Child-friendly holiday cottage, Yorkshire Dales
Ingleton is the perfect place to bring children for an easy, stress-free, holiday.
There’s lots for them and you to enjoy both within walking distance and a short drive away.
For babies/toddlers, we can provide the following in our baby- friendly / child-friendly self-catering cottage:
Travel cot, high chair, toddler bowls & cutlery, good range of books & DVDs.
The small back garden is enclosed, the front is a safe quiet safe cul-de-sac, and behind the house is the cricket pitch/playing field, a great place to let off steam!
In addition to all the activities on the Local Area Page, here are some things to do with younger children in Ingleton:
- Ingleton boasts a playground in a picturesque setting by the river
- Open air swimming pool – open from May to the start of September (check exact dates with us if it may affect your choice of booking.)
- Dibbling about by the (very shallow) river with a picnic and an ice-cream
Off-road walk from Austwick to Feizor & back along the Pennine bridleway (Austwick has a good playground and Feizor has a lovely café with ice-creams – great incentive to get there .)
Clapham – delightful Dales village with a lovely playground plus a buggy friendly woodland/lakeside trail that has lovely views leading up to Ingleborough Cave. Ice creams available at the village shop.
Kirkby Lonsdale – take the bus to Kirkby Lonsdale, a picturesque local market town, where you can play in the river, walk along a safe off-road path to the town and have a bacon butty/ice-cream at the famous Devil’s Bridge picnic spot. There is a playground and a chocolate shop with a small but impressive ‘enchanted chocolate mine’.
The market town of Hawes makes a great day out. A good itinerary is the Countryside Museum (the railway carriage section is very hands on and is ideal for children) which has a great playground across the road, followed by a walk through the beautiful cobbled streets to the Creamery which offers tours. The very reasonably priced visitors’ centre has been recently updated and is a good wet weather destination for youngsters.
Gisburn Forest is a lovely drive out with forest & reservoir walks.
The Sizergh Castle Wild Play Trail is fantastic – go prepared for a bit of mud.
Morecambe – children’s paradise!, especially if you arrive by bike- playgrounds all along the promenade, fantastic eye-catching sculptures everywhere, Happy Mount Park with train, splash park (seasonal, take change of clothes and/or swimwear.) and fab new adventure playground. The Stone Jetty Cafe at the end of the Jetty (close by the refurbished Midland Hotel) is a basic but good cafe with, on a clear day, one of the most stunning views in England. Keen cyclists can cycle all the way there along the flat off-road route from Bull Beck car park, near Caton. (NB best way of reaching Morecambe is via Carnforth not Lancaster as less traffic.)
Williamson Park, a 50 acre park in Lancaster, has a tropical butterfly house, other small animals, a fun playground & other bits to explore – handy place to visit when the weather is iffy as it has some sheltered parts. It also has lovely views over the North Sea and the Lake District.
Skipton Castle – Over 900 years old, it is one of the most complete and best preserved medieval castles in England and is well worth a visit at any season of the year. Skipton also has a good swimming pool and lovely walks along the canal.
Close-by Skipton is Embsay Railway, from where you can take an old-fashioned small train ride to Bolton Abbey, a classic Yorkshire Dales day out, and enjoy the fun of Hesketh Park Farm. Billy Bob’s diner (& play barn) where the Yorkshire Dales ice cream is made and sold is close by.
Over in the Lake District, about a 35 minute drive away is the Lakeland Maize Maze which is a great place to take children even on wet days as it has an indoor softplay area, climbing wall, tractors, go karts and sandpit as well as all the animals, interesting playground and mazes (including one for younger children) outside. Check for seasonal opening times.
Close-by the Maize at Kendal, one of our favourite days out is a walk up from the river path to Kendal Castle with its stunning views over the Lake District. There is also a great swimming pool a minute’s drive away from here which has a large toddler/baby pool.
Also in the Lakes is Fell Foot Park, on the shores of Lake Windermere. This is a country park on the shores of Lake Windermere. It has lovely grounds to run around in, a great adventure playground, a cafe, rowing boats for hire and a cheap ferry which take you to the steam trains on the other bank of the Lake. Brockhole is another highly recommended Lake District Country Park. On the way home, a good stop off point is Low Sizergh Barn, which has a farm shop, trail & cafe where, if you are there at about 3:30pm, you can watch the cows being milked below.
The Forbidden Corner at Leyburn was voted top children’s attraction in Yorkshire, if going, book an early slot as it gets busy.
The lovely historical town of Saltaire is made even more fun by arriving on train from Settle.
A good rainy day trip is a visit to Bradford, with its ( a lot of more interesting than we expected) industrial museum and the always entertaining National Media Museum, finished off, of course, by a curry.