Treasure trails are such a brilliant way of exploring different places. Even with familiar places, they get you looking in a different way, making you spot things that you’d never noticed before. We recently decided to try a local trail involving a mixture of driving and walking around three Buckinghamshire villages.
There are lots of different treasure trails available for different places. Each trail costs £6.99 and can be downloaded from the website or sent out in the post. The distance that the trail covers and estimated time it takes is shown on the website, which also indicates whether it is buggy or wheelchair friendly. Some treasure trails involve driving; others are just walking. The treasure trail booklet gives you the starting point and a suggestion of where to park. Once you start the trail, you don’t need a map as the instructions will help guide you around the route. After finishing the trail, you can submit your answer for a chance to be entered into the monthly prize draw to win £100.
Our treasure trail was a murder mystery. Each of the clues spotted along the way would help us to eliminate a murder weapon or a suspect. Â We started off in Seer Green. We parked at the suggested location which was outside a playground and found the answer to the first clue on the gate. The promise of returning to the playground before heading on to the next village helped spur the children on. The walk around the village to find the four clues in this area was a short one, although the answer to one of them took us a while to spot.
The girls loved the playground at Seer Green. The roundabout was a big hit. I was quite relieved that Daddy was happy to keep spinning them on it. He has a little more patience than I do with these things (probably because he doesn’t have to do them as often!)
It was quite a while before we could prise the girls away from the playground and back to the car to drive to Jordans. There were three clues to solve here. The answers to all of them were found around the Quaker Meeting House and burial ground. The Quaker Meeting House is an interesting building. It is Grade 1 listed and was one of the first Quaker meeting houses built after the Declaration of Indulgence in 1687 which allowed non-conformists to legally worship. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, is buried here along with his wives and children.
Each time we’ve done a treasure trail, there always seems to be one elusive answer. This time it was one of the Jordans’ clues. We had to find “a memorial to two whose surname you might associate with chocolate” but trying to look at inscriptions on all the headstones as well as keep an eye on the children made this quite a challenge! Thankfully, you can text to find the answer to up to 3 clues and so we ended up requesting the answer to this one.
The final part of the trail was at Chalfont St Giles. This was the longest part of the trail and took us past Milton’s Cottage (where John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, once lived). It was quite late in the afternoon when we reached it so a visit wasn’t an option on this trip.
The girls were getting tired by the time we reached the churchyard and the final two clues. Thankfully we’d spotted another playground near the car park which helped encourage them on and made a lovely end to the day.
That’s a fantastic idea having a trail like that – I wish we had something like that near here for those days when you want someone else to do the hard work! It’d keep my 8 year old occupied (we’re hitting the ‘uhh, I’m bored’ stage a lot at the moment). How fab! #countrykids
There are lots of the treasure trails all across the country so there might be one near you. We love doing them 🙂
Oh I came across these trails years ago but had completely forgotten about them – there a lots around us in Devon including a driving one along the coast. So thank you for the reminder. #countrykids
They’re fun aren’t they – glad my post has reminded you of them! 🙂
I’d love to do a trail like that, it sounds lots of fun. My kids would be keen to find the clues, but I’d have trouble getting them away from the play areas too.
#countrykids
It was fun – having play areas helps to encourage the girls to keep going sometimes even if it does mean the trail takes longer to do! 🙂
You know we’ve never done anything like this and it sounds like a brilliant trip out! #Countrykids
It’s lots of fun – we hadn’t done one for a while but it’s such a fun way to explore an area 🙂
Love the theme for the trail and they clearly managed to make it light and family friendly. It reminds me a little of Cludo played outdoors on a giant scale. Some fascinating facts to pick up along the way like the gravestone of William Penn and the author of Paradise Lost. What a great location for a murder mystery challenge and a bonus to pass through the play areas too.
Thank you for sharing with me on #CountryKids
Thanks Fiona – it is a bit like Cluedo played outdoors. Lots of fun and such an interesting way to explore an area 🙂
I love the look of concentration on the girls’ faces 🙂 If only T has their patience. She’s been refusing to do trails lately, which is too bad because like you said, it’s a good thing to do especially when it leads you to discover new places 🙂 #countrykids
Thanks Dean. I am sure there will come a point where the girls are more reluctant to do them!
Chalfont St Giles is lovely, I dont know the other 2 villages other than to drive through. The trails sound like a good idea #countrykids
It is such a pretty village. We’d never really explored the other two either other than just driving through.
What a great adventure! We’ve driven past Chalfont St Giles before but never stopped. Next time we will explore #MySundayPhoto
Thank you. We’d never really explored it before – the trail was a great way to do so 🙂
I’ve not heard of these kind of treasure trails before and they seem a lovely idea. I think my girls woudl really like to do one of these. Mich x #CountryKids
They’re great fun – I am sure your girls would love them 🙂
These treasure trails look like a great idea. I love that they include play grounds too. #countrykids
They’re lots of fun. Always good when there are playgrounds to enjoy along the way!
I’ve never heard of a trail like this one, sounds really interesting and one to keep everyone busy for a good while! Gorgeous photos, your girls look so happy, really sweet 🙂 #countrykids
They’re such good fun and a brilliant way to explore an area 🙂
I haven’t tried one of these trails, but I am intrigued. They sound like just the kind of thing I enjoy, and I guess my girls are now old enough to enjoy them too. Looks like you found some very pretty places! #countrykids
I am sure your girls would love them. It’s nice to see the girls being able to join in a little more with these now that they are getting older 🙂
They are good for grandparents too ! We celebrated our 54th anniversary doing this one. It is always a good way of exploring somewhere you do not know and leads you down all sorts of paths you might never otherwise explore. We have done at least a dozen over the years and still enjoy them. In big cities there are usually several e.g. three in Edinburgh.
Indeed! The first one we did was with grandparents and it was fun. These days they struggle to walk any kind of distances though so sadly it has become harder to include them. I’m glad that you enjoy doing them too.