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We spent a day at Lyme Park in Cheshire (the setting for Colin Firth’s Pride & Prejudice) at Christmas so read on to find out what Lyme Park at Christmas is like.
I had a quick look at the National Trust website before we set off to see what Christmas things they had on. The Audience with Father Christmas was sold out (had been for months apparently) but with lots of credit to Lyme Park there were no signs up when you got there advertising it, or even mentioning it, so the kids were completely unaware that would have been an option. Full credit to the staff for that.
What there was, was a fabulous Courtyard filled with the smell of mulled wine and some brilliant carol singers who got the kids involved in their performance.
There was also a lovely reindeer trail round the garden. Access to the gardens and the trail is free to National Trust members but if you’re not you have to pay the general membership price on the day. The five girls loved the reindeer trail and the adults had fun trying to decipher the names of the reindeer (mostly because they weren’t actually spelt how we they thought they should be!)
After the reindeer trail (even though it was nearly going dark) we made our way across the park to the huge adventure playground. Whether this is a good adventure playground or not depends on your definition of what makes a good adventure playground. I think if you are a 6/7/8 year old then this is amazing for both adult and child. If you have 3/4/5 year olds like we do then it was amazing for the kids, but it did involve quite a lot of adult participation as some of the towers and rope bridges were quite adventurous and a little scary. Watching two Dads with bad backs shimmy up some towers was fairly amusing as one who stayed on the ground, but for them I’m not sure ‘quite’ so much fun.
The sun was setting as we left Lyme Park and we decided against a hot chocolate in the very good cafe, in favour of a pub tea in the local village before we returned home.
We had a lovely day and were really grateful to have been able to spend the afternoon outside after a long few days in doors.
Lyme Park at Christmas is highly recommended for a visit, particularly if you are National Trust members.
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Oooh I have wanted to go here ever since the autumn of 1995 when I first set eyes on Colin Firth as Mr Darcy! Looks like lots of fun for the kids, but I think I would spend my time down by the lake waiting to see soggy fictional characters….. (I may love him more than I love gin!)
Oooh I hadn’t realised this was where they shot Pride and Prejudice – would love to go there and the activities sound fab as ever from the NT.
Every time I read posts about a National Trust day out it makes me wonder why we don’t have membership. There are so many beautiful properties and I love the effort they have put into making families welcome. We did a NT property this weekend and there was a Christmas trail – loved it! #countrykids
We still haven’t managed to do a National Trust Christmas visit yet this year, the terrible weather has definitely put us off. Lyme Park is so beautiful, looks like the perfect setting for it.
National Trust are so great with kids, we have membership but only the triplets enjoy visiting with us. Lyme Park at Christmas sounds lovely and so good of them not to shout about something that is sold out. I love the reindeer, I think I might work on a reindeer walk like this for Coombe Mill next year, this has inspired me, we have a Christmas tree one this year. Happy Christmas to you all and thank you so much for joining me for #CountryKids.
I keep meaning to go to Lyme Park, this post has reminded me how much I want to visit.
It looks beautiful – and sounds like the day was great fun too 🙂 #pocolo
Oh it looks so lovely. It is so close to us but I’ve never been. It is on my to do list now.
And once again I hang my head in shame at never yet reading P & P! I live so close to Lyme Park – Love the carol singers. Perhaps we might pop there over Christmas.
Wow that looks like a beautiful place and I wouldn’t be able to resist a bit of carol singing!! x #pocolo
I can’t believe I’ve never been to Lyme Park before! It looks fab and your photos are, as always, amazing x x
This really looks like a really gorgeous place to visit. It sounds like they put on a great Christmas event there too. Thank you for linking to my last #PoCoLo x