculptures.
We then had walk past the house, which we hope to visit sometime. There is a path leading from the Hall down to the river, and at the river’s edge, there is plenty of places to sit and it reminded me of the scene out of the Sound of Music, where the children come back on the canoe.
We had a wonderful time and can’t wait to go again!
