We recently enjoyed a family trip out to Heatherslaw Light Railway in Northumberland and thought I’d share an honest review.

During our summer holiday at a cottage in Northumberland we decided to visit Heatherslaw Light Railway on a day where the weather forecast was for showers on and off.

From our holiday cottage in Budle Bay, it only took us 25 minutes to drive to Heatherslaw Light Railway, Heatherslaw Station.

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About Heatherslaw Light Railway

Aside from being the most northerly known steam railway in England, Heatherslaw Light Railway is also adaptive to the weather: with fully enclosed, partly glazed, and fully open carriage options provided.

We were thankful for this as it was raining on and off during our visit and we were kept nice and dry.

There’s also two permanent carriages suitable for disabled access.

This 15 inch gauge railway runs a charming route from Heatherslaw Station across to Etal Castle, totting up a return journey of just under 6.5km with much of it alongside the River Till with gorgeous countryside views.

Carriages are pulled by the steam locomotives ‘Bunty’ and ‘Lady Augusta’, or by the diesel engine ‘Binky’.

The service operates seven days a week in season (1 April-5 November, 2023).

All tickets are for return journeys and can be purchased at Heatherslaw Station Ticket Office, or at Etal Station from the guard.  There is no advance booking system.

At Heatherslaw, a short walk across the bridge takes you to Heatherslaw Corn Mill, a working water mill and heritage museum where grain is ground into flour.

Learn all about the local attractions at Ford & Etal Visitor Centre and find out more about the history of the Estates. You will also find craft and gift shops, Boes Cafe and Ravn Clay Pottery.

Etal Castle is near the Etal Station stop, with Etal Village a short walk and there you can find the lovely family friendly Lavender Tearooms or the Black Bull Inn.

Special events run throughout the season, please see the Heatherslaw Light Railway website for details or follow the Railway on Facebook.

In April and October it’s even better value for money in these outer service months, when a return ticket will give you all day travel so you can have all sorts of little adventures up and down the line!

There’s free parking and dogs can also travel for free.

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Our visit to Heatherslaw Light Railway

It was a short 25 minute drive to Heatherslaw Station from our holiday cottage in Budle Bay Northumberland.

We parked at the free car park and made our way to the ticket office to buy our tickets.

The ticket office is also a little gift shop.

With tickets purchased and the next train only a few moments until departure we perused the gift shop before picking a carriage to ride on.

We bought Elsie a Thomas the Tank Engine flag to wave on the train.

With rain on and off and forecast for the rest of the day we were grateful for the covered carriages.

Elsie was really excited to ride her first train and what a charming choice we had made.

The guard marked our tickets and ensured all the carriages were locked up and before we knew it the train driver blew the whistle and we were chugging along the tracks.

Despite the gloomy skies we had a gorgeous panoramic views of the river, of birds, farmland, sheep and rabbits.

The journey to Etal Station takes about twenty minutes but it’s delightful and we all enjoyed it.

We disembarked at Etal Station and walked up to Etal Castle.

It’s free to visit and is mostly a ruin however there’s enough to have a look around and Elsie thought the big gate and canons were very impressive!

We walked into Etal village and enjoyed looking at the lovely chocolate box houses with thatched roofs and perfectly landscaped gardens.

Elsie enjoyed this tree which she declared as her den.

With tummies rumbling we decided to head for lunch at Lavender Tea Rooms which is also the village Post Office and shop.

It was really lovely, see what we thought of lunch at Lavender Tea Rooms.

Post-lunch we walked back towards the station and checked out the river which was flowing very fast and saw where cars would drive through.

We had a slow walk back to the station and awaited the train to take us back to Heatherslaw Station for a mooch.

After a short wait the train chugged into the station and we enjoyed watching the driver use the turntable to change direction so he could drive the train back along to Heatherslaw Station.

The return journey was just as delightful and we sat nearer to the front of the train and enjoyed the steam and watching the driver more closely.

At Heatherslaw we checked out the mini museum and Elsie enjoyed watching the model trains go round the tracks there were books to read and a table for crafts for children.

We enjoyed watching the train go back to Etal from the bridge which was a fantastic vantage point.

Before we left we bought a cotton green flag to commemorate our day out and then had a look around Ford & Etal Visitor Centre.

I bought Snap for us to play back at the cottage from the gift shop and then we headed back to the car.

It was a really lovely few hours out and we would definitely return.

This is an accessible and low cost day out perfect for all the family.

There’s larger carriages for bigger groups and accessible carriages for wheelchairs and prams.

You could take a picnic with you rather than eating out to keep costs down but the Lavender Tea Rooms is definitely worth a visit!

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Where is Heatherslaw Light Railway?