Trentham Gardens has been on my list of places to visit for a while now. The nearby “moon” (Premier Inn) is one of our favourite places to stay when heading up north. However, despite staying so close by so many times, we’d never actually visited Trentham Gardens until we finally made the trip there at the end of August.
Ironically, this time we weren’t staying at the Premier Inn on the Trentham Estate. We were staying at one nearly an hour’s drive away instead. It might have been a bit of a drive to get there, but it was certainly worth the journey.
We stopped for a quick browse in the shopping village on our way to Trentham Gardens. I could have happily spent ages browsing in the music shop but the gardens and the fairies that live in them were calling. There was quite a queue to buy tickets to get into the gardens. I made a mental note to book online if we go again!
We picked up a couple of fairy trail maps and headed around the lake to look for them. I had completely missed the fairy in the shopping village opposite the entrance and the one on the bridge as you first enter the gardens. Hubby spotted them but didn’t think to tell us until afterwards! We did spot them on our way out later on though!
We ticked off our first fairy near the miniature train station and couldn’t resist taking a little return trip on the train before continuing our walk around the lake.
The girls loved all the different fairy sculptures we found along the way. Some of them were very easy to spot; others took a little more effort to find. Working out which one we had spotted wasn’t always easy either – a couple of the silhouettes on the trail sheet looked quite similar!
As well as the fairy sculptures, there were also lots of other sculptures to look at along the way and the gardens and woods were beautiful. The path around the lake was buggy-friendly the whole way.
By the time we reached the play area, we’d walked most of the way around the lake and spotted most of the fairies. The girls loved the sand play area. Sophie had a wonderful time on the diggers while Jessica enjoyed filling buckets with sand and pouring them down the chutes. Both girls loved the pirate ship in the play area. They spent so much time in the sand play area that they didn’t even explore the rest of play area despite there being plenty to do elsewhere.
The barefoot walk was next on our list. Jessica and Sophie loved walking barefoot across the different surfaces. They weren’t so keen on some of the stony, uncomfortable parts of the walk. The mud and the water areas were lots of fun though! It was just as well that I had a spare set of clothes for them both. They were very wet and muddy by the time they finished the walk!
Our last stop was the trellis walk where we found another fairy, and the David Austin Rose border. The girls weren’t quite as interested in the roses as I was though! I soon spotted the Sophy’s Rose which we have in our garden although Jessica’s namesake rose (Pretty Jessica) wasn’t there.
We had a lovely day out at Trentham Gardens. The girls loved the fairy trail, the play area and the barefoot walk. Hubby and I just loved the walk around the lake and enjoying some family time together. We would have liked to have taken a boat trip on the lake as well but we just didn’t have time to fit it in. There were also parts of the garden that we didn’t manage to fit in. I think we will definitely be making a return trip at some point in the future!
What a great day out for all of you, I bet the girls loved exploring Trentham Gardens with you! I’m sure searching for all the fairies around the gardens kept them interested in carrying on the trails, as well as that amazing play area at the end. That barefoot walk looks amazing, certainly something I’d love to try here on the farm.
Thanks for sharing with me on #CountryKids.
It was a wonderful day out and having things to look out for always helps keep them going on a walk! I did the barefoot walk with the girls and it was so much fun. Definitely something I’d love to do again 🙂
Oh this is lovely. We recently went to Monkey Forest but didn’t have time to do Trentham as well. It’s firmly on my list though. My two would love the fairies as well. Thanks for such a fab review, it has reminded me that we need to get on and go!
Nat.x
Thanks Nat, the Monkey Forest is on my list to do at some point as we didn’t have time when we visited the gardens! 🙂
looks like a lovely day out. we’ve been to Trentham gardens a few times now and also had a great day out, the highlights were definitely the great play area and the barefoot walk, any excuse to walk in mud #countrykids
It is such a lovely day out. Even if we just went back and did the play area and barefoot walk, it would still be a great day out 🙂
This has been on my list of places to visit for a really lovely my time now and your post has just made me want to go even more now! #countrykids
It’s well worth a visit. I’m so glad we made the effort to go there and I’d love to go back again 🙂
We love Trentham and have been a few times. There’s so much to see and do. And the fairies are beautiful #countrykids
It’s such a beautiful place to visit and we all enjoyed it. Definitely somewhere we’d all like to go back to 🙂
I so want to go to Trenthem Gardens! It just looks wonderful, and I LOVE the fairy sculptures. I’m jealous 🙂 #countrykids
It’s such a gorgeous place and the fairy sculptures are just beautiful 🙂
I keep seeing posts about Trentham and wanting to visit, though it’s a bit of a hike from Northumberland. Ironically I used to live in one of the 12th century houses on the traffic island where I believe the new hotel is (they’d just got planning permission when I moved) so I never visited the gardens after they renovated them or opened the monkey park. Those fairy sculptures look enchanting. Bet the kids loved it. #CountryKids
How interesting that you used to live where the hotel is. It’s a lovely day out although it is quite a hike from Northumberland!
Trentham gardens looks and sounds like a wonderful place to visit. We always say we ought to have brought a spare pair of clothing for the girls but can be rather forgetful at times. #countrykids
I’ve been a bit forgetful at times too. Sophie was still very hit and miss on the potty training front at this point though so having extra sets of clothes was essential!
what a little hidden gem. not sure who would enjoy this more if we went, me or my son. I love mysterious/fairytale related things, thank you for sharing, this is going on my bucket list! love the sculptures! #countrykids
Thank you, it is a gorgeous place to visit 🙂