Disclosure: This is a paid collaboration with Barrow Borough Council as part of the ‘Welcome Back to High Streets Project
There’s more to the Lake District than the lakes and mountains. Of course they are beautiful to visit, but you will probably find it incredibly busy in the summer months. So why not consider some of the Lake District hidden gems, such as Barrow-In-Furness?
Have a read of where we recommend you visit when spending time in the Barrow area! If you would like more information after reading these ideas then head across to Visit Barrow for more information on your visit.
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Barrow-In-Furness
Barrow-In-Furness is located on the little peninsula just South of the Lake District National Park. It’s easily accessible from the lake District towns of Kendal and Ambleside, but equally accessible from the M6 motorway. We travelled from Stirlingshire in Scotland and it was just over 3 hours journey.
There are lots of different options for places to stay in Barrow-In-Furness. From caravan parks and budget hotels to the stunning Abbey House Hotel.
The Abbey House Hotel is the perfect location to make the most of Barrow, It’s just a short journey to anywhere around Barrow-In-Furness. But equally easy to get into the Lake District National Park from here.
Where we stayed for the weekend – The Abbey House Hotel It’s a lovely mansion house, built in 1914 with stunning decor and tasty buffet breakfasts. Family rooms are available, although they also have sofa beds in some rooms too.
Dock Museum
Our first stop on arrival was the Dock Museum, easily accessible from the main road and with free parking plus kids play park. With free entry it’s definitely a great stop for families!
The Dock Museum in Barrow tells the history of the area, including exhibitions on early industrial age, vikings, ship building and the Blitz.
Children can choose a quiz sheet to complete whilst walking around the museum. Some of the questions can be hard to find, but you can always ask for help if needed! The kids favourite parts were the model ships and the Viking sections. They definitely had a lot of interesting information. We also watched some of the documentaries about the area in the television room. The kids even got to choose a small prize for their efforts in the quiz!
A new exhibition has just opened downstairs with the World Garden Photography competition. There are so many stunning entrants to the competition! The eldest helped hang one of the photos as it wasn’t quite open at the time and we were lucky to get a sneak peak.
We visited over a particularly beautiful sunny afternoon, so the kids were keen to play outside too. As it had been a bit of a drive down this was the perfect place to stretch their legs and play for a little while. It’s a good size play area, themed to the docks, with both younger and older kids areas.
South Walney Nature Reserve
The best thing to do on a beautiful sunny morning is to get a for a walk. Fortunately near Barrow is South Walney Nature Reserve. It’s run by Cumbria Wildlife Trust and a fantastic reserve for Eider ducks, gulls and seals! It’s definitely one of the Lake District Hidden Gems!
There are shingle beaches looking out over to Piel Island and on the other side of the island are sandy beaches, both great for different bird species. There are various lengths of walks to take around the island. We chose the red waymarked route which is around 3 miles long.
Stopping at hides to watch birds, or just from the side of the path, it was great to see how much bird life was around.
We were also lucky enough to see some seals across from another hide. One of the volunteers at Cumbria Wildlife Trust kindly let us use his telescope to have a look! I definitely recommend taking your own binoculars or telescope to do some wildlife spotting of your own.
The Forum Theatre
In the centre of Barrow-in-Furness is the Forum theatre. With shows produced by local companies throughout the year, you can be sure to find something exciting to watch!
We headed down to watch the matinee show of Shrek the Musical. The actors were great and the kids laughed a lot too (you’re meant to with Shrek!). Although that was the last showing of Shrek, their upcoming shows include the Jungle Book by Cast Theatre Company and Little Shop of Horrors from the Abbey Musical Society.
The Forum also has a little cafe where you can buy lunches, hot drinks and cakes. The perfect place to stop for food before a show. They are very welcoming of children too and not very expensive!
The Milk Hut – Lake District Hidden Gems
I actually found the Milk Hut by accident when exploring the area on Google Maps. When I learned they had different flavoured milkshakes as well as standard bottles of milk I knew we had to visit.
It’s a small hut just outside a dairy farm and inside is a dispenser of large glass bottles. Perfect for filling up with milk if you are staying at a self catering property, or with milkshake if you want to share out later?! For smaller amounts there are carboard cups to use. Choose from chocolate, banana, strawberry flavours and the extra daily changing flavour. When we visited they had blueberry muffin flavour one day and Bueno another.
It might not take long to visit, but if you have milkshake loving kids I recommend a side trip here after a busy day in Barrow! My tips would be to have your card handy (it’s card only) and check the daily special flavour on the Facebook page.
South Lakes Safari Zoo
Our last day was spent completely at the South Lakes Safari Zoo. We had never visited so had no idea what to expect. Tickets can be booked online and we had also booked several feeding experiences too (all feeding experiences must be booked online in advance).
The zoo is small, but we were surprised at just how much space the animals had, plus some animals could roam freely. The 2 Capybaras and the stork pair were fun to watch!
For the animal feedings we had to meet at specific times and locations. This is where it can get complicated, as for some of the locations it’s a bit confusing. For example the cat feeding is at whichever cat enclosure that is to be fed at that time, but we couldn’t see anywhere where it listed this! Fortunately there are staff around with walkie talkies who can ask for you!
Favourites were definitely feeding the stunning jaguars and the very sweet lemurs. The lemurs ate out of our hands and then often held onto our fingers after. The more ferocious animals were fed with tongs through the cages. The kids thought it hilarious that the Giant otters sounded like they were saying ‘NUM, NUM, NUM’ when they got a fish!
Unfortunately the aviaries were shut when we visited, presumably to stop the spread of bird flu. But they would certainly be great to walk through and see some of the more exotic birds too.
We were able to walk through other enclosures and see plenty of wildlife around. From Rhinoceros’, to kangaroos and sloths. Penguins to wolves and snow leopards, there are so many amazing animals to spot.
You can also find 2 cafe’s (only one was open when we visited) and a great kids play area. Plus a gigantic gift shop that the kids loved. Although personally I’d like a bit more pricing in the gift shop. It was hard to work out how much each soft toy was as they weren’t labelled and there were no signs with a price.
Piel Castle
During the Summer season you can catch a ferry from Roa Island across to Piel island. Piel Castle is owned by English Heritage and is free to visit. However you’ll need to pay for the ferry across.
We visited in March, so the ferry wasn’t currently running. We could easily see the castle from South Walney Nature reserve and it certainly does look fun to explore! If you take a picnic and some spare clothes for the kids you could easily make a day out of exploring the castle and playing on the shingle beach!
Furness Abbey
Despite staying at the Abbey House Hotel, named for Furness Abbey, we didn’t manage to visit! We were so busy elsewhere that we didn’t get back in time.
I did sneak a peak over the fence before dinner one evening! It’s an impressive ruin! The abbey was founded by Stephen, who became King of England. Whilst excavating a grave of an abbot the archaeologists found a significant medieval horde. This included a crozier and gemstone ring, which is rather exciting!
The abbey is another English Heritage site, so it’s free entry for members.
Barrow Park
If you have a little time to fill before dinner or between visiting other places you can also visit Barrow Park. It’s a large green area with ponds in the middle of Barrow, by the leisure centre.
The ducks and geese are very friendly and you get surprisingly close to humans! You can also find an adventure play park, skate park and even a miniature railway. The miniature railway is open in the summer only, but looks fun for kids.
Take some food to feed the birds and let the kids run wild in the play park. It will definitely give them a chance to stretch their legs!
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