Family day out at Hamsterley Forest

1st August 2021 0 By Rachael Stray

We had our first family day out to Hamsterley Forest in County Durham and we absolutely loved it!

It was my first every visit to Hamsterley Forest and I think it is a fantastic day out for the whole family.

Hamsterley Forest is huge and covers an impressive 4900 acres.

With Elsie much more confident on her feet now it felt like the perfect place to visit when catching up with Steve’s sister and her family who were having a little break visiting the fabulous North East.

Thankfully it wasn’t as hot as it had been and the cloudy skies helped to keep us cool.

There are four signposted walking trails around the forest. You can find out more and download walking maps/routes here.

Riverside Walk (1.5 miles easy – blue route)
Bedburn Valley Walk (2.5 miles moderate – yellow route)
Three Becks Walk (4.5 miles moderate – orange route)
Spurlswood Walk (4.5 miles moderate – green route)

There is an accessible toilet and baby changing facilities at Hamsterley Forest right near the car park.

Some of the forest is suitable for wheelchair users and prams and there is level access from the main entrance to the picnic areas and main Viking Play Area.

The forest has put together a comprehensive accessibility guide which you can read here.

We decided to do the blue route as we weren’t sure how far Elsie would be able to walk and we had her pram too.

As part of our walk we enjoyed the Gruffulo trail as Elsie loves the book!

It wasn’t too challenging of a walk and I managed fine with the pram.

Hamsterley Forest has several pieces of play equipment and challenges throughout the woodland.

There is loads to keep little ones occupied and Elsie (two) and Amelia (ten) both thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

You can easily spend a whole day here.

The main adventure playground is their Viking Wildplay area which is a short, pushchair friendly walk (half a mile) from the visitor centre along Bedburn Beck.

There’s forts, den building, boats, swings and climbing frames nestled amongst the ancient woodland.

On the Gruffalo trail there is orienteering obstacles and challenges which both Elsie and Amelia enjoyed.

There are picnic tables too.

After completing our walk we were very ready to visit the toilets and have something to eat.

You can bring your own picnic to Hamsterley Forest and there are plenty of picnic tables and seating available.

The toilets were really clean I am happy to report.

Once I’d changed Elsie, it was time to enjoy a picnic and our new cool bag from Tesco certainly did the trick.

The picnic tables are well spaced out which meant we could spread out and not be ontop of other people.

With full tummies it was time to pack up our things including our rubbish and head to the car.

Steve and James paid for parking while the rest of us packed the cars.

We had a wonderful couple of hours of quality family time in beautiful surroundings and we would definitely visit again.

You can find out more about visiting Hamsterley Forest here: https://www.forestryengland.uk/hamsterley-forest

Where is Hamsterley Forest?

Hamsterley Forest is located in County Durham and is around a 90 minute drive from Newcastle, it took us about 30 minutes or so from our home in a village in County Durham door to door.

Unfortunately, the forest is not accessible by public transport.

There are several car parks on site – follow sign posts on arrival and use postcode DL13 3NL.

It is free to visit the forest but parking is chargeable.

Correct as of July 2021, parking charges for cars are £2 for up to one hour, £6 for all day or £10 per day if parking across a bank holiday weekend.

We paid £6 for parking, this was a very cheap family day out!

The forest car parks use number plate recognition and you do not require a ticket – simply head to one of the machines as you leave, enter your number plate and pay your charge. The barriers will then automatically lift as you leave.

There are several machines and all of them take card payments but just one of them takes cash.

Alternatively, you can use the ‘Glide’ parking app on your phone.

The forest is generally open from dawn to dusk.