5 things to do in the Forest of Dean with kids

Right on the border of England and Wales, tucked away in the Wye Valley, there stands an ancient woodland – and whether you’re tempted by the history and legends or the family-friendly attractions, you won’t be short of reasons to visit the Forest of Dean with kids.

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Spending the first few days of our Easter break in the Forest of Dean, where we were staying at the lovely Brambles cottage and then just over the Welsh border at Penhein Glamping, we followed woodland trails, explored landscapes that have doubled as alien worlds, crossed the drawbridge into a castle, escaped a maze and were dazzled by butterflies.

But despite a lifetime spent exploring the UK, and trips which have taken us nearby – it’s only an hour from Bristol, Bath, Cheltenham and Cardiff, less from Gloucester – it’s somewhere which seems to have stayed oddly under my radar. So if you’re in a similar position, I’ve found five things to do in the Forest of Dean with kids to tempt you to follow in our footsteps.

Beechenhurst sculpture trail

First stop if you are visiting the Forest of Dean with kids, is the forest itself – but while I’ll happily go for a walk among the trees, soaking up the peace and enjoying the woodland, my daughter’s attention span means an entertaining trail is always a good start.

And at Beechenhurst, there’s a choice: when we visited, it was home to the latest Julia Donaldson trail, themed on Zog, and the permanent and fascinating sculpture trail. As we’d already gone dragon spotting close to home, we stuck to the sculpture trail – although the two run side by side for part of the way, so you can tick off both.

The full Sculpture Trail is around 4.5 miles long, with a new sculpture added in April 2019 – Threshold – although there are two shortcuts you can follow to cut the route down.

With April showers finding their way through the canopy and a six-year-old who added in several detours to check out Zog, build a den, investigate interesting leaves and play hide and seek, we stuck to the shortest part of the trail – just over two miles and around an hour long.

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Purple ringed posts with arrows directed us along the paths – you can also download the trail leaflet or buy one on site for £1 if they’re available – with some of the sculptures tucked away in little clearings, all illustrating a different aspect of the forest and its history.

Plenty to get us thinking, even if my six-year-old had her own interpretations of the art, and plenty to keep us walking, even on a grey day (including a reward of hot chocolate and cake in the cafe).

I couldn’t help wishing we’d had time to reach ‘Cathedral’, a stained glass sculpture, as well as ‘Hanging Fire’ remembering the forest’s royal past – on a sunny day, it would be the perfect place to wander for hours and picnic.

Beechenhurst Sculpture Trail: Need to know

The forest is open dawn to dusk daily, every day of the year and entry is free of charge. You do need to pay for parking at Beechenhurst – without much data, I struggled to download the parking app, so eventually put all my spare coins into the machine… only to discover afterwards there’s another machine near the cafe that takes cards.

Goodrich Castle

Its red stones towering high, Goodrich Castle is one of the many fortresses built along the border – Marcher country – by the English to guard against the Welsh and later to enforce their rule.

Today, many of the forbidding walls have begun to fall into ruin although there are still towers to climb and explore, historic toilets to grimace at and a dungeon to venture nervously into.

The irony being that the castle sustained its damage not during a battle with the Welsh but as part of the English civil war: Roaring Meg, the hefty mortar which inflicted the scars in 1646 is still on display in the courtyard. Time, of course, has done the rest.

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But it’s also the perfect place to step back to centuries past, to its medieval splendour when Joan de Valence, Countess of Pembroke would have lived and held her court here in the 13th century.

During our visit over Easter, there was a dragon-themed trail (with a prize of some chocolate eggs) so it’s worth checking out the special holiday events which run over the year. But whenever you visit, try to pick up the free audio guide.

Audio guides aren’t always my favourite way to explore with kids but this was pitched just right and had some great extra detail to go alongside the info boards, revealing a few of the mysteries of the castle and transporting us back to banquets, to how the rooms would have looked, and the politics of which guests got the best treatment.

There were other lovely family-friendly touches, like a huge book explaining the basics of castle life on the floor of the chapel, plenty of detail about defensive measures (murder holes always go down well, even if the details of castle design over the ages were more interesting to me than my six-year-old) and you can climb to the top of one tower to look down onto the River Wye and Wales beyond.

Even better if you’re visiting on a day as rainy as ours, there are enough sections with ceilings to shelter inside!

Goodrich Castle: Need to know

Tickets to Goodrich Castle cost from £9 for adults, £5.40 for children, free for members, and must be prebooked. There’s also some parking which costs £1 – bring change! The audio guide is free. There is also a cafe and toilets at the entrance (it’s a short walk from there to the castle itself).

If you fancy seeing some more of the castles in the area, St Briavels castle is also nearby, another English Heritage property that’s great if you’re visiting the Forest of Dean with kids.

Puzzlewood

Stepping into the shadowed paths of Puzzlewood, shafts of light suddenly illuminating a tangle of branches and vines or caves hidden in the rock, feels faintly like you’re leaving the real world behind.

Ahead is a landscape straight from fairytales, an enchanted wood where you wouldn’t be surprised to find elves and sprites, or perhaps King Arthur walking out of legend on a quest. The very air feels full of magic. Even the occasional benches made from boughs which look like they might have grown up out of the ground.

It’s no surprise that Puzzlewood has doubled for more than a few alien worlds or fantasy lands – everything from Star Wars and Doctor Who to Harry Potter, Merlin and Tree Fu Tom (for CBeebies fans!).

Even the makers of Game of Thrones put one of their iron thrones there for fans to discover before the launch of the new season (alas, we didn’t get chance to take our own place on it to rule the seven kingdoms).

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But you can still set out on a quest of your own, to spot the Roman coins dotted around the forest – there’s an app to download which lets you collect them as you walk (although they’re numbered so you could just tick them off if you don’t have it).

Puzzlewood: Need to know

Tickets cost £7 for adults, £6 for children aged three to 16 (under threes are free, but be aware the paths are definitely not buggy-friendly) and prebooking online is recommended. Parking is free.

Check the site for opening times which vary throughout the year: Puzzlewood is closed from Christmas to mid-February, as well as during bad weather (check their social media for updates).

Download the app before you visit in order to collect all the Roman ‘coins’ dotted around, while there are also other sights to spot including ‘dinosaur feet’ and a ‘crocodile’. There’s a sign at the entrance with details on, which I snapped on my phone.

You need at least an hour to explore – I think we managed to wander practically every path, but there’s no single route to walk, so allow plenty of time to amble around, double back and find all the bridges, dead ends and lookout points. And unless you’re visiting in midsummer, wear wellies!

Wye Valley butterfly zoo

Stepping through the heavy plastic curtain, we walked from April in England into a tropical haven – butterflies flitted past wherever we looked, pausing to drink from the flowers or enjoy the sweetness of ripe banana.

Armed with a magnifying glass and several laminated sheets of a butterfly spotting guide, we glanced from leaf to leaf, trying to identify which decorative set of wings these belonged to.

The highlight? A blue morpho settling gently on someone’s hand, it’s brown exterior, patterned with ‘eyes’ suddenly opening to show the most brilliant blue, fringed with black – a jewel in camouflage.

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The Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo isn’t huge but it’s a lovely place to wander with kids – whichever way you look, there are butterflies to spot, plus staff to show us caterpillars hiding on the underside of leaves, explain the difference between butterflies and moths, chrysalids and cocoons, and the life cycle of these glorious insects.

With several other attractions on the same site (and joint tickets… read on), it’s also great if you’re looking for things to do with kids in the Forest of Dean in the rain. In here, it’s forever summer!

Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo: Need to know

Tickets to the Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo cost £4.25 for adults, £2.75 for children and you can also get joint tickets which include the Jubilee Maze for £7/£4.50 and half-price mini golf.

Buy online and it costs £5.50 for everyone aged 5+ for all three. Opening times are from 10am daily, except December 24-26. Last entry varies through the year, between 3pm and 5pm.

If you have small kids who are wary of a butterfly mistaking them for a flower, dress them in dark colours (or the opposite if they want to attract the insects over – though even my daughter’s yellow cardigan couldn’t persuade one to settle on her). And do check for hitchhikers before you leave and head out.

The Jubilee Maze (or aMazing Hedge Puzzle)

Do you run through the high hedges to try to get to the centre first? Or play hide and seek along the way? Or venture, hand in hand, past dead ends and deceptive twists to try to find the romantic temple at the heart?

Having no inbuilt sense of direction can be a hazard in a maze – I once got a bit panicked about ever finding my way out of the one at Hampton Court – but there’s an added incentive to find your way to the middle of the Jubilee Maze, aka the aMazing Hedge Puzzle: a mini museum charting the history of mazes and labyrinths.

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As it turned out, we found ourselves at the centre without too many wrong turns, and with plenty of time to try out the puzzles, trace recreations of labyrinths and mazes, learn more about Theseus and the minotaur and how mazes developed over the centuries.

Just right for a six-year-old who wants to be getting hands on, dashing from game to brain-teaser to puzzle. And just right for me, discovering how the earliest labyrinths had only one path, right up to the twists and turns of today (including a map of Hampton Court’s maze which I did my best to memorise. Just in case).

Then up to the viewing platform to look down on the patterns made by the hedge maze below. My plan to guide my daughter from on high failed as soon as she stepped in and promptly vanished behind the first tall hedge. Fortunately, I found her again…

The Jubilee Maze: Need to know

Tickets to the Jubilee Maze cost £3.75 for adults, £2.50 for children and you can also get joint tickets which include the Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo for £7/£4.50 and half-price mini golf.

Buy online and it costs £5.50 for everyone aged 5+ for all three. Opening times are from 10am daily, except December 24-26, with last entry at 5pm and all attractions closing at 6pm.

All five attractions are less than half an hour from Forest Barn Cottages where we stayed.

For more ideas of things to do in the Forest of Dean with kids, including ideas for older kids and more adrenaline-fuelled activities, check out this post from the Family Adventure Project

*First published 2019, updated 2020*

PIN FOR LATER: FOREST OF DEAN WITH KIDS

Disclosure: My trip was courtesy of Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Tourism and the attractions mentioned. All opinions and ability to get lost in a maze are my own.

Images copyright MummyTravels

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