An afternoon of fun at Calke Abbey

An afternoon of fun at Calke Abbey #CountryKids

Today I thought I’d share with you an afternoon of fun at Calke Abbey.  Well that’s not entirely true, I’m actually going to share two afternoon’s of fun at Calke Abbey, enjoyed almost exactly a year apart. I never got to share our experience from last year, with all that went with Monkey starting school.  So I thought it would be fun to compare photos of our trip in August 2014 to those of our visit last month.

My best friend lives very close to Calke Abbey and as we’re both National Trust members it’s made sense to visit when we’ve been staying with her.  Last year we had lunch in their cafe, but this year we took a picnic with us to enjoy in the grounds.

Monkey loves his sticks and den building, and he’s really enjoyed both visit to this National Trust site in Derbyshire.  There’s room to explore, have fun and go on little adventures.

Last year we spent ages in the den building area as we had the place to ourselves, but this year it was much more popular.

A big hit with all of us on both visits was the nature reserve, last year Monkey was certainly quieter when we reached the bird hide.  This year he was more interested in scaring the birds away, than watching them feed!  We still enjoyed some wildlife spotting adventures.

Monkey had great fun on both visits climbing over logs and walking on rope bridges in the adventure area.  It was lovely to watch him having so much fun.

We continued our adventures in the Garden of Imagination in the Walled Garden area of Calke Abbey.  This year there was a spectacular wild flower border.  It looked wonderful. On both occasions we found a number of activities to have fun with and lots of space to run around.

Last year we marveled at the beautiful Dahlia border as we walked towards to the secret tunnel, we were looking forward to seeing them in their splendor again this year.  Sadly they had all gone, disease had struck and they’d all been removed.  We certainly missed the splashes of colour there this year.

Last year Monkey took some persuading to walk through the secret tunnel, it’s very dark in the middle!  This year he was straight in, not an ounce of fear.  Come on Auntie A!  He was out the other side before I could capture his bravery.

On both visits we’ve got to admire the deer, they’re not at all camera shy.  But this year we also got to see a little fawn which made our day.

We still haven’t made it into the house itself, that’s something for a future visit.

An afternoon of fun at Calke Abbey

An afternoon of fun at Calke Abbey enjoyed on two days in August over 2 years.  I can see us visiting Calke Abbey again and again in the years to come.

 

 

 

14 thoughts on “An afternoon of fun at Calke Abbey #CountryKids

  1. Sounds a nice place to visit and the grounds are the place for kids. Whenever we have ventured into a house at NT, the boys are ready to leave after about 2 mins

  2. How neat to be able to compare photos from last year to this year. You can certainly see how much your little Monkey has grown. Calke Abbey looks like a beautiful place to visit.

  3. I look forward to a three year comparison next year! Certainly a great place to explore with some wonderful places to stop and enjoy natural play, easy to see why you still haven’t made it into the house and outside is always more interesting for Kids too. I love the garden of imagination watering can, I’m pinning that one. Thank you for sharing with me on Country Kids.

  4. Dens – tick, wild flowers – tick, wildlife – tick, natural play areas – tick, secret passage – tick….these are all the sorts of activities and nature benefits that makes a great day out and visit with the kids. (And I could also explore the house if I could pull the kids inside for a short tour 🙂 )

  5. What a really stunning place to visit. I was expecting it to be like our Abbey – but nope this is something completely different. Looks for a fab day out. I think we will get NT memberships for the boys this Christmas and visit places such as this.

    And your photography is brilliant – thank you for sharing such delightful images x

  6. How lovely to be able to compare the two visits. Hasn’t Monkey got tall! It looks like a beautiful place to visit, I can see why you returned x

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