Category × County
18 Best Adventure Days Out In Cumbria
Few counties stretch a category this far. Cumbria's adventure listings run from high-wire courses with a booking system down to plain open woodland, and a family's first job is working out where on that range it belongs. At the demanding end, Zip World Windermere, Go Ape Whinlatter and Go Ape Grizedale are ticketed, harnessed and governed by minimum ages and heights that a seven-year-old will not meet. At the easy end, Whinlatter Forest is woodland with trails through it and takes anybody who can walk, buggy included. In between sit the mines and the walls: Honister Slate Mine Adventures, Nenthead Mines, Keswick Climbing Wall and KendalWall Indoor Climbing Centre. Eighteen entries in all, and seventeen of them carry an outdoor flag.
Top adventure days out in Cumbria
Showing 1–12 of 18
AdventureGo Ape Grizedale
AdventureGo Ape Whinlatter
AdventureZip World Windermere
AdventureNenthead Mines
Parks and PlaygroundsWhinlatter Forest
AdventureKendalWall Indoor Climbing Centre
Parks and PlaygroundsFord Park
AdventureHonister Slate Mine Adventures
Sports & ActivitiesKeswick Climbing Wall
AdventureThrelkeld Quarry and Mining Museum
AdventureTreetop Trek Windermere
Parks and PlaygroundsGrizedale Forest
Families with one age of child have it easy here. Families whose children are four and nine have a planning problem, and the solution is usually to pick a site where the big activity and the run-around option share a car park — a forest with a ropes course in it lets one adult go up while the other stays on the ground with the small one. That single trick rescues more Cumbrian days than any amount of comparing one operator with another.
Adventure Days Out in Cumbria: FAQs
What is the youngest age for the high-wire courses?
Both Go Ape Whinlatter and Go Ape Grizedale run more than one level of course, and the junior version admits considerably younger children than the full one, but every level has a minimum and the top courses are firmly for older children and adults. Height rules apply alongside age, which is what usually causes the disappointment. Confirm the current requirements with the operator before you book, because they are set by the site and a child measured at the gate does not get an exception.
Can the climbing walls take a beginner?
Yes, and an indoor wall is often the better introduction than anything outdoors. KendalWall Indoor Climbing Centre is recorded as indoor with no outdoor space, which makes it the reliable wet-day entry on a list that is otherwise out in the weather. Keswick Climbing Wall carries both flags. Beginner climbing works from about five with a proper session, and the thing that decides whether a child continues is not strength but whether they enjoyed being off the ground the first time.
What do the mines involve?
Honister Slate Mine Adventures and Nenthead Mines are both recorded with indoor and outdoor space, which reflects a site where you go underground and also walk about above ground. Going into a mine suits children from about six who can manage a helmet, a walk and a period without daylight, and it is the kind of day a child still describes months afterwards. It also has the advantage of being largely unaffected by the rain, which in this county is not a small consideration.
How do we use the forest with young children?
Whinlatter Forest is filed under parks and playgrounds rather than adventure, which is exactly why it is useful — it is the entry with no minimum age, no booking and no equipment. Trails, a playground and a lot of trees will hold a three-year-old for a morning. Because a treetop course operates in the same forest, this is the neatest illustration of the pairing that solves a mixed-age day, with one child high in the canopy and another on the ground below.