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Forde Abbey Historic House and Gardens is a little gem of a find nestled in the heart of Somerset. On a recent family holiday we were staying down the road and needed a morning out with our two early risers while the rest of the family (mainly involving teenagers!) slept… I did a little research and Forde Abbey looked a perfect location for a morning outing.

With Grandma and Grandad tagging along, we arrived as it opened (at 10am) and were immediately impressed by the imposing Abbey and beautiful gardens. We opted for the Children’s Pack (reasonably priced at £1) and started our ‘Letter Box’ hunt around the grounds. If you have children, this is a perfect way to make sure you see all of the extensive grounds and we really enjoyed it too!

Hidden around are several boxes, each containing a stamp and letter (to unscramble a secret word at the end). Along your way you encounter a fabulous ‘Beech House’, Mermaid Pool, Arboretum and my personal favourite, the Bog Garden with its bridges over a beautiful stream. Grandma and Grandad happily pushed the pram around while we took a slightly longer route round to make sure we found all the boxes!

An added bonus for us was the fact that there were lots of children practicing their show jumping on the day we visited, this was something my daughter was fascinated by and so we spent quite some time watching! The other delight was the resident pony Twiglet who happily plods her way round the property, more than happy to be petted by any willing visitors!

We made sure that we visited the Tea Room before we left and happily sampled some of the best Salted Caramel ice cream I have tasted before we had a quick stroll round the well stocked gift shop and headed home.

I hope the photos do it justice, it really was a beautiful place to visit!